[plt-scheme] handling user-breaks in MrEd app...

At Thu, 31 Oct 2002 15:42:53 +0100, Michael Sperber [Mr.  Preprocessor] wrote:
> >>>>> "Robby" == Robert Bruce Findler <robby at cs.uchicago.edu> writes:
> 
> >> - I don't want to have to press "check syntax" to get syntax coloring. 
> >> I want it "always on".
> 
> Robby> and "mostly" right isn't a problem, I guess? Yeah, for this one we just
> Robby> don't have the energy to do something half-assed (albeit useful) like
> Robby> emacs does.
> 
> "Mostly right" in the same sense as auto-indentation: you can
> configure it in such a way as to be always right.  Syntax coloring is
> sometimes a useful tool in visually checking your syntax as you're
> typing it, much like auto-indentation.

Doesn't emacs use regular expressions to solve a context free problem?
(or, if you count in the keywords as identifiers problem, a context
sensitive problem?) If so, how can it be configured properly?

> So unless you're willing to accept the label "half-assed" for the
> auto-indentation in DrScheme, I don't think it's a justified term when
> it comes to Emacs syntax coloring.

Paren highlighting in DrScheme is clearly half-assed. I have long
wanted to find time to fix it, but it just doesn't "pay" for itself.
Unlike syntax coloring, no research topic has come along to motivate
doing a good job. (Shriram's Zodiac and then Matthew's module/macro
system is what happened to make syntax colors work right).

Given that we have a good solution for "offline" syntax coloring, there
is even *less* incentive to make an online version (unlike paren
highlighting).

Robby