I'm writing a custom syntax highlighting file for a proprietary language I have to use a lot. I have written a full file but it seems to only use 3 colors. All punctuation is one color, some of the keywords I have specified are another color, and everything else is a third color.
The odd thing is, I removed every match and every redefinition (hi def link) from the file and the highlighting doesn't seem to have changed at all. In fact, I tried adding some other keyword mappings to try to see where it's breaking, but it seems only certain lines are being evaluated for the highlighting. For instance, this line ends up highlighting the proper text:
syn keyword clangImport IMPORT
However, this line (below) doesn't and is a different color despite not even providing any specific highlighting instructions:
syn keyword clangGroupAttributes ?? GN GA GV GL GP GR PV PN SI CN
Why would it only evaluate certain lines of the syn keyword mapping?
Additionally, none of my regex matching worked at all despite using something as simple as "\d\+".
Related
I'm new to vim syntax highlight customizations. Trying to create a text based call path description file:
// Entry point
Class1#mainMethod
Class1#privateMethod2
Class2#method3
Class3#method4
Class4#method5
In plantUML the equivalent would be:
ExternalActor -> Class1 : mainMethod
Class1 -> Class1 : privateMethod2()
Class1 -> Class2 : method3()
Class2 -> Class3 : method4()
Class1 -> Class4 : method5()
I already have some decent syntax file in place that makes it look like:
current syntax file looks like:
syn keyword celTodo contained TODO FIXME XXX NOTE
syn match celComment "//.*$" oneline contains=celTodo
hi celComment ctermfg=yellow
hi celTodo ctermfg=green
syn match methodCall /\(#\)\#<=\w*/ contained oneline
hi methodCall ctermfg=blue
syn match className /\w*\(#\)\#=/ contained oneline
hi className ctermfg=red
syn region line start='\(\.\)\#<=\w' end='.\($\)\#=' oneline fold transparent contains=celComment,className,methodCall
Problem
I think a different background color for each occurrence of the same class would help understand the sequence better.
Is there any way to achieve this? So that Class1 will have a different background color than Class2, 3, and 4. But each class always the same, consistent color.
Syntax highlighting associates a keyword, pattern match, or region with a syntax group. A corresponding highlight group then (directly or indirectly through linked groups) determines the color and formatting of the text.
In order to have different (background or otherwise) colors for each class name, you'd have to define different syntax groups, and assign different highlight groups, too. Your syntax file would not only have a fixed set of :syntax match commands, but also a loop that extracts matches from the current buffer and builds the corresponding :syntax match and :highlight command as the syntax loads (using :execute).
Then you have the problem of updating, if the user adds or changes class names. Normally, a syntax is static, so once it loads, it's done. In your case, you'd have to define :autocmds that periodically re-scan the buffer, and add new class names (and maybe even recycle unused highlight group names, so you don't run out of colors). The CursorHold event would be a good candidate for it, but there will be a delay until the colors show up. The available colors is another problem if you want to make this syntax available to other users. The number of colors can vary wildly, and coming up with background colors that work well with various colorschemes is difficult.
Summary
It is possible, but it would be unusual for a syntax, and have side effects like delays in updating or poor performance. (I've seen this used for highlighting function names from the tags file, though.) Some users definitely would want to turn this off.
Alternative
For small files with few (or very distinct) class names, this additional highlighting probably isn't necessary. For large files with many classes, having everything light up would make it appear like a Christmas tree, and all the colors could be more distracting than helpful. I'd rather leave it to the user to do such highlighting of some classes of interest, on demand. My Mark plugin provides the generic functionality for this, in a way that does not interfere with syntax highlighting, and it ships with color palettes that look like text marker highlightings. I use this often to have better orientation in log files or legacy code bases. (The plugin page has links to alternative plugins; there are a few.)
Your syntax
Group names typically have a common prefix that's identical to the name of your syntax. If that is cel, use celMethodCall instead of methodCall, and so on.
I would put the :hi commands all at the bottom; most syntax plugins do it like this.
Especially if you intend to later share the syntax, favor :hi linking to existing syntax groups (:help highlight-groups) over defining your own colors. Even for your personal use, defining your colors in your ~/.vimrc has the benefit of having a single place to adapt and reuse it, instead of hunting around various syntax scripts.
By using :hi def, users can customize the syntax, e.g. in their ~/.vimrc. :help 44.12 has more information on writing syntax plugins.
I'm trying to figure out how to highlight a specific portion of a match in vim.
