I'm writing a vim syntax script and I want to be able to make lines matching a certain pattern, say, '^>', "source" or imitate the markdown syntax highlighting.
Is there a way to do this at the syntax script level? Do I need to just copy and paste it in manually and make the proper adjustments? Does this require a modeline on the actual file?
Thanks!
Have a look at :help :syn-include. It allows you to import an existing syntax (like e.g. markdown) into a syntax cluster in your own syntax, and then you can assign syntax regions (if I understand you correctly, that would be a region starting with /^>/ and ending at the end of the line /$/) to it.
Note that success isn't guaranteed; you need some collaboration from the included syntax. (For example, if the markdown syntax anchors its patterns at ^, but now it's included behind the > prefix, it won't match any more.) In the worst case, you have to modify the included syntax or copy it completely into your own syntax.
Related
I checked following things, tags file path is set properly.
the macro tag i am looking for exist in the tags file. task/function/parameters etc works without hiccups. i have problem only with regex.
the expression present in ctags file are
1. --regex-SystemVerilog=/^\s*`define\b\s*(\w+)/`\1/d,define/
2. --regex-systemverilog=/^[ \t]*`define[ \t]*([a-zA-Z_0-9]+)/`\1/d,define/
both the options does not work.
When :tag `altuvm_test_arg works, but the corresponding CTRL-] key doesn't, this often is caused by incompatible 'iskeyword' definitions, so that actually gets passed to :tag is altuvm_test_arg (without the leading backtick).
You can check the scope of keyword matching (when on such a tag) with the * command, which highlights the same keyword under the cursor. If backticks are excluded, try adding the backtick to the range of keyword characters:
:setlocal iskeyword+=`
If this helps (and doesn't break things like syntax highlighting, or annoys you with the changed navigation of commands like w and e), you can make that setting permanent for verilog filetypes put putting it in ~/.vim/after/ftplugin/verilog.vim.
For i.e: I'd like to have a custom syntax file, may be called sugar.vim that includes multiple other syntax files(?) to have the ability to highlight, maybe a paragraph as python.vim and another paragraph as javascript.vim, may be separated by newline (paragraphs often distinct by newline)
The real case that I often catch myself writing a document (non-extension file) other than real config a specific filetype (specific extension file), but for clear readability in the document filetype (we called sugar above). I'm thinking about a mechanism to recognize and highlight different parts of a filetype as different syntaxes.
To narrow down this case. How would it be to have a syntax file called sugar.vim that would be able to recognize python syntax and javascript syntax in files that have an extension of .sugar then the recognized python text should have highlights applied as a normal python file, same for javascript part. All recognized text must be separated by newline (at least one before and one after that text)
Sample:
# this is a sample text for this question
# i'm writing a document that has an extension of `.sugar`
def py_func1(arg1, arg2) # python.vim and its highlights applied here.
print("bello world!")
square = function(x) { # javascript.vim and its highlights applied here.
return x * x;
};
System: gvim 8.1 / windows10
Thanks in advances.
Vim supports that with the :help :syn-include command. As it's intended for syntax script writers leveraging other syntaxes, its use is somewhat complicated, and it's not really suited for interactive, on-demand use.
My SyntaxRange plugin provides commands and functions to set up regions in the current buffer that either use a syntax different from the buffer's 'filetype', or completely ignore the syntax. With it, it's trivial to dynamically add a particular syntax highlighting for a range of lines, and public API functions also make the programmatic definition easier.
You're looking for :help :syn-include.
Excerpt from vim help :
If top-level syntax items in the included syntax file are to be
contained within a region in the including syntax, you can use the
":syntax include" command:
:sy[ntax] include [#{grouplist-name}] {file-name}
All syntax items declared in the included file will have the
"contained" flag added. In addition, if a group list is specified,
all top-level syntax items in the included file will be added to
that list. >
" In perl.vim:
:syntax include #Pod :p:h/pod.vim
:syntax region perlPOD start="^=head" end="^=cut" contains=#Pod
When {file-name} is an absolute path (starts with "/", "c:", "$VAR"
or "") that file is sourced. When it is a relative path
(e.g., "syntax/pod.vim") the file is searched for in 'runtimepath'.
