text processing utilities

Highlight documentation

Plug-Ins

Script structure

The following script contains a minimal plug-in which has no effect on the output, since all update functions have empty definitions:

01 Description="NOOP plugin"
02 
03 -- optional parameter: syntax description
04 function syntaxUpdate(desc)
05 end
06 
07 -- optional parameter: theme description
08 function themeUpdate(desc)
09 end
10 
11 Plugins={
12   { Type="theme", Chunk=themeUpdate },
13   { Type="lang", Chunk=syntaxUpdate },
14 }

The first line contains a description which gives a short summary of the plug-in effects.

The next lines contain function definitions: The syntaxUpdate function is applied on syntax definition scripts (*.lang), whereas the themeUpdate function is applied on colour themes (*.theme). The names of the functions are not mandatory.
The desc parameter contains the description of the syntax definition or colour theme. This can be used to restrict modifications to certain kinds of input (i.e. only C code should be enhanced with syslog keywords).

The Plugins array connects the functions to the Lua states which are created when highlight loads a lang or theme script. In this example, themeUpdate is connected to the theme state, and syntaxUpdate to the lang state. It is not required to define both connections if your plugin only affects one type of config script.

Syntax definition elements

The following list includes all items you may overwrite or extend to adjust the parser's syntax highlighting.

Syntax chunk elements:

Comments: table
Description: string
Digits: string
EnableIndentation: boolean
Identifiers: string
IgnoreCase: boolean
Keywords: table
NestedSections: table
Operators: string
PreProcessor: table
Strings: table

Read only constants:

HL_LANG_DIR: string
HL_BLOCK_COMMENT: number
HL_BLOCK_COMMENT_END: number
HL_EMBEDDED_CODE_BEGIN: number
HL_EMBEDDED_CODE_END: number
HL_ESC_SEQ: number
HL_ESC_SEQ_END: number
HL_IDENTIFIER_BEGIN: number
HL_IDENTIFIER_END: number
HL_KEYWORD: number
HL_KEYWORD_END: number
HL_LINENUMBER: number
HL_LINE_COMMENT: number
HL_LINE_COMMENT_END: number
HL_NUMBER: number
HL_OPERATOR: number
HL_OPERATOR_END: number
HL_PREPROC: number
HL_PREPROC_END: number
HL_PREPROC_STRING: number
HL_STANDARD: number
HL_STRING: number
HL_STRING_END: number
HL_UNKNOWN: number

HL_OUTPUT: number
HL_FORMAT_HTML: number
HL_FORMAT_XHTML: number
HL_FORMAT_TEX: number
HL_FORMAT_LATEX: number
HL_FORMAT_RTF: number
HL_FORMAT_ANSI: number
HL_FORMAT_XTERM256: number
HL_FORMAT_SVG: number
HL_FORMAT_BBCODE: number

Functions:

AddKeyword: function
OnStateChange: function
Decorate: function

IMPORTANT: Functions will only be executed if they are defined as local functions within the lang chunk function referenced in the Plugins array. They will be ignored when defined elsewhere in the plug-in script.

Function OnStateChange

This function is a hook which is called if an internal state changes (ie from HL_STANDARD to HL_KEYWORD if a keyword is found). It can be used to alter the new state or to manipulate syntax elements.

OnStateChange(oldState, newState, token, kwGroupID)

  Hook Event: Highlighting parser state change
  Parameters: oldState:  old state
              newState:  intended new state
              token:     the current token which triggered
	                 the new state
              kwGroupID: if newState is HL_KEYWORD, the parameter
                         contains the keyword group ID
  Returns:    Correct state to continue

Examples:

01 function OnStateChange(oldState, newState, token, kwgroup)
02    if newState==HL_KEYWORD and kwgroup==5 then
03       AddKeyword(token, 5)
04    end
05    return newState
06 end

This function adds the current token to the internal keyword list if the keyword belongs to keyword group 5. If keyword group 5 is defined by a regex, this token will be recognized later as keyword even if the regular regex does not match.

01 function OnStateChange(oldState, newState, token)
02    if token=="]]" and oldState==HL_STRING and newState==HL_BLOCK_COMMENT_END then
03       return HL_STRING_END
04    end
05    return newState
06 end

This function resolves a Lua parsing issue with the "]]" close delimiter which ends both comments and strings.

Function AddKeyword

This function will add a keyword to one of the the internal keyword lists. It has no effect if the keyword was added before. Keywords added with AddKeyword will remain active for all files of the same syntax if highlight is in batch mode.

