Eclipse Syntax Highlighter For Proxo/Sidki - Intro

[ProxoDent]

(Nov. 14, 2009 06:17 AM)PAEz Wrote:  Dont worry to much about the jedit one if Im going to be able to use a lighter option than eclipse with the plugin, Im impatient but Id rather you spend your time on the plugin.

I took your suggestion yesterday and skipped working on the jEdit highlighter. However, during the course of the day, I used jEdit for some work just to see how it stacked up against my preconceived dislike for JAVA apps, and I have to admit I liked it enough to finish the jEdit-based highlighting code rather than just clean it up. Among other things, I added / modified code so the paired symbols matching now respects escapes and allows for Perl character class rules within square-brackets just as I had done for the Colorer-Take5 version.

I think if you give this a try with jEdit, you'll like it. I originally gave up on it because the Eclipse plug-in (I don't know who wrote it) that uses the jEdit format was pretty wonky: it didn't respect the rules I was writing which were based on jEdit's documentation (possibly because the plug-in may be based on an older version of jEdit's format), it didn't utilize the paired-matching capability, and the editor supplied was very basic and did some unexpected things that I couldn't tolerate (among the examples, undo'ing edits would never turn off the 'unsaved' status indicator despite the fact that the file had been returned to its original state). However, none of the issues are present when using the syntax code with jEdit itself.

Don't worry, I'll continue with the Colorer-Take5 code documentation, because it is likely the one I'll use the most. But I also use Eclipse for bigger projects (mostly Perl and Python). I don't think I'd wish it on anybody to set up Eclipse for the sole purpose of editing Proxomitron files. But that's your call. Editing files in MC or FAR doesn't appeal to me either; if I was going to use a console editor, I'd use Vim or emacs. That said, it's always nice to have options.

Okay, let's get to it:

1. Install jEdit;

2. Copy the attached 'ptron.xml' file (after unzipping it) to the 'modes' sub-directory under the jEdit root;

3. Open the existing 'catalog' file (also in the 'modes' sub-directory) and add this code to the file:

Code:

<MODE NAME="ptron"        FILE="ptron.xml"
                FILE_NAME_GLOB="*.{ptron,ptxt}"/>

Make sure the code is placed between the <MODES> </MODES> tags (it's easiest just to stick it at the end of the file right before the closing </MODES> tag.

Here's the mapping of the colors, and the corresponding RGB codes to set in jEdit if you want to make the syntax look exactly like it appears in the screen shots (the mapping documentation is in the xml file as well):

Code:

Color Mapping
COMMENT1 - Strings anchored at left margin by '#'
          - Config file section header
          - Blocklist section list separator string
COMMENT2 - List names (Bypass-List, AllowCookies, Exceptions, etc.)
COMMENT4 - Default highlighting for anything undefined by rules.
KEYWORD1 - Ptron Parameters (Enable, FreezeGIF, Bounds, Replace, etc.)
KEYWORD2 - Paired symbols (), {}, [], "", ''
KEYWORD3 - Proxomitron reserved words ($TST, $SET, $GET, etc.)
KEYWORD4 - Sidki-Proxo reserved words (keyword, adkey_j, i_level, etc.)
LABEL    - Ptron Parameter string values (TRUE, FALSE)
LITERAL1 - Escaped Left Brackets - Set Same Color As Literal2 (and Operator if desired)
LITERAL2 - Escaped Right Brackets - Set Same Color As Literal1 (and Operator if desired)
LITERAL3 - Other - paths, dates, Internet addresses
OPERATOR - All other symbols not in KEYWORD2

Colors as currently set in jEdit screenshots:

COMMENT1 - 153,153,153
COMMENT2 - 153,153,0    (BOLD)
COMMENT4 - 102,102,102
DIGIT    - 255,0,0      (BOLD)
KEYWORD1 - 219,0,124    (BOLD)
KEYWORD2 - 190,0,0      (BOLD)
KEYWORD3 - 139,0,0      (BOLD)
KEYWORD4 - 0,61,200     (BOLD)
LABEL    - 103,136,176  (BOLD)
LITERAL1 - 153,153,153  (BOLD)
LITERAL2 - 153,153,153  (BOLD)
LITERAL3 - 204,102,255  (BOLD)
OPERATOR - 0,142,0      (BOLD)

Also, jEdit has settings for adjusting the font appearance that were mandatory for me, otherwise jEdit was unusable. Adjust these settings if you have issues:

• Utilities->Global Options->Text Area => Anti-Aliased Smooth Text (subpixel works for me)
• Utilities->Global Options->Text Area => Fractional Font Metrics (selected)
  

Final caveat: I am definitely not a syntax-writing guru, and I learned the coding format strictly for this project. I also lose interest in side-projects pretty quickly, so any issues found may need to be addressed by the end-user.