On 11. Oct 2004, at 8:36, Rob Bevan wrote:

[...] I'd much prefer it if TextMate adopted the Xcode way of doing this: the syntax file defines the language (primitives, built-in classes, built-in methods, user functions, preprocessor directives, Numbers and operators: whatever) and the user gets to pick how they want those displayed [...]

Yes, as I thought I made clear on the ML, there will be separate style sheets in a later version.

Though I don't think it is as simple as Xcode and just a few "global" names, since TM has a rather free style to define syntax highlight, like in the HTML syntax file where a stand-alone & gets a red background, or the way that HTML uses color for markup when on its own, but grey-tones when there is embedded scripting (and colors are than reserved for scripts) -- plus when embedding stuff, the names would clash (i.e. a string in HTML, and the embedded JavaScript, Ruby, PHP or whatever, would be identical).

But the system I have in mind is similar to normal CSS, so it should allow both catch-all rules and pin-pointing individual elements (and put no restrain on which elements a syntax file can define).

Also, if I didn't mention this earlier, with the breakup of syntax and style, the former will also be used to enable/disable stuff like spell checking, foldings, smart-typing etc. for comments, strings, tags in HTML, etc., mark filenames so that they can be "followed" in the editor (#include, require(), <a href="...">, etc.), mark function prototypes or sections so that they can appear in the highly requested function popup a.s.o. -- and full recursion will also be supported (which may also then make it possible to do a (clickable) bread crumb display of context in the status bar).

I will also re-visit the folding marker-system -- so this is really a major overhaul of the current system!

I'll probably dedicate a portion of the wiki to collect requests for this system when the time is right -- currently I have a lot of other things that needs to be "fixed" with TextMate before I can spend resources on this new syntax system.

Kind regards Allan