Given the following example rule (taken from the coffeescript syntax file source):
syn match coffeeExtendedOp /\%(\S\s*\)\#<=[+\-*/%&|\^=!<>?.]\+\|[-=]>\|--\|++\|:/ display
This regular expression matches various coffeescript operators. The operators are highlighted (in my vimrc) like this:
hi Operator guifg=#ff0000
For example, since coffeeExtendedOp is linked to coffeeOperator which is linked to Operator, in the above source file. This all works, but I'm wondering how to specifically highlight the ++ operator matched in the above syn match with a different color, say blue, within my vimrc (that is, without altering the original source file above). I'm simply wondering if this is possible.
EDIT: I think the rules are placed under a cluster, so perhaps that's why it's not affecting anything. Is there a way to access the rule within the cluster?
EDIT: Question was clarified.
Solution:
syn match plusplus /++/ contained containedin=coffeeExtendedOp display
hi plusplus guifg=#0000ff
The problem now is that this only works when I run them as commands in vim, but not when I put it in my vimrc file. Any ideas? Could it be that the stuff is hidden behind the cluster? But then why is it visible in vim through a command? I tried including the syntax file but it didn't seem to have any effect.
Looking at the coffee.vim you linked to it seems like the dot belongs to the coffeeDotAccess syntax item. So you can highlight it just by doing this:
:hi coffeeDotAccess ctermfg=blue
I'm going to guess a bit at what you need. (I don't speak Coffeescript and your sample regex is way too complicated for me to start reading at the moment).
Transparent syntax items
You could have a look at transparent syntax rules: (http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/usr_44.html)
In a C language file you would like to highlight the () text after a "while"
differently from the () text after a "for". In both of these there can be
nested () items, which should be highlighted in the same way. You must make
sure the () highlighting stops at the matching ). This is one way to do this:
:syntax region cWhile matchgroup=cWhile start=/while\s*(/ end=/)/
\ contains=cCondNest
:syntax region cFor matchgroup=cFor start=/for\s*(/ end=/)/
\ contains=cCondNest
:syntax region cCondNest start=/(/ end=/)/ contained transparent
Partial matches in regex
If you really just meant highlighting submatches, have a look at the the
\zs start match
\ze end match
In short,
:match Error /foo\zsbar\zered/
would highlight only 'bar' in 'foobarred'
In LaTeX, a section looks like:
\section{Section Title}
I would like to highlight such sections, or section titles. I tried to put the following in ~/.vim/bundle/latexrc/after/syntax/tex.vim:
syn match texSectioning "\\section\>" skipwhite nextgroup=texSectioningTitle
syn region texSectioningTitle contained matchgroup=Delimiter start='{' end='}' contains=#texSectioningGroup
syn cluster texSectioningGroup contains=texMatcher,texComment,texDelimiter
(Note that this kind of syntax is not handled by the default tex.vim syntax file. It only defines "section zones", which are pretty much worthless for me.)
I then define the following in my color scheme:
hi texSectioning gui=bold guifg=red
And nothing happens; that is, section titles do not appear in red in my LaTeX code (even after I reloaded the file completely).
I am totally confused as to how vim's syntax work, and how to debug it.
Edit
Some more information: it sometimes works and sometimes not. Completely unpredictable. What could be the problem? Pathogen? Something else? I'm completely puzzled.
You have defined the new syntax items texSectioning, texSectioningTitle and texSectioningGroup, but you have not linked them to a highlighting group, so Vim doesn't know how to display them. Try adding these lines:
hi def link texSectioning Statement
hi def link texSectioningTitle String
hi def link texSectioningGroup Comment
The Statement, String and Comment colourings are defining by the colourscheme you are using. These are just examples: you can replace them with any group defined in the colourscheme file.
Here is the answer: the tex.vim divides the text in zones, in which the syntax must be explicitly allowed. The key element is that command:
syn cluster texChapterGroup contains=#texSectioningGroup
This says to vim that inside a texChapterGroup, the syntax cluster texSectioningGroup is allowed. The next thing to do is simply to define that cluster as usual.
Another detail is that the region texSectioningTitle must be contained, otherwise it will match arbitrary pairs of {} in LaTeX.
So a complete solution goes like this:
syn match texSectioningCommand '\\section\>' skipwhite nextgroup=texSectioningTitle contains=#texSectioningGroup
syn region texSectioningTitle start='{' end='}' contained
syn cluster texSectioningGroup contains=texSectioningCommand
syn cluster texChapterGroup contains=#texSectioningGroup
Edit Here is why the behaviour was apparently unpredictable: vim does not read the entire file to figure out the syntax. So in a big enough chapter, my section syntax would work because vim did not go far enough to see it was in a chapter zone.
