Customize Elisp plist indentation - emacs

Question

I don't like how plists are indented in Elisp.
;; current desired Python (for comparison)
;; '(a 1 '(a 1 {'a': 1,
;; b 2 b 2 'b': 2,
;; c 3) c 3) 'c': 3}
Tried on M-x emacs-version 24.3.1, ran emacs -Q, typed the plist and pressed C-x h C-M-\.
This indentation makes sense when it isn't a list:
(mapcar (lambda (x) (x + 1))
'(1 2 3 4))
How do I change formatting settings so that only plists (or, if that's impossible, all quoted lists) have the desired rectangular indentation, but indentation of everything else stays the same? I need this stored locally in an .el file, so that when I edit this file, it is indented as desired, but this behavior doesn't end up anywhere else.

Answer 1

Found it:
(setq lisp-indent-function 'common-lisp-indent-function)
Here's a sample file:
(setq x '(a 1
b 2
c 3))
;;; Local Variables:
;;; lisp-indent-function: common-lisp-indent-function
;;; End:
I'll just dump my whole indentation config here:
(setq lisp-indent-function 'common-lisp-indent-function)
(put 'cl-flet 'common-lisp-indent-function
(get 'flet 'common-lisp-indent-function))
(put 'cl-labels 'common-lisp-indent-function
(get 'labels 'common-lisp-indent-function))
(put 'if 'common-lisp-indent-function 2)
(put 'dotimes-protect 'common-lisp-indent-function
(get 'when 'common-lisp-indent-function))

Answer 2

You can fix this (in my opinion) bug by overriding lisp-indent-function. The original source of the hack was this Github Gist, which was referenced with some more explanation from this Emacs Stack Exchange answer.
However, I was very uncomfortable overriding a core function like this. For one, it's very opaque—how is a reader supposed to tell what is changed? And worse—what if the official definition of lisp-indent-function changed in the future? How would I know that I needed to update my hack?
As a response, I created the library el-patch, which is specifically designed to address this problem. After installing the package, you can override lisp-indent-function as follows:
(el-patch-defun lisp-indent-function (indent-point state)
"This function is the normal value of the variable `lisp-indent-function'.
The function `calculate-lisp-indent' calls this to determine
if the arguments of a Lisp function call should be indented specially.
INDENT-POINT is the position at which the line being indented begins.
Point is located at the point to indent under (for default indentation);
STATE is the `parse-partial-sexp' state for that position.
If the current line is in a call to a Lisp function that has a non-nil
property `lisp-indent-function' (or the deprecated `lisp-indent-hook'),
it specifies how to indent. The property value can be:
* `defun', meaning indent `defun'-style
(this is also the case if there is no property and the function
has a name that begins with \"def\", and three or more arguments);
* an integer N, meaning indent the first N arguments specially
(like ordinary function arguments), and then indent any further
arguments like a body;
* a function to call that returns the indentation (or nil).
`lisp-indent-function' calls this function with the same two arguments
that it itself received.
This function returns either the indentation to use, or nil if the
Lisp function does not specify a special indentation."
(el-patch-let (($cond (and (elt state 2)
(el-patch-wrap 1 1
(or (not (looking-at "\\sw\\|\\s_"))
(looking-at ":")))))
($then (progn
(if (not (> (save-excursion (forward-line 1) (point))
calculate-lisp-indent-last-sexp))
(progn (goto-char calculate-lisp-indent-last-sexp)
(beginning-of-line)
(parse-partial-sexp (point)
calculate-lisp-indent-last-sexp 0 t)))
;; Indent under the list or under the first sexp on the same
;; line as calculate-lisp-indent-last-sexp. Note that first
;; thing on that line has to be complete sexp since we are
;; inside the innermost containing sexp.
(backward-prefix-chars)
(current-column)))
($else (let ((function (buffer-substring (point)
(progn (forward-sexp 1) (point))))
method)
(setq method (or (function-get (intern-soft function)
'lisp-indent-function)
(get (intern-soft function) 'lisp-indent-hook)))
(cond ((or (eq method 'defun)
(and (null method)
(> (length function) 3)
(string-match "\\`def" function)))
(lisp-indent-defform state indent-point))
((integerp method)
(lisp-indent-specform method state
indent-point normal-indent))
(method
(funcall method indent-point state))))))
(let ((normal-indent (current-column))
(el-patch-add
(orig-point (point))))
(goto-char (1+ (elt state 1)))
(parse-partial-sexp (point) calculate-lisp-indent-last-sexp 0 t)
(el-patch-swap
(if $cond
;; car of form doesn't seem to be a symbol
$then
$else)
(cond
;; car of form doesn't seem to be a symbol, or is a keyword
($cond $then)
((and (save-excursion
(goto-char indent-point)
(skip-syntax-forward " ")
(not (looking-at ":")))
(save-excursion
(goto-char orig-point)
(looking-at ":")))
(save-excursion
(goto-char (+ 2 (elt state 1)))
(current-column)))
(t $else))))))

Answer 3

Here is another less heavyweight solution, based on emacsql-fix-vector-indentation. An advice around calculate-lisp-indent is sufficient.
This only works for plists that use keywords as keys, but that covers a majority of plists. To make this work on quoted lists instead, you could change the looking-at regexp to detect the ' or "`", but that will not cover, say, a nested list.
This can further be packaged up into a minor mode if there is a need to turn it off.
(defun my/inside-plist? ()
"Is point situated inside a plist?
We determine a plist to be a list that starts with a keyword."
(let ((start (point)))
(save-excursion
(beginning-of-defun)
(let ((sexp (nth 1 (parse-partial-sexp (point) start))))
(when sexp
(setf (point) sexp)
(looking-at (rx "(" (* (syntax whitespace)) ":")))))))
(define-advice calculate-lisp-indent (:around (func &rest args)
plist)
(if (save-excursion
(beginning-of-line)
(my/inside-plist?))
(let ((lisp-indent-offset 1))
(apply func args))
(apply func args)))