Subject: Re: bug#54551: show-paren-mode inconsistency

From: Phil Sainty <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 25 Mar 2022 13:12:27 +1300

On 2022-03-25 11:48, goncholden wrote:
> Consider the following command
> 
> (setq initial-frame-alist '((width . 72) (height . 26)) ).
> 
> Would be instructive that when one puts the cursor in the space
> between (width . 72) and (height . 26), the entire (width . 72)
> (height . 26) would be highlighted.

That wouldn't make any sense for show-paren-mode.

The cursor (point) is either between the ")" and " " characters, or
else between the " " and "(" characters.  Those are the only two
possibilities, and in each case you would expect show-paren-mode to
highlight the adjacent expression (to the left or to the right of the
cursor, respectively).

> But (setq show-paren-when-point-inside-paren t) does not do that.

It's not documented as doing that, so there's not reason to expect
that it might.

I think you're looking for this library:

https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/HighlightSexp