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

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Message #5 received at submit <at> emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com (full text, mbox):

From: xah lee <xah <at> xahlee.org>
To: bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org
Subject: most keywords in emacs-lisp-mode has no syntax highlight
Date: Tue, 10 Mar 2009 14:31:25 -0700

the syntax highlighting in emacs-lisp-mode only support the very  
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 “special forms”  
are are colored, while all the others are not (macros, functions,  
commands, variables ...). (thanks to Nikolaj Schumacher & Tassilo Horn)

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

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

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

This is emacs 22.x.

  Xah
∑ http://xahlee.org/

☄

Message #10 received at 2630 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi <at> gnus.org>
To: xah lee <xah <at> xahlee.org>
Cc: 2630 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#2630: most keywords in emacs-lisp-mode has no syntax highlight
Date: Mon, 30 Sep 2019 10:03:54 +0200

xah lee <xah <at> xahlee.org> writes:

> the syntax highlighting in emacs-lisp-mode only support the very
> 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 “special forms” are
> are colored, while all the others are not (macros, functions,
> commands, variables ...). (thanks to Nikolaj Schumacher & Tassilo
> Horn)

I guess you're asking for functions symbols to be coloured in a
different way than the standard face?  I think that would be kinda
disturbing -- Emacs lisp code is mostly function calls, so having that
in the default (most readable) face makes sense to me.

So I'm closing this bug report.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no

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