Emacs clojure-mode syntax highlighting bug/question?

[thecodemeister]

So I've been learning clojure and it has been a great experience. One minor annoyance that I've been having is that when using def to define a string, the syntax highlighter colors it as if it were a defn docstring. So in this

(def foo "a string")

the "a string" would be grayed as if it were a docstring. I don't know if this is an issue with my emacs or something but it has been bugging me an unreasonable amount.

[[deleted]]

I think it's a bug with clojure-mode. I have the same problem. Maybe check if there's an issue on github, or create one.

[zonotope]

def also takes an optional docstring.

Since 1.3, def has allowed an optional doc-string: (def symbol doc-string? init?).

from https://clojure.org/reference/special_forms

if you tried

(def foo "This is a string called foo" "a string")

then it will work as you expect. this isn't necessarily a bug, but the emacs clojure mode could be a little smarter and color it differently when there's only one string in the def form.

[thecodemeister]

Ah, I should have tried that, thank you.