Re: Emacs contributions, C and Lisp

[Dmitry Gutov]

On 01/10/2015 10:29 PM, Richard Stallman wrote:

> Getting back to completion, some tried to dismiss the idea that
> completion can be done with less than the full AST.  The discussion
> convinces me that it can be done with somewhat less

Like Eric said, it *can* be done with a lot less, the question is 
whether we really do want to do it this way.

If the plugin implements the "meat" of the completion logic (probably in 
C), Emacs could serve as a "dumb client", only forwarding completion 
queries to the plugin, and interpreting the responses.

The downsides:

1. Any new feature, significant change, or a bugfix would probably have 
to touch the plugin code, which exludes contributions from a significant 
portion of the user base who would rather contribute Emacs Lisp code.

2. CEDET integration would basically be out of the question, while it's 
the blessed Emacs code assistance suite, which we would want to see 
developed.

The same should be true for refactoring.