I would like to automate some customization for some bundles (as colors), is the format in those .plist files standard (for instance Perl.plist)? If it is and you wanted to search for a parser for some programming language which keyword would you use?
If you are asking whether the 'names' of each color class (e.g. Comments) in the .plist is standard across the bundles, I'd say it would be a miracle if they were, since they were all hacked by individuals who wanted their favorite language colored.
On the other hand, it might be possible for people to agree to use keywords in their names so the XML could be parsed and the color settings could be custom set by a big regexp search and replace.
For the record, BBEdit 8 recognizes the following colors for customization:
General: Foreground, Background Guide Contrast [the color of non-page window] Custom Highlight Color: Primary, Secondary Highlight Insertion Point Line Color Source Code: Keywords, String Constants, Comments HTML Tags: General, Processing Instructions, Anchor, Image, Names, Values
TM bundles generally have more colors than that. But if Bundle writers could agree on a reasonable base set and rename their names, that could go a long way towards making the colors customizable before Allan gets his next solution done.
Allan may have to set standards like this anyway, unless he writes a small GUI Syntax File browser that displays the Names with a little Color Picker patch. That would be fabulous, of course.
- Eric