Re: enhancements to compile.el (Emacs 20 code)

[Daniel Pfeiffer]

Saluton,

"Drew Adams" <address@hidden> skribis:
> Please try these files with Emacs 20 to see what they do. Let me know if you
> have any questions.

Surely not, where and why shall I get such an ancient thing. :-/

> Here is a description of the compile.el features I changed:

Almost all features you describe pertain to grep, which is now a seprate
library.

>  - The last grep pattern used (whether quoted or not) is used for
> highlighting - see grep and grep-regexp-face.

This is a good idea I had thought a lot about.  For various reasons I did not
implement it:

- Finding grep in the command can be tricky, with combinations of pipes, find
and maybe xargs.

- It takes parsing the grep command to find the regexp syntax (fgrep/grep -F,
grep, egrep/grep -E or grep -P plus longopt variants).

- You have to transform each of these differently into an Emacs regexp — a
nightmare.

- You have to find the regexps which might also come from a file.

- If on the command line you must perform variable substitution and shell
quoting ', " or \. 

- By doing an incremental search, I get the same highlighting at least
temporarily.  Not quite as good, but at least it gives me what I expect.

>     . compilation-next-error - Displays line #.

It's highlighted anyways, and hyperlinked, so it's not realy so important.

>  - Keys that would modify a compilation-mode buffer (e.g. self-insert) are
> unbound and available to user for binding.

Of course they're available.  That's what mode keymaps are for.  And I
frequently modify the buffer, throwing away chunks I don't like, making long
file-names relative or some such.

>  - (put 'compile-mode 'mode-class 'special)

Somebody had the same idea.

>  - compilation-minor-mode-map is a full key map - the unused keys display a
> help message for Compile Mode.

Better for consistency to use the standard ways to get help.

>  - Minibuffer messages use color to make some terms stand out (via function
> display-in-minibuffer, defined in file strings.el).

Message faces are standard in Emacs 21.  But there isn't much in compile where
this would make sence.

Before you empty your attic on us, please compare it to the current state of
the art :-)

coralament / best Grötens / liebe Grüße / best regards / elkorajn salutojn
Daniel Pfeiffer

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