Just to update the information to highlight section easily. Using containedin means that all the other syntax matches contains this new syntax match. Then just define the color you want.
syn match texSectioningCommand '\\section\>' containedin=ALLBUT,texComment
hi texSectioningCommand guifg=#ec5f67 ctermfg=203
Alternatively, a simple new syntax match could be added to the texFoldGroup in order to be evaluated inside the the block document.
syn match texSectioningCommand '\\section\>'
syn cluster texFoldGroup add=texSectioningCommand
hi texSectioningCommand guifg=#ec5f67 ctermfg=203
VIM: Is it possible to change the color of these symbols:
~!%^&*()-+=[]{},.<>?:/;
like Visual Studio does?
The C/C++ syntaxes are defined in syntax/c.vim and syntax/cpp.vim. If you're using Linux, the main syntax directory is in /usr/share/vimXX/, where XX is the version (e.g. mine are in vim72). I don't know about installation directories on other OSes, but I'm sure you can find it. I'd suggest making a copy of these and placing them in your user vim directory (for example, in Linux, $HOME/.vim/syntax/c.vim and so on). You can then add whatever you like.
The C++ syntax sources the C syntax, so any symbols you want highlighted in both should go in c.vim, and anything for C++ only should be in cpp.vim.
To get syntax highlighting for specific symbols, you'll need to use a syntax match statement, something like:
syn match cUserSpecialCharacter display "[~!%^&*()-+=[\]{},.<>?:;]"
syn match cUserSpecialCharacter display "/[^*/]"me=e-1
syn match cUserSpecialCharacter display "/$"
I called it cUserSpecialCharacter since cCharacter and cSpecialCharacter are already used. The second and third matches are a bit of a kludge to highlight '/' without it matching comment prefixes, which would then override the comment highlighting and break everything. The "display" option tells Vim that it doesn't need to look for this match if it's not going to be displayed - see :help syn-display for an explanation if you like!
Once you've defined a syntax match, you can link it to a highlight group, for example:
hi def link cUserSpecialCharacter cCharacter
This will put it in with the already defined cCharacter group, so it'll get whatever highlighting that gets - in this case, Character. You can see a nice list of highlight groups at the bottom of c.vim for examples. If you really want, you can also hardcode a highlight by doing something like:
hi cUserSpecialCharacter term=reverse ctermfg=15 ctermbg=1 guifg=#ffffff guibg=#800000
(Arbitrary example - my current highlighting for the Error group.) See :help hi for more information on this, or simply :hi to see the list of defined highlighting - plenty of examples. I'd recommend against doing this, though, since it won't change with color schemes.
Yes, you need to edit the C color theme in vimfiles/colors/c.vim I don't know all the theme options one can use, but I'm sure they are documented on http://vim.org/
First, I'll show the specific problem I'm having, but I think the problem can be generalized.
I'm working with a language that has explicit parenthesis syntax (like Lisp), but has keywords that are only reserved against the left paren. Example:
(key key)
the former is a reserved word, but the latter is a reference to the variable named "key"
Unfortunately, I find highlighting the left paren annoying, so I end up using
syn keyword classification key
instead of
syn keyword classification (key
but the former triggers on the variable uses as well.
I'd take a hack to get around my problem, but I'd be more interested in a general method to highlight just a subset of a given match.
Using syn keyword alone for this situation doesn't work right because you want your highlighting to be more aware of the surrounding syntax. A combination of syn region, syn match, and syn keyword works well.
hi link lispFuncs Function
hi link lispFunc Identifier
hi link sExpr Statement
syn keyword lispFuncs key foo bar contained containedin=lispFunc
syn match lispFunc "(\#<=\w\+" contained containedin=sExpr contains=lispFuncs
syn region sExpr matchgroup=Special start="(" end=")" contains=sExpr,lispFuncs
The above will only highlight key, foo, and bar using the Function highlight group, only if they're also matched by lispFunc.
If there are any words other than key, foo, and bar which come after a (, they will be highlighted using the Identifier highlight group. This allows you to distinguish between standard function names and user-created ones.
The ( and ) will be highlighted using the Special highlight group, and anything inside the () past the first word will be highlighted using the Statement highlight group.
There does appear to be some capability for layered highlighting, as seen here: Highlighting matches in Vim over an inverted pattern
which gives ex commands
:match myBaseHighlight /foo/
:2match myGroup /./
I haven't been able to get anything like that to work in my syntax files, though. I tried something like:
syn match Keyword "(key"
syn match Normal "("
The highlighting goes to Normal or Keyword over the whole bit depending on what gets picked up first (altered by arrangement in the file)
Vim soundly rejected using "2match" as a keyword after "syn".