How can I create a custom Eclipse Syntax Highlighter

Solution 1:

Sounds like you are dealing with a DSL (Domain Specific Language). What you are looking for sounds exactly like XText. Here's an extract from the page:

Xtext is a framework/tool for development of external textual DSLs. Just describe your very own DSL using Xtext's simple EBNF grammar language and the generator will create a parser, an AST-meta model (implemented in EMF) as well as a full-featured Eclipse Text Editor from that.

Also, check out this video which is an interview with one of the people behind it. I'm sure you'll take it from here :-)

You may also want to check out this plugin. Not exactly what you are looking for, but could be a nice start.

Solution 2:

The Eclipse framework uses a fairly complex document model to do syntax coloring (they call it coloring, not highlighting), it is not as simple as it is in other editors.

If you really want to try and mess with it, you may want to read the following from the Eclipse plug-in developer guide.

(The above link is now dead. This may be a similar document or this.)

Solution 3:

This is exactly one of the targets of LiClipse (http://www.liclipse.com/): easily doing an editor with syntax highlighting, basic code-completion, outline, etc targeting Eclipse -- note that its core (which allows creating custom languages) became open source recently: http://liclipse.blogspot.com.br/2016/05/liclipse-303-providing-back-to-open.html.

No java skills are required to add a new language (mostly creating a new .liclipse -- which is a YAML -- file in the proper place and creating some basic rules to say how to partition your language -- i.e.: usually just separating code from comments from strings -- and specifying the keywords you have in the partition would already give you proper syntax highlighting).

If you download it, there are a number of examples at plugins\com.brainwy.liclipse.editor\languages and there's some basic documentation at http://www.liclipse.com/text/supported_languages.html and http://www.liclipse.com/text/scope_definition.html on how to do it.

Solution 4:

I just tried out Eclipse Colorer and it is really nice (e.g. for highlighting, working with VBA files (in a restricted context of course) that otherwise are not supported).

it supports e.g.

folding (as you can see)
it supports bracket matching (open/close)
200+ file extensions (see below)

editor of some *.cls and *.bas file

preferences - file types

more screenshots on their site

here is a complete list of supported extensions:

(It's hard to get those infos because they are not indexed or posted somewhere in the web, but should now also be found by Google and co.
I removed all lines with this regex ^\s+<(?!(!--|prototype|filename)).+>$ to condense the contents of the complete and a copy of eclipse\plugins\net.sf.colorer_0.9.9\colorer\hrc\proto.hrc file.
Feel free to update on updates)

  <!--  main languages  -->
  <prototype name="c" group="main" description="C">

    <filename>/\.c$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="cpp" group="main" description="C++">

    <filename>/\.(cpp|cxx|cc|hpp|h)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="d" group="main" description="D">

    <filename>/\.(d|di)$/i</filename>


  <prototype name="asm" group="main" description="ASM">

    <filename>/\.(mac|asm|inc|i32|cod)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="perl" group="main" description="Perl">

    <filename>/\.(pl[sx]?|pm|pod|t)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="java" group="main" description="Java">

    <filename>/\.(java|jav|jad)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="idl" group="main" description="IDL">

    <filename>/\.(hvs|(i|o)dl)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="pascal" group="main" description="Pascal">

    <filename>/\.(\~?pas|dpr|dpk|inc|int|pp)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="csharp" group="main" description="C#">

    <filename>/\.cs$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="jsnet" group="main" description="JS.NET">

    <filename weight="0.5">/\.js$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="vbnet" group="main" description="VB.NET">

    <filename>/\.vb$/i</filename>

  <!-- warning!! extensions conflict with Fortran -->
  <prototype name="forth" group="main" description="Forth">

    <filename>/\.(fth|f32|f|spf)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="fortran" group="main" description="Fortran">

    <filename>/\.(for|f(90)?)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="vbasic" group="main" description="Visual Basic">

    <filename>/\.(bas|vbp|frm|cls)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="python" group="main" description="Python">

