yy_current_state, stuff

[Jordan DeLong]

Hello,
in attempting to use a flex-created lexical scanner for syntax highliting in a
text editor I'm writing I ran into a problem;

I wanted to be able to keep the exact state of the scanner and go back to the
editing and then use that state when I get back; this would let me save the last
line that had a valid state and the state number on that line, so I don't have 
to
scan the whole file every time.  to do this I need to be able to set the
yy_current_state variable from my .l file.  unfortunatly this var gets set up
at the top of the main while (1) loop, which is of course after the YY_USER_INIT
and before the YY_DO_BEFORE_ACTION macros that the user gets to use.  This means
there is no opportunity for me to set the yy_current_state to my saved value,
so I propose a new YY macro for this purpose:

instead of something like so:
yy_current_state = yy_start;
yy_current_state += YY_AT_BOL();
yy_state_ptr = yy_state_buf;
*yy_state_ptr++ = yy_current_state;

that could be put in an
#ifndef YY_USER_STATE_INIT
        /* that stuff
#else
        YY_USER_STATE_INIT
#endif

I would be willing to add this feature to flex if you guys don't have the time,
but of course, if there's a better way to do this, please let me know.


-Jordan