Subject: bug#57009: Obscure doc string of new variable syntax-wholeline-max

From: Lars Ingebrigtsen <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 06 Aug 2022 14:56:24 +0200

Alan Mackenzie <[email-masked]> writes:

>     Maximum line length for syntax operations.
>     If lines are longer than that, syntax operations will treat them as chunks
>     of this size.  Misfontification may then occur.
>     This is a tradeoff between correctly applying the syntax rules,
>     and avoiding major slowdown on pathologically long lines.
>
>       Probably introduced at or before Emacs version 29.1.
>
> ..  There are several bugs here:
> (i) It is not clear what is meant by "syntax operations".  These should
>   be listed and if necessary, explained.

You mean mention syntax-ppss?

> (ii) It is not clear what it means for a "syntax operation" to treat a
>   line "as a chunk".  This should be explained.

It's saying that it's processing the line chunk-wise.  I think that's
pretty clear?

> (iii) "Misfontification" may well occur, but what about other bad effects
>   of ignoring correct syntax?  Don't they deserve a mention?

Do they?

> (iv) There is no mention of a mechanism to disable this "chunking"
>   effect, whatever it might be.  If there is one, it should be
>   documented, if there's not, this should be stated.

That seems self-evident -- you increase the size?

There doesn't really seem to be much to alter here to me, but perhaps
others have other opinions; adding Stefan to the CCs.