[plt-scheme] Inadequate indentation facility in MrEd/DrScheme

I routinely use DrScheme to develop DrScheme and I think of is fairly
routinely used but there we many people who prefer Emacs, no doubt.

Robby

On 6/19/08, James Russell <j.russell at alum.mit.edu> wrote:
> On Thu, Jun 19, 2008 at 8:20 AM, Matthias Felleisen
> <matthias at ccs.neu.edu> wrote:
>>
>> In principle: I think you're right and we have discussed a
>> meta-programming
>> facility that would allow macro-defined languages (like the one for
>> looping
>> constructs) not only to specify a semantics but also IDE attributes such
>> as
>> indentation. We discussed this a year ago, when we moved to #lang and
>> reader; I am certain that one year we'll add it in. (I don't know of any
>> other language that provides such meta-programming facilities so this is a
>> task with a research-y flavor.)
>>
>
> That would be cool, but it's really more ambitious than anything I was
> seriously expecting.
>
> Now that I've thought about it a little more, I think that the 80% (or
> 90%) solution
> would simply be to extend the 'lambda-like keywords' part of the indentation
> customization with the ability to specify the number of distinguished
> sub-forms
> (that get four spaces rather than two), if it's greater than one.
>
> I imagine that it could even look to the user like the 'cond-like
> keywords' in the
> square bracket customization, with the number of sub-forms specified in
> parentheses.
>
> Of course, the actual indenting code would have to be changed, but this
> solution
> would entail fairly localized changes, I think.  Maybe I'll try it out
> at some point
> if no one else is interested.
>
> I'm frankly surprised that this doesn't come up more often.  I'm sure
> I'm not the
> first person to have noticed this, but it's inadequacy is, manifestly,
> not as manifest
> as I believed.  Maybe I'm just really picky.
>
> Or does everyone else just use emacs for hard-core development in PLT
> scheme?
> That's what I had always done in the past, but I thought to give the
> built-in editor a try,
> and I noticed this almost right away.
>
> All the best,
> James Russell
>
>> In detail: My answer has no relation to the specific details of your
>> inquiry
>> concerning for*
>>
>> -- Matthias
>>
>>
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