Subject: Re: bug#40573: 27.0.90; flymake-mode broken in scratch buffer

From: Juri Linkov <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 2020 00:43:48 +0300

>> These files need font-locking from emacs-lisp-mode for viewing, and other
>> features of emacs-lisp-mode for editing: indentation, commenting, etc.
>> i.e. everything from emacs-lisp-mode except code evaluation.  This is
>> one difference between emacs-lisp-data-mode and emacs-lisp-mode.
>>
>> Another difference is that distinction between dynamic/lexical binding
>> makes no sense for ELisp data files.  It's wrong to use "ELisp/d" as
>> a mode name for ELisp data files where "/d" indicates dynamic binding.
>
> What do you propose to show as the mode-lighter instead?

Maybe "ELisp-Data" or more general "Lisp-Data".

> How would you propose to identify these files for turning on this
> special mode?  They don't seem to have a clear-cut set of extensions
> and/or file names.

Each package could add its data file name to auto-mode-alist.
For example, bookmark.el could do something like:

  (add-to-list 'auto-mode-alist (cons bookmark-default-file 'emacs-lisp-data-mode))