AddKeyword(keyword, kwGroupID)

  Parameters: keyword:   string which should be added to a keyword list
              kwGroupID: keyword group ID of the keyword
  Returns:    true if successfull

Function Decorate

This function is a hook which is called if a syntax token has been identified. It can be used to alter the token or to add additional text in the target output format (e.g. hyperlinks). Important: The return value of Decorate will be embedded in the formatting tags of the output format. The return value is not modified or validated by highlight.

Decorate(token, state, kwGroupID)

  Hook Event: Token identification
  Parameters: token:     the current token
	      state:     the current state
              kwGroupID: if state is HL_KEYWORD, the parameter
                         contains the keyword group ID
  Returns:    Altered token string or nothing if original token should be
              outputted
Examples:
01 function Decorate(token, state)
02   if (state == HL_KEYWORD) then
03     return  string.upper(token)
04   end
05 end

This function converts all keywords to upper case.

01 knowntags={}
02 file = assert(io.open(HL_INPUT_FILE, "r"))
03 -- read file and fill knowntags
04 
05 function Decorate(token, state, kwclass)
06   for k,v in pairs(knowntags) do
07     if k==token  then
08       return '<span title="'..v..'">'..token .. '</span>'
09     end
10   end
11 end

This function adds tooltips to keywords which were found in a given tags file.

Theme chunk elements

The following list includes all items you may overwrite or extend to adjust the formatting (colour and font attributes) of the output:

Default: table
Canvas: table
Number: table
Escape: table
String: table
StringPreProc: table
BlockComment: table
PreProcessor: table
LineNum: table
Operator: table
LineComment: table
Keywords: table
Injections: table

Read only:

HL_OUTPUT: number
HL_FORMAT_HTML: number
HL_FORMAT_XHTML: number
HL_FORMAT_TEX: number
HL_FORMAT_LATEX: number
HL_FORMAT_RTF: number
HL_FORMAT_ANSI: number
HL_FORMAT_XTERM256: number
HL_FORMAT_SVG: number
HL_FORMAT_BBCODE: number

Example

01 -- function to update language definition with syslog levels
02 function syntaxUpdate(desc)
03   if desc=="C and C++" then
04     table.insert( Keywords,
05                   { Id=5, List={"LOG_EMERG", "LOG_CRIT", "LOG_ALERT",
06                     "LOG_ERR", "LOG_WARNING","LOG_NOTICE","LOG_INFO",
07                     "LOG_DEBUG"}
08                   } )
09   end
10 end
11 
12 -- function to update theme definition
13 function themeUpdate(desc)
14   if desc=="Kwrite Editor" then
15     Canvas={ Colour="#E0EAEE" }
16   end
17   table.insert(Keywords, {Colour= "#ff0000", Bold=true})
18 end
19 
20 Plugins={
21   { Type="theme", Chunk=themeUpdate },
22   { Type="lang", Chunk=syntaxUpdate },
23 }
01 Description="Add wxwidgets.org reference links to HTML, LaTeX or RTF output of C++ code"
02 
03 function syntaxUpdate(desc)
04 
05   if desc~="C and C++" then
06      return
07   end
08 
09   function getURL(token)
10      urltoken, cnt = string.gsub(token, "%u", "_%1")
11      url='http://docs.wxwidgets.org/2.9.3/class'..string.lower(urltoken).. '.html'
12 
13      if (HL_OUTPUT== HL_FORMAT_HTML or HL_OUTPUT == HL_FORMAT_XHTML) then
14         return '<a class="hl" target="new" href="' .. url .. '">'.. token .. '</a>'
15      elseif (HL_OUTPUT == HL_FORMAT_LATEX) then
16         return '\\href{'..url..'}{'..token..'}'
17       elseif (HL_OUTPUT == HL_FORMAT_RTF) then
18         return '{{\\field{\\*\\fldinst HYPERLINK "'..url..'" }\\fldrslt \\ul\\ulc0 '..token..'}}'
19      end
20    end
21 
22   function Decorate(token, state)
23     if (state ~= HL_STANDARD and state ~= HL_KEYWORD ) then
24       return
25     end
26     if string.find(token, "wx%u")==1 then
27       return  getURL(token)
28     end
29   end
30 end
31 
32 function themeUpdate(desc)
33   if (HL_OUTPUT == HL_FORMAT_HTML or HL_OUTPUT == HL_FORMAT_XHTML) then
34     Injections[#Injections+1]="a.hl, a.hl:visited {color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;}"
35   elseif (HL_OUTPUT==HL_FORMAT_LATEX) then
36     Injections[#Injections+1]="\\usepackage[colorlinks=false, pdfborderstyle={/S/U/W 1}]{hyperref}"
37   end
38 end
39 
40 Plugins={
41 
42   { Type="lang", Chunk=syntaxUpdate },
43   { Type="theme", Chunk=themeUpdate },
44 
45 }
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