[slime-devel] [investigation] Font lock, reader macros and SLIME repl

[Tobias C Rittweiler]

In article <4818B0D6-5407-4B36-A2B7-1F50450DEA5F at in-progress.com>,
 Terje Norderhaug <terje at in-progress.com> wrote:

> On Aug 31, 2010, at 2:18 AM, Tobias C Rittweiler wrote:
> > In article <87pqx0kmga.fsf at desktop-ng.home.sw4me.com>,
> > Anton Kovalenko <anton at sw4me.com> wrote:
> > 
> >> Hello SLIME developers,
> >> 
> >> Both in the lisp-mode and in slime REPL, there is currently one major
> >> thing that Emacs isn't getting right: constructs using reader macros
> >> like #P"/home/" and #2A((1 0) (0 1)) are regarded as two sexps instead
> >> of one. E.g. command for wrapping a sexp may turn #P"/home/" into
> >> (#P)"/home/", etc. It gets even more awful with paredit-mode (that I
> >> prefer to use), but the problem is noticeable even without it. 
> >> 
> >> I have investigated one possible solution to it, and here are the
> >> results.
> 
> I recall we've discussed this issue in the past.
> 
> Rather than making emacs (as swank client) recognize the bounds of the lisp 
> expression, swank could cover this functionality on the server. That is, 
> emacs sends the expression to the swank server and gets back information 
> about the boundaries of the expression. 
> 
> For example, in the case of a reader macro:
> 
> 1. Emacs streams the reader macro as characters to the swank server, 
> continuing beyond the end of the expression.
> 2. The swank server parses from the stream until the reader reaches the end 
> of the expression.
> 3. The server notifies emacs via swank how many characters were read when 
> reaching the end of the expression.
> 4. Emacs uses the information about how many characters were read to 
> determine when the expression ended.
> 
> Using the inferior lisp to determine expression bounds has several benefits, 
> including:
> 
> 1.  Emacs doesn't have to be configured to know the specific lisp syntax.
> 2. Clojure, Scheme and other lisp dialects can be supported with no fuss.
> 3. SLIME can handle custom reader macros with ease.
> 4. No additional configuration required to cover custom reader macros.

You mean for every time I press C-M-f? Is that how your editor
thingie works?

  -T.