GNU bug report logs - #40930
AUCTeX fontification messed up

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: <gennady.uraltsev <at> gmail.com>
To: <bug-auctex <at> gnu.org>
Subject: AUCTeX fontification messed up
Date: Tue, 28 Apr 2020 08:57:22 -0400

Dear Everyone,

I have posted a reddit thread about a bug wth AUCTeX fontification that
exists since 6 years or so. I myself reported it here in 2019-06 but it was
ignored. The bug is occurs frequently but is very hard to reproduce
reliably: this is why I can't include a minimal example. The reddit thread
is here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/emacs/comments/g95vyl/font_lock_in_auctex_messed_up
/

and I copy the contents below for completeness. There is some discussion in
the comments there. 
It would be great to have some instructions on how to approach the problem. 

*****
Hello everyone. I use AUCTeX to write papers in LaTeX. It is a great
environment if configured correctly. I use it with preview-latex and
prettify-symbols-mode. I want to use TeX-fold-mode but I have not set it up
yet.

However there is a recurring problem that is very difficult to catch and to
diagnose. I have reported it on the bug-auctex mailing list and google
searches give many other people complaining about the issue:


    https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-auctex/2019-06/msg00005.html

 
https://emacs.stackexchange.com/questions/20518/how-to-investigate-color-ble
eding

    https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs/issues/9976

    http://pragmaticemacs.com/emacs/refresh-auctex-syntax-highlighting/

    https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs/issues/5433

It seems to be a very difficult issue to reproduce consistently, even though
it appears often in any large enough tex file.

Here is what I know:

It appears in: vanilla emacs, spacemacs, doom emacs.

It appears in: windows, linux (I am currently on windows)

It appears with

(setq TeX-install-font-lock 'tex-font-setup)

and

(setq TeX-install-font-lock 'font-latex-setup)

It *does not* depend on this issue
https://www.gnu.org/software/auctex/manual/auctex/Known-problems.html#Known-
problems

(no verbatim or dollar signs)

The problem can reappear and disappear even by inserting a single letter (in
a math environment or outside one)

The problem can sometimes reappear and disappear by merely scrolling the
buffer

The problem seems to get worse with larger files

The problem seems to get worse with other functionality that relies on
overlays/text properties e.g. preview-latex or rainbow-delimiters but it
presents itself even without these packages.

Another approach is to disable jit. It seems to help a lot but it doesn't
solve the issue. Mistakes still occur. They are just fewer and thus
tolerable.

The problem disappears when doing M-x normal-mode but any action can make it
reappear.

Unfortunately, I am currently writing quite a large paper and this bug is
making AUCTeX unusable. Every several letters I write trigger a change in
fontification.

The developers have ignored my bug report: I don't blame them. It is
completely unclear how to reproduce it. I did ask for instructions on what
to do but none were given.

I am writing here to pool together all I have found about the issue so we
could possibly help track this bug down. Any suggestions?

EDIT:disabling jit helps a bit.

****

Best,

Gennady

Message #8 received at 40930 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Ikumi Keita <ikumi <at> ikumi.que.jp>
To: gennady.uraltsev <at> gmail.com
Cc: 40930 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#40930: AUCTeX fontification messed up
Date: Wed, 03 Jun 2020 16:38:05 +0900

Hi Gennady,

>>>>> <gennady.uraltsev <at> gmail.com> writes:
> Dear Everyone,
> I have posted a reddit thread about a bug wth AUCTeX fontification that
> exists since 6 years or so. I myself reported it here in 2019-06 but it was
> ignored. The bug is occurs frequently but is very hard to reproduce
> reliably: this is why I can't include a minimal example.

> The reddit thread is here:

> https://www.reddit.com/r/emacs/comments/g95vyl/font_lock_in_auctex_messed_up
> /

> and I copy the contents below for completeness. There is some discussion in
> the comments there. 
> It would be great to have some instructions on how to approach the problem. 

We are sorry for not having been able to help for long time. Recently we
began to think that this bug is the same as bug#33139, though it is not
yet confirmed:
https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=33139

We finally managed to fix that bug, so we hope that this bug is fixed as
well. Could you try the latest development version in the git repository
or the ELPA release which is to appear soon?

Regards,
Ikumi Keita

Message #11 received at 40930 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Tassilo Horn <tsdh <at> gnu.org>
To: gennady.uraltsev <at> gmail.com,  40930 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#40930: AUCTeX fontification messed up
Date: Fri, 05 Jun 2020 19:36:23 +0200

Ikumi Keita <ikumi <at> ikumi.que.jp> writes:

> We finally managed to fix that bug, so we hope that this bug is fixed
> as well. Could you try the latest development version in the git
> repository or the ELPA release which is to appear soon?

The ELPA release which hopefully fixes the issue is 12.2.3.

Bye,
Tassilo

Message #16 received at 40930 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: <gennady.uraltsev <at> gmail.com>
To: "'Tassilo Horn'" <tsdh <at> gnu.org>,
	<40930 <at> debbugs.gnu.org>
Subject: RE: bug#40930: AUCTeX fontification messed up
Date: Thu, 11 Jun 2020 15:33:58 -0400

Hello everyone,

I have been using the new version quite intensely since several days on a
paper that used to get messed up.

Everything seems to work very well.

Thank you so much!

Best,

Gennady

-----Original Message-----
From: Tassilo Horn <tsdh <at> gnu.org> 
Sent: Friday, 5 June, 2020 13:36
To: gennady.uraltsev <at> gmail.com; 40930 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#40930: AUCTeX fontification messed up

Ikumi Keita <ikumi <at> ikumi.que.jp> writes:

> We finally managed to fix that bug, so we hope that this bug is fixed 
> as well. Could you try the latest development version in the git 
> repository or the ELPA release which is to appear soon?

The ELPA release which hopefully fixes the issue is 12.2.3.

Bye,
Tassilo

Message #21 received at 40930-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Tassilo Horn <tsdh <at> gnu.org>
To: <gennady.uraltsev <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 40930-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#40930: AUCTeX fontification messed up
Date: Thu, 11 Jun 2020 23:12:54 +0200

Hi Gennady,

> I have been using the new version quite intensely since several days
> on a paper that used to get messed up.
>
> Everything seems to work very well.

That's very good news!

> Thank you so much!

You are welcome.  I'm closing this bug report then.

Thanks,
Tassilo

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