GNU bug report logs - #2630
most keywords in emacs-lisp-mode has no syntax highlight

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To: bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org
From: xah lee <xah <at> xahlee.org>
Subject: most keywords in emacs-lisp-mode has no syntax highlight
Date: Tue, 10 Mar 2009 14:31:25 -0700
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the syntax highlighting in emacs-lisp-mode only support the very =20
minimum of highlighting.

for example, these keywords would be colored purple by default:

  defun, lambda, while, if, progn, save-restriction

while the following built-in keywords are uncolored (black):
narrow-to-region, mapc, goto-char, point-min, search-forward, car,
nil, replace-match ... etc.

it appears that this is because only proper elisp =E2=80=9Cspecial =
forms=E2=80=9D =20
are are colored, while all the others are not (macros, functions, =20
commands, variables ...). (thanks to Nikolaj Schumacher & Tassilo Horn)

but in summary, i think the way it is is rather odd. It is rather =20
strange and difficult to understand unless the user has expert elisp =20
knowledge, and it is somewhat not typical with how most other major =20
mode for languages syntax color the lang's keywords.

(emacs-lisp-mode doesn't seem to support customize-group and font-=20
lock-maximum-decoration)

i think the current behavior is severe enough to be considered a bug.

This is emacs 22.x.

   Xah
=E2=88=91 http://xahlee.org/

=E2=98=84