Re: Ada-mode to be abandoned?

[Dmitry Gutov]

On 07/01/2024 18:26, Philip Kaludercic wrote:
> Dmitry <dmitry@gutov.dev> writes:
>
> > On Sun, Jan 7, 2024, at 2:34 PM, Philip Kaludercic wrote:
> > > What I am wondering, is if this simplification were to take place, if it
> > > would be possible to add ada-mode (or ada-ts-mode in that case) back to
> > > the core?
> > What is this fetish of adding everything to the core?
>
> For me it is usually just that it is easier for a newcomer to get stuff
> working, without having to deal with package management, which can be a
> bother when working offline or in isolated environments.

This can be argued for just about any bit of Elisp code, but we don't 
want all the universe inside the Emacs repo, do we?

> TBH
> tree-sitter complicates this somewhat, because the grammars are not
> installed along with Emacs or by the system, but that is a different
> issue.

tree-sitter major modes indeed have versioning issues which could be 
easier to solve if they were distributed through ELPA.

> > ELPA is just one 'M-x package-install' away.
> >
> > And Ada is niche enough that even the argument of having the popular
> > languages supported OOtB doesn't work.
>
> There are plenty of languages that are niche and supported OOtB,
> especially since the introduction of tree-sitter (I for example am not
> familiar with "heex").

I'm happy to agree that HEEx (as well as Elixir itself) are fringe 
enough and could go into ELPA as well. Especially considering that 
elixir-ts-mode's development is largely led externally, with most of the 
discussions led on Github and Discord.

But those are small files with infrequent commits. Much smaller than the 
Ada-mode package.

> If I were to consider helping out with
> maintaining the major mode -- where my main disinclination is just the
> lack of experience I have with Ada -- I'd prefer to maintain it inside
> the core, because if nothing else it makes it easier for others to help
> out with bugs/mistakes and use the newest features.

Again, something that applies to just about any Elisp.

> Either way, the current state of `ada-mode' is in my experience in no
> way satisfactory, and I believe that this kind of issue is less likely
> to happen inside the core.

Perhaps you just wanted to pick it up from where it was left off? It has 
an existing project infrastructure.

But from Stephen's description of the recommended future direction 
(migration to tree-sitter and LSP), it doesn't sound like a walk in the 
park. That would likely imply a redesign of most core features in the 
package.