Question: indentNextLinePattern in tmPreferences

[keith-hall]

Performing a search on this repo finds that there are 5 tmPreferences files which specify the key "indentNextLinePattern". However, recent research has revealed that this key is not used by ST, and "bracketIndentNextLinePattern" should be used instead.

Searching 164 files for "<key>indentNextLinePattern</key>" (regex)

Packages\C#\Indentation.tmPreferences:
  17       |   ^ \s* \{ \} $
  18       </string>
  19:      <key>indentNextLinePattern</key>
  20       <string>(?x)^
  21       (?! .* [;:{}]                   # do not indent when line ends with ;, :, {, or }

Packages\Go\Indentation Rules.tmPreferences:
  41       </string>
  42       <!--
  43:      <key>indentNextLinePattern</key>
  44       <string>(?x)^
  45       (?! .* [;:{}]                    # do not indent when line ends with ;, :, {, or }

Packages\OCaml\Indent rules.tmPreferences:
  12       <key>increaseIndentPattern</key>
  13       <string><![CDATA[^.*(\([^)"\n]*|begin)$|\bobject\s*$|\blet [a-zA-Z0-9_-]+( [^ ]+)+ =\s*$|method[ \t]+.*=[ \t]*$|->[ \t]*$|\b(for|while)[ \t]+.*[ \t]+do[ \t]*$|(\btry$|\bif\s+.*\sthen$|\belse|[:=]\s*sig|=\s*struct)\s*$]]></string>
  14:      <key>indentNextLinePattern</key>
  15       <string>(?!\bif.*then.*(else.*|(;|[ \t]in)[ \t]*$))\bif|\bthen[ \t]*$|\belse[ \t]*$$</string>
  16   </dict>

Packages\PHP\Indentation Rules.tmPreferences:
  10       <key>decreaseIndentPattern</key>
  11       <string><![CDATA[(?x) ^ (.*\*/)? \s* \} .* $|<\?(php)?\s+(else(if)?|end(if|for(each)?|while))]]></string>
  12:      <key>indentNextLinePattern</key>
  13       <string><![CDATA[^(?!.*(#|//|\*/|<\?))(?!.*[};:]\s*(//|/\*.*\*/\s*$)).*[^\s;:{}]\s*$|<\?php.+?\b(if|else(?:if)?|for(?:each)?|while)\b.*:(?!.*end\1)]]></string>
  14  

Packages\ShellScript\Miscellaneous.tmPreferences:
  12       <key>increaseIndentPattern</key>
  13       <string>^\s*(if|elif|else|case)\b|^.*(\{|\b(do)\b)$</string>
  14:      <key>indentNextLinePattern</key>
  15       <string>^.*[^\\]\\$</string>
  16   </dict>

5 matches across 5 files

Therefore, the question is, should we rename these keys for these 5 files to get this functionality working? Or will it be an unexpected and undesired change for users? (If we will correct the naming, probably we should also check that the regex patterns are still valid/useful.)

[keith-hall]

The Shell Script indentNextLinePattern seems to say, indent the next line if the current line ends with a backslash (which isn't preceded by another backslash). This seems like it could be legitimately useful, but would be a change in behavior for users if we enable/rename it.

---

The PHP indentNextLinePattern seems to say:

• if there is not a comment or an open PHP tag on the line
• and there is not a closing brace, semi-colon or colon on the line followed by a comment that ends the line (redundant due to the previous assertion)
• then indent the next line if the last non-whitespace token on the line is a not a closing or opening brace, semi-colon or colon
  OR
• indent the next line if there is a (long-form) PHP open tag followed by a control flow keyword that isn't followed by end and the same keyword
  Basically, it is nonsense and the control flow idea is already catered for under the bracketIndentNextLinePattern

---

The C# indentNextLinePattern is fairly well commented and appears to relate to non-terminated statement, which could be useful, if it wasn't for the fact that multiple consecutive lines that match the pattern stack, thus indenting further than desired. I talked about this in my forum post on indentation. (We should probably also consider this when deciding what to do with ShellScript.)

---

Go's pattern is commented out, so I think we can just remove it.

---

OCaml's indentNextLinePattern pattern seems to say:

• if there is not an if followed by then followed by either of the following, then the end of the line:
  • else
  • ;
  • in
• then if there is an if then indent the next line
• or if there is then or else followed by the end of the line then indent the next line
  Which seems a little dodgy, but OCaml users might find it useful if we tweak it a bit? (The stacking behavior mentioned earlier is useful for if statements.)