It seems there is no way to have parts of a capture scoped by calls to $self or #repository elements, which means that complex captures get to have many capture elements.

It would be handy if there was a code for language grammar capture numbering, so that these are more resilient and self-healing when the regexp underlying their definition changes.

What I would suggest for TM2 is something like a code for "next group" so instead of explicitly numbering all matches, only non- sequential elements are explicitly numbered, and all others are self numbering. A nice code would be "#". A nice twist would be if this supported skipping elements when suffixed with an addition "#++" or "# +n"

Then, if we change a match from, say: match = '(a)(b)(c)'; To say: match = '(a)(a1)(b)(c)';

Then the numbering, instead of manually being recoded from this: 1 = { name = 'a'; }; 2 = { name = 'b'; }; 3 = { name = 'c'; }; to this: 1 = { name = 'a'; }; 2 = { name = 'a1'; }; 3 = { name = 'b'; }; 4 = { name = 'c'; };

Could simply stay as this (where # is a code for "next sequential number" 1 = { name = 'a'; }; # = { name = 'a1'; }; # = { name = 'b'; }; # = { name = 'c'; };

In the more complex case,

1 = { name = 'a'; }; # = { name = 'a1'; }; #+1 = { name = 'b'; }; //skips a group # = { name = 'c'; };