    <filename>/\.(py|pyw|pys)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="lua" group="main" description="Lua">

    <filename>/\.(lua)$/i</filename>
  </prototype>  
  <prototype name="ruby" group="main" description="Ruby">

    <filename>/\.(rb|rbw|ruby|rake)$/i</filename>
    <filename>/Rakefile$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="scala" group="main" description="Scala">

    <filename>/\.(scala)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="tcltk" group="main" description="Tcl/Tk/Expect">

    <filename>/\.(tcl|tk|exp)$/i</filename>


  <!--  inet languages  -->

  <prototype name="html" group="inet" description="html">

    <filename>/\.[^ptr]??html?$/i</filename>


  <prototype name="css" group="inet" description="css">

    <filename>/\.(css)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="html-css" group="inet" description="css for html">

    <filename weight="0">/\.(css)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="svg-css" group="inet" description="css for svg">

    <filename weight="0">/\.(css)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="sass" group="inet" description="SASS">

    <filename>/\.(sass)$/i</filename>


  <prototype name="haml" group="inet" description="HAML">

    <filename>/\.(haml)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="erb" group="inet" description="ERB">

    <filename weight='4'>/\.(erb|rhtml|html\.erb)$/i</filename>


  <prototype name="jsp" group="inet" description="jsp">

    <filename>/\.(jspf?|tag)$/i</filename>


  <prototype name="php" group="inet" description="php">

    <filename>/\.(php\d?|phtml|thtml|inc)$/i</filename>


  <prototype name="xhtml-trans" group="inet" description="xhtml transitional" targetNamespace="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

    <filename>/\.html?/ix</filename>
    <filename>/\.xhtml?/ix</filename>

  <prototype name="xhtml-strict" group="inet" description="xhtml strict" targetNamespace="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

    <filename>/\.html?/ix</filename>
    <filename>/\.xhtml?/ix</filename>

  <prototype name="xhtml-frameset" group="inet" description="xhtml frameset" targetNamespace="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

    <filename>/\.html?/ix</filename>
    <filename>/\.xhtml?/ix</filename>

  <prototype name="asp.vb" group="inet" description="asp - VBScript">

    <filename>/\.(as(p|a)|ht(r|x|a)|inc)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="asp.js" group="inet" description="asp - JavaScript">

    <filename>/\.(as(p|a)|ht(r|x|a)|inc)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="asp.ps" group="inet" description="asp - PerlScript">

    <filename>/\.(as(p|a)|ht(r|x|a)|inc)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="adp" group="inet" description="AOLserver Dynamic Pages">

    <filename>/\.(adp)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="svg" group="inet" description="SVG 1.0" targetNamespace="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">

    <filename>/\.svg/ix</filename>

  <prototype name="coldfusion" group="inet" description="ColdFusion">

    <filename>/\.(cfm|cfc)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="jScript" group="inet" description="JavaScript">

    <filename>/\.(js|mocha)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="actionscript" group="inet" description="ActionScript">

    <filename>/\.(as)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="vbScript" group="inet" description="VBScript">

    <filename>/\.(vbs)$/i</filename>


  <prototype name="rss" group="inet" description="rss" targetNamespace="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/">

    <filename>/\.(rss)$/i</filename>
    <filename weight='1.5'>/^rss/i</filename>

  <prototype name="htc" group="inet" description="HTC">

    <filename weight='3'>/\.(htc)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="xbl" group="inet" description="Mozilla XBL" targetNamespace="http://www.mozilla.org/xbl">

    <filename weight='0.5'>/\.(xml)/i</filename>

  <prototype name="wml" group="inet" description="wml" targetNamespace="http://www.wapforum.org/2001/wml">

    <filename>/\.wml$/i</filename>



  <!--  xml types  -->
  <prototype name="xml" group="xml" description="xml">

    <filename>/\.(xml|gi2|gpr|ui)$/i</filename>
    <filename>/\.(wxs|fb2)$/i</filename>



