Re: AUCTeX and "builtin latex mode" integration

[Christopher Dimech]

> Sent: Wednesday, September 21, 2022 at 6:53 PM
> From: "Tassilo Horn" <tsdh@gnu.org>
> To: "Christopher Dimech" <dimech@gmx.com>
> Cc: "Stefan Monnier" <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca>, "David Kastrup" 
> <dak@gnu.org>, auctex-devel@gnu.org
> Subject: Re: AUCTeX and "builtin latex mode" integration
>
> Christopher Dimech <dimech@gmx.com> writes:
>
> > Have seen that the built-in tex-mode and latex-mode have two powerful
> > features: 1) the prettify-symbols-mode where things such as \alpha are
> > displayed with the corresponding greek glyph symbol; and 2) the
> > ability to reposition the height of superscripts and subscripts.
> >
> > For the two features, I seem to remember than the rendering proves to
> > be superior in Auctex.
>
> AUCTeX basically uses the prettify-symbols setup from the builtin latex
> mode.  I don't know what you mean with repositioning the height of
> sub/superscripts.  AUCTeX (font-latex.el) allows to fontify them as such
> even on multiple levels, e.g., x^y^z.

Superscipted entries are positioned at a higher height level and the font size
is decreased.  Correspondingly, subscripted entries are positioned at a lower
height with font size decreased.

But the Superscipted "^" and Subscripted "_" signs remain showing in the text

Thus "x^a" and "y_b", will show "a" positioned higher relative to "x", whilst
"b" is positioned lower relative to "y".  But the "^" and "_" will still show
up.

> > Could you see whether using the functionality from the Auctex
> > implementation be used.
>
> AUCTeX font-lock implementation heavily relies on the information
> gathered by AUCTeX's parsing abilities and its style files, so I guess,
> no.

If so, it would be pleasant to have the functionalities in tex-mode
and-latex built-in that are similar to Auctex in a separate file.
That would include tex--prettify-symbols-alist and the tex-suscript
part.  And let the user decide what features to activate - whether
the basic prettify engine or the Auctex one.