Kyle Jones writes:
> Colin Rafferty writes:
>> I think that this is a false optimization. The only time that code is
>> correctly optimizing is if we are searching for the beginning of a
>> comment that has no beginning. Otherwise, it does nothing except
>> cause bugs.
> I'm not arguing that the optimization is correct all the time.
> It's only works if you play by a certain set of rules,
> understanding the limitations.
By the way, my "fix" breaks things anyway.
I certainly defer to others who have actually worked on the C code.
While I may be a very good C programmer, I still have not really
looked very hard at the innards of XEmacs/src.
> Without saved state, it is impossible to tell whether you're inside
> or outside a comment without starting from the beginning of the
> buffer, sweeping through the buffer and watching what comment and
> string delimiters go by. This is hellishly expensive. So, to
> speed parsing, it was decided that if you see something that would
> be a defun were it outside a comment or string, you assume that it
> _is_ outside a comment or string. The assumption is correct most
> of the time, and that's good enough unless you're using font-lock on
> a medical display. "Ooops, all those green life-sign indicators
> should be red! He's dead, Jim."