All matching files are loaded. Using a relative path is
recommended, because it allows a user to replace the included file
with his own version, without replacing the file that does the ":syn
include".
As long as you can clearly define boundaries for your embedded language regions it is fairly straight forward to achieve this.
You can also refer to https://github.com/tpope/vim-markdown/blob/master/syntax/markdown.vim for reference on how tpope embeds other syntax definitions within the markdown syntax, driven by configuration to minimise the number of language syntax's that need embedding for optimal performance.
I want to leave my system's Python syntax highlighting mostly intact, but I have a specific pattern I'd like to highlight for an idiom I use a lot. How can I add additional highlighting instructions on top of the existing highlighting done by vim?
(Apologies if this has already been asked. All the vim syntax highlighting questions I found seemed to involve writing a new syntax highlighting from scratch.)
Put your additional :syntax commands into ~/.vim/after/syntax/python.vim, and they will be automatically executed after the original syntax script.
It's easy to highlight stuff that so far isn't parsed at all.
For elements already parsed / hightlighted, you need to find out by which syntax group (e.g. pythonFunction), and add a containedin=pythonFunction clause to your :syntax commands. Without that, the original matching will obscure yours. To find out which syntax group causes the highlighting. :syn list shows all active groups, but it's easier when you install the SyntaxAttr.vim - Show syntax highlighting attributes of character under cursor plugin.
Introducing highlighting across (larger) elements that have multiple existing syntax groups is difficult, as your match will obscure the original ones, and that may break the entire parsing. You need to carefully examine the existing nested element structure, and try to fit in yours, again via contains= and containedin= clauses. Depending on the actual situation, that can be difficult.
For the actual syntax definitions, see the help starting at :h :syn-keyword. Basically, there are simple keyword definitions, regular expression matches, and regions defined by start and end patterns.
I am using a package called outlines for LaTeX. It adds commands such as \1 \2 \3 etc.
They are not highlighted by default in vim. So, I created a file called tex.vim in my .vimrc/syntax folder, and put this in the file:
:syn match outline /\\[1-9]/
hi link outline Label
This works only at the top level, not within a block. In other words, it works before my \begin{document}, but not between \begin{document} and \end{document}.
This is pretty much useless. How can I get vim to recognize the syntax, regardless of where it appears in the document?
You need to find the syntax group or cluster defined by the Tex syntax, and use contained containedin=..., but in your case, there is already a syntax group for statements, it's just that it doesn't include numbers. Therefore, you can just piggyback on the existing group and only add matching for numbers:
:syn match texStatement /\\\d/
I try to add some syntax highlighting for javascript to vim, but I keep running into one problem: when characters are already highlighted, they seem to be completely ignored by all other regular expressions.
For example, I tried to add syntax highlighting for the argument list of a function. While creating the right rexex I disabled the syntax highlighting for the function keyword, such that it was easier to see what my regex did. I ended up with the following (working) regex:
syn match javaScriptArguments "[(=\:\s,]function.\{-}(\zs.\{-}\ze)"
However, as soon as I enabled the highlighting for the function keyword again, this line doesn't work anymore. It seems that vim simply excludes everything which is already highlighted, and thus it won't find any matches for the regex above, even though it won't result in characters being highlighted twice.
How can I solve/work around this problem?
Syntax definitions must be contained for them to match inside other syntax items. Find all the gruesome details at :help syn-contains.
In your case, you're relying on a look-before of the "function" keyword via \zs. In my experience, that's bound to cause problems, but may turn out to be unneccessary once you use contained. In general, it is difficult to extend an existing syntax definition without modifying the original script (which I suppose is what you're intending to do). Have a look at :help :syn-containedin and :help :syn-nextgroup.