Re: [gmane.emacs.devel] Re: [ELPA] New package: vcl-mode

[Sergey Poznyakoff]

Hi Stefan,

> Not sure if you follow emacs-devel, so here's a separate copy,

Thanks a lot. I'm not subscribed to the list, indeed.
 
> Sounds good.  Do you have some branch with a VCS history we could
> include or should I add the file as-is, losing the history?

Yes, I do. The current repository for vcl-mode is available at

  http://git.gnu.org.ua/cgit/vcl-mode.git (to view online)
or
  git://git.gnu.org.ua/vcl-mode.git (to clone).

> BTW, I assume you intend to use the elpa.git version as the "upstream", right?

Yes, that's right.

> One more thing, while looking for a VCS history, I saw
> 
>     https://github.com/ssm/elisp/blob/master/vcl-mode.el
> 
> which apparently is the one advertised on
> 
>     https://varnish-cache.org/extras/index.html
> 
> How does your code compare to that one?

Yes, I'm aware of it. I tried to contact Stig a couple of years ago, but
unfortunately to no avail.

Stig's vcl-mode was written for VCL 2.0. It was last modified in
November, 2012. Since then the language has changed quite considerably,
especially with transition from v3.0 to v4.0.

The proposed vcl-mode.el was written from scratch. It supports VCL 4.0,
which is the version of the language used by the recent Varnish
releases. In fact, I've been using it since 2015 in my work, before
finally deciding to submit it.

Technically. it differs from Stig's version in that it delegates
indentation tasks to c-mode, instead of calculating indentation
directly. The syntax table was designed to closely match the
language. Finally, special parenthesis-matching function is provided, 
which takes into account the VCL-specific {" ... "} multi-line string
delimiters.

> The name conflict between the two packages could be a source of
> problems if both packages keep on living their own life.

Yes, indeed. This can be solved by naming my version vcl4-mode.el.
However, this can become misleading in the long run, e.g. if/when
VCL 5 appears, since I'm going to keep the mode in synch with any
changes in the language. 

Regards,
Sergey