  <prototype name="dtd" group="xml" description="dtd">

    <filename>/\.(dtd|ent|mod)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="dtdcatalog" group="xml" description="dtd/sgml catalog">

    <filename>/\.(cat|soc)$/i</filename>


  <prototype name="xslt" group="xml" description="xslt 1.0" targetNamespace="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">

    <filename>/\.(xslt?)$/i</filename>


  <prototype name="xslt2" group="xml" description="xslt 2.0" targetNamespace="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">

    <filename>/\.(xslt?2?)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="xquery" group="xml" description="xquery 1.0">

    <filename>/\.(xq)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="xslfo" group="xml" description="xslfo 1.0" targetNamespace="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">

    <filename>/\.(xslfo?|fo)$/i</filename>


  <prototype name="xmlschema" group="xml" description="XML Schema" targetNamespace="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">

    <filename>/\.(xsd?)$/i</filename>


  <prototype name="relaxng" group="xml" description="Relax NG" targetNamespace="http://relaxng.org/ns/structure/1.0">

    <filename>/\.rng/ix</filename>

  <prototype name="schematron" group="xml" description="schematron" targetNamespace="http://www.ascc.net/xml/schematron">

    <filename>/\.sch$/ix</filename>

  <prototype name="wsdl" group="xml" description="wsdl 1.1" targetNamespace="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/">

    <filename>/\.wsdl$/ix</filename>

  <prototype name="rdf" group="xml" description="RDF" targetNamespace="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#">

    <filename>/\.rdf$/ix</filename>



  <prototype name="xmlcatalog" group="xml" description="XML Catalog" targetNamespace="urn:oasis:names:tc:entity:xmlns:xml:catalog">

    <filename>/\.xml$/ix</filename>

  </prototype>  
  <prototype name="docbook" group="xml" description="DocBook 4.2">

    <filename>/\.(dbk?|docbook)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="mathml" group="xml" description="MathML2">

    <filename>/\.(math?|mml)$/i</filename>



  <!--  database languages  -->
  <prototype name="clarion" group="database" description="Clarion">

    <filename>/\.(cla|clw)$/i</filename>

  <!-- warning!! extensions conflict with Clipper -->
  <prototype name="Clipper" group="database" description="Clipper">

    <filename>/\.(ch|prg)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="foxpro" group="database" description="FoxPro">

    <filename>/\.(prg|spr|mpr)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="sqlj" group="database" description="SQLJ (Java sql)">

    <filename>/\.sqlj$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="paradox" group="database" description="Paradox">

    <filename>/\.sc$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="sql" group="database" description="SQL, PL/SQL">

    <filename>/\.sql$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="mysql" group="database" description="MySQL">

   <filename>/\.sql$/i</filename>


  <prototype name="Batch" group="scripts" description="Batch/Config.sys/NTcmd">

    <filename>/\.(Cmd|Bat|nt|btm|sys)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="apache" group="scripts" description="Apache httpd.conf">

    <filename>/(httpd\.conf|srm\.conf|access\.conf|\.htaccess|apache\.conf)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="shell" group="scripts" description="sh/ksh/bash script">

    <filename>/\.(sh|spec)$|^\./i</filename>
    <filename>/^PKGBUILD$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="avisynth" group="scripts" description="AviSynth">

    <filename>/\.(avs|avsi)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="config" group="scripts" description="Config, INI and CTL">

    <filename>/\.(ctl|tpl|ini|cfg|inf|srg|conf|types|tab|dof|dsk|lng)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="awk" group="scripts" description="AWK">

    <filename weight='5'>/\.awk$/i</filename>


  <prototype name="makefile" group="scripts" description="makefile">

    <filename>/(makefile | tools\.ini) | \.(mak|gmk|ds(p|w)|bp(k|r|g)$)/ix</filename>
    <filename weight='3'>/(android|application)\.mk/i</filename>

