How Can I Modify A Pre-Existing Syntax Highlighter?

How To
1

I am currently trying out Komodo to see if I want to make the change from my PE of choice to KomodoIDE.

I have a scenario where a language I frequently use is remarkably similar to the FlagShip lexar that is included in Komodo. However, the keyword groupings that the dev used in it’s design does not fit my direct needs and more keywords need to be added for my use.

Is it possible for me to either a) modify that lexar or b) create a new lexar using the flagship lexar as a base?

Any help will be greatly appreciated during this trial period.

Thank You,

Rick

2

If that is not possible, can someone point me to a document\post describing how to create a custom syntax highlighter for a language?

There is a limited amount of time on the trial and I would like to see if I can get it to work with our language before committing to buy it.

3

It’s definitely possible, but I’m not the right person to explain this - @toddw or @ericp when you guys have a moment could you explain the basics or link to some relevant examples?

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4

Bump again.

5

It’s quite easy to setup a new Komodo language (for keywords and syntax highlighting), here is a short screencast that covers adding a new language:

and there is also Komodo documentation at:
http://docs.activestate.com/komodo/8.5/extensions.html#language_extensions

Let us know if you need more help.

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6

To answer the original question: unfortunately, I don’t believe that can be reused; the FlagShip lexer comes from Scintilla and is written in C++. That means it’s baked in and you can’t really change it from a shipped Komodo release.

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@mook, Thank you.

@toddw, I appreciate the helpful links. I looked in the video and also on the linked page for the documentation you provided but I can not find how to turn the keywords into case insensitive. Can you provide any guidance on that front?

Also, I can not find any way to add a new keyword set for a new color set. For example so I could have “keywords” “internal functions” and “external functions”.

Thanks

8

Looking to build a syntax highlighter for TOML, … and it looks like the video and documentation from v9 are no longer available, … where would current docs be located?

Thanks!

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Hey @lvlammert.

Sorry those links are borked. I think your best bet is to follow this blow post from one of the previous devs:

It is old but it should still apply to how things are structured in Komodo. Use it to get an idea of how things are laid out then you should be able to adapt an existing implementation to handle TOML.

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