Hello, Aaron Ecay <aarone...@gmail.com> writes:
> Improved documentation is never a bad thing. OTOH, I personally would > not spend time on implementing the mapping you propose. I simply added a footnote about C++ and D languages. > org-babel-do-load-languages is IMO a relic. I think that all babel > languages should be autoloaded, just like normal lisp libraries are. But we still need a mechanism to selectively allow evaluation of some source blocks based on their language. I guess some users expect to have this. Otherwise, it sounds good. > If I had to sketch a design for this, it would be a macro like: > > (org-babel-define-language R > :evaluate org-babel-R-evaluate > :session org-babel-R-creaete-session > :language-name "R" ;; Both these Could be optional, with the > :language-mode R-mode ;; default calculated from the language name > ...) > > This macro would expand to: > > (add-to-list org-src-lang-modes ...) > (add-to-list org-babel-tangle-lang-exts ...) > ;; Possibly some others ... > (add-to-list org-babel-languages-alist > '(R . (evaluate . org-babel-R-evaluate) > (session . org-babel-R-create-session) > ...)) On the implementation side of things, I suggest to stay away from macros whenever possible. It would make sense, however, to define a language as a defstruct, much like we do for export back-ends. In any case, I like this idea. > Iʼve held back on implementing this (among other reasons) because it > would be a big disruption to the babel ecosystem. For all the languages > in core and contrib it would be manageable, but there are third-party > libraries that would have to be transitioned as well, plus the growing > pains of user config files, etc. It would not be a small project. This change would entail a new major release, indeed. I think it is largely worth the incompatible changes it would introduce. BTW, we could still support old variables and functions. E.g., if language Foo is not defined as a proper defstruct, look for the old system to load it and send a deprecation warning about it. Regards, -- Nicolas Goaziou
