Subject: Re: bug#14732: Package dos-mode for ELPA

From: Arni Magnusson <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 1 Jul 2013 01:00:02 +0000 (GMT)

Thank you for the feedback.

I did indeed paste the wrong URL - the correct one is:

   http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/download/dos.el

As for the second point (why not add to `bat-generic-mode'), I have two 
answers, so please pick the one you prefer:

(1) I would be honored to prepare a patch to improve the syntax 
highlighting of `bat-generic-mode'. This patch would be based on existing 
functionality in `dos-mode' and would provide:

- highlighting of more commands: at attrib color date dir doskey endlocal 
erase fc find mkdir more move popd pushd rmdir setlocal sort time title 
type xcopy

- highlighting of more control flow keywords: cmd defined else equ exit 
geq gtr in leq lss neq

- highlighting of called script: call foo

- highlighting of %%variable: for %%X in (bark meow) do echo %%X

- highlighting of defined variable: if defined VAR

(2) There is more to `dos-mode' than syntax highlighting. Perhaps it would 
make Emacs users happy to introduce progmodes/dos.el and obsolete 
`bat-generic-mode' in the same elegant way as `javascript-generic-mode' 
invokes `js-mode'.

This would provide users with a dedicated menu, providing helpful commands 
like `dos-help-cmd', `dos-run-args', and `dos-template'.

This might also make it easier for users to discover this functionality in 
Emacs. Notice that for over 4 years, there has been a discussion on 
http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/DosScripts, without anyone mentioning 
`bat-generic-mode', perhaps because they were not aware of its existence.

When writing `dos-mode' I tried to follow the examples set by flagship 
modes like c-mode, emacs-lisp-mode, and fortran-mode. I would be happy to 
make any changes that the Emacs core developers suggest.

All the best,

Arni

On Thu, 27 Jun 2013, Eli Zaretskii wrote:

Thank you.

I would like to comment on this package:

  . it calls itself dos.el inside the source

  . why not add this stuff to the existing bat-generic mode?

On Thu, 27 Jun 2013, Arni Magnusson wrote:

> I would like to submit
>
>    http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/download/dos-indent.el
>
> to the ELPA repository. Please advise whether I can help with the 
> procedure.