  <prototype name="qmake" group="scripts" description="Qt qmake">

    <filename>/\.pr[oif]$/i</filename>


  <prototype name="mkb" group="scripts" description="Project build file for Airplay SDK">
    <filename>/\.(mkb|mkf)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="ant" group="scripts" description="Ant's build.xml" targetNamespace="http://jakarta.apache.org/ant/">

    <filename weight='4'>/\bbuild\.xml$/ix</filename>


  <prototype name="acapella" group="scripts" description="Acapella">

    <filename>/\.(script|proc|param|parameter)$/i</filename>


  <prototype name="qrc" group="scripts" description="qrc">

    <filename>/\.qrc$/ix</filename>


 <prototype name="m4" group="scripts" description="M4">

    <filename>/\.m4$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="linkdef" group="scripts" description="Link Defines">

    <filename weight='3'>/\.def$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="resources" group="scripts" description="Resources">

    <filename>/\.(rc|dlg)$/i</filename>


  <prototype name="javacc" group="scripts" description="Java Compiler Compiler">

    <filename>/\.(jjt?)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="javaProperties" group="scripts" description="Java properties">

    <filename>/\.pro(p(erties)?)?$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="javapolicy" group="scripts" description="Java policy">

    <filename>/\.policy$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="asn1" group="scripts" description="ASN.1/ECN">

    <filename>/\.(asn|asn1|ecn|edm|elm|mib)$/i</filename>
    <filename>/-mib$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="lex" group="scripts" description="Lex">

    <filename>/\.(l|f?lex)+$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="yacc" group="scripts" description="YACC">

    <filename>/\.y+$/i</filename>



  <prototype name="delphiform" group="scripts" description="Delphi form">

    <filename>/\.dfm$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="pnuts" group="scripts" description="Java: Pnuts">

    <filename>/\.(pnut)$/i</filename>


    <prototype name="scons" group="scripts" description="SCons">

    <filename>/(SConstruct|SConscript)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="rtf" group="scripts" description="RTF text">

    <filename>/\.rtf$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="TeX" group="scripts" description="TeX">

    <filename>/\.(tex|cls|sty|ltx|ltr|dtx)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="graphviz" group="scripts" description="GraphViz dot">

    <filename>/\.dot+$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="dcl" group="scripts" description="OpenVMS DCL">

    <filename>/\.com$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="vrml" group="scripts" description="VRML">

    <filename>/\.wrl$/i</filename>


  <prototype name="wsc" group="scripts" description="wsc" targetNamespace="uri:wsc">
    <!-- NOTE! 'targetNamespace' is fictive, used only for xsd2hrc -->

    <filename>/\.wsc$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="wsf" group="scripts" description="wsf">

    <filename>/\.wsf$/i</filename>



  <prototype name="rarscript" group="scripts.install" description="RAR Install Script">

    <filename>/\.s$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="nsi" group="scripts.install" description="Nullsoft Install Script">

    <filename>/\.ns(i|h)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="iss" group="scripts.install" description="InnoSetup script">

    <filename>/\.iss$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="isScripts" group="scripts.install" description="IS script">

    <filename>/\.rul$/i</filename>


  <!--  rare languages  -->

  <prototype name="c1c" group="rare" description="1C">

    <filename>/\.1c$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="ada" group="rare" description="Ada">

    <filename>/\.(ads|adb|adc)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="abap4" group="rare" description="ABAP/4">

    <filename>/\.(abap4|abap)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="AutoIt" group="rare" description="AutoIt 2.x">

    <filename>/\.aut$/i</filename>


  <!--  !! you may wish to swap next two types
  because of collision with extensions  -->
  <prototype name="dssp" group="rare" description="Dssp">

    <filename>/\.dsp$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="adsp" group="rare" description="ADSP-21xx Asm">

    <filename>/\.(dsp|sys)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="Baan" group="rare" description="Baan">

    <filename>/\.cln$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="cobol" group="rare" description="Cobol Fixed format">

    <filename>/\.(cob|cbl)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="cobolfr" group="rare" description="Cobol Free format">

    <filename>/\.(cob|cbl)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="cache" group="rare" description="Cache/Open-M">

