Automatic operator formatting mode in Emacs

Emacs has a nice new mode called electric-operator developed by David Spepherd. It helps when you write code by formatting all operators in a predefined way. For example, in R it adds spaces around the operator signs, when you write 1+1, this is automatically converted into 1 + 1.

You can define your own way of formatting for other modes. For gams-mode you add the following to your .emacs file

First you set gams-mode as a mode on which electric operator can work.Then you add some rules. After that you set a hook so electric-operator is automatically started when you use Gams (or ESS).

A special formatting is necessary for the comments in GAMS as they start with the same symbol as the multiplication. With the help of David, I could add a function gams-mode-* that changes the “*” used as a comment in “* “ and otherwise in “ * “.  It checks if the “*” symbol is at the beginning of the line and in that case will not add a space in front of it.

It probably needs some more tweaking, and I will keep you posted on improvements.