    <filename>/\.(rsa|ro|rtn|inc|int|mac|cdl)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="cup" group="rare" description="CUP">

    <filename>/\.(cup)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="eiffel" group="rare" description="Eiffel">

    <filename>/\.e$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="erlang" group="rare" description="Erlang">

    <filename>/\.[eh]rl$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="icon" group="rare" description="Icon">

    <filename>/\.icn$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="lisp" group="rare" description="Lisp">

    <filename>/\.(lsp|lisp|scm|elc|el)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="mako" group="rare" description="Mako templates">

    <!-- extension conflicts with Makefile, hence weight is less than 2 -->
    <filename weight="1.5">/\.(mako|mak)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="matlab" group="rare" description="MatLab">

    <filename>/\.m$/i</filename>

  <!-- warning!! extensions conflict with link defines -->
  <prototype name="modula2" group="rare" description="Modula2 and Oberon2">

    <filename>/\.(mod|ob2|odf|def)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="nesc" group="rare" description="nesC">

    <filename>/\.nc$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="picasm" group="rare" description="PicAsm">

    <filename>/\.(asm|pic)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="pl1" group="rare" description="PL1">

    <filename>/\.(pl1|pli)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="rexx" group="rare" description="Rexx">

    <filename>/\.(rex|cmd)$/i</filename>

 <prototype name="jcl" group="rare" description="JCL">

    <filename>/\.(jcl)$/i</filename>


  <prototype name="sml" group="rare" description="Standard ML">

    <filename>/\.(sml|sig)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="ocaml" group="rare" description="OCaml">

    <filename>/\.ml[ilpy]?$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="sicstusProlog" group="rare" description="Sicstus Prolog">

    <filename>/\.pl$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="stata" group="rare" description="STATA">

    <filename>/\.a?do$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="turboProlog" group="rare" description="Turbo Prolog">

    <filename>/\.tpl$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="verilog" group="rare" description="Verilog HDL">

    <filename weight='3'>/\.g?v$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="vhdl" group="rare" description="VHDL">

    <filename>/\.vhdl?$/i</filename>

 <prototype name="ahdl" group="rare" description="AHDL">

   <filename>/\.(tdf|tdo|ahdl)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="z80" group="rare" description="z80asm">

    <filename>/\.za$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="asm80" group="rare" description="asm80">

    <filename>/\.a80$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="a51" group="rare" description="8051 asm">

    <filename>/\.a5(1|2)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="avr" group="rare" description="AVR asm">

    <filename>/\.(asm|inc|avr)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="mason" group="rare" description="mason">

    <filename>/\.(mc)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="postscript" group="rare" description="PostScript">

    <filename>/\.((e)?ps|pfa|gsf)$/i</filename>

  <!-- flex extension conflicts -->
  <prototype name="flex" group="rare" description="FlexScript">

    <filename>/\.(src|inc|inf)$/i</filename>



  <!--  other types  -->

  <prototype name="ass" group="other" description="(Advanced) SubStation Alpha script">

    <filename>/\.(ssa|ass)$/</filename>

  <prototype name="cue" group="other" description="Cue sheet">

    <filename>/\.cue$/</filename>

  <prototype name="filesbbs" group="other" description="files.bbs">

    <filename>/(files\.bbs|descript\.ion|file_id.diz)/i</filename>

  <prototype name="diff" group="other" description="Diff/Patch">

    <filename>/\.(diff.*|patch|rej(ect)?)$/i</filename>

  <prototype name="text" group="other" description="plain text">

    <filename>/(read\.?me|\.txt$|\.rus|\.nfo|\.log|install*|*ChangeLog*|AUTHORS|COPYING|FAQ|LICENSE|TODO$)/i</filename>
    <filename>/\.spo/ix</filename>


  <prototype name="default" group="other" description="default type">
    <filename weight='1'>//</filename>

How can I create a custom Eclipse Syntax Highlighter

Solution 1:

Solution 2:

Solution 3:

Solution 4:

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