Re: Can 'set ' be elided? When?

On 31/03/13 17:24, Dotan Cohen wrote:
> On Sat, Mar 23, 2013 at 12:58 AM, Paul Isambert <zappathustra@free.fr> wrote:
>>> I notice that some settings use the format ':set name=value' and other
>>> use ':name value'. For instance:
>>> :set syntax=php
>>> :syntax off
>>
>> Note that ":syntax php" doesn't work.
>>
>>> Can the string 'set ' always be safely elided?
>>
>> No.
>>
>>> If not, then what are the guidelines?
>>
>> As far as I can tell, there aren't any. Some commands have the same name as
>> options (e.g. :filetype and 'filetype', :confirm and 'confirm'), but they don't
>> do the same things.
>>
>> Best,
>> Paul
>>
>
> I notice that the following doesn't work:
> :syntax php
>
> However the following does work:
> :colorscheme desert
>
> Why is "syntax" an option yet "colorscheme" a command?
>
>
>
> --
> Dotan Cohen
>
> http://gibberish.co.il
> http://what-is-what.com
>

There is both a :syntax command and a 'syntax' option, and they are not
interchangeable: The command can be:

:syntax on
:syntax off
:syntax enable
:syntax list " with optional arguments
:syntax sync fromstart
:syntax sync clear
:syntax sync ccomment
" also other variants
:syntax sync " with no arguments: "tell me"

etc. Most of the variants of this command are for use in syntax scripts,
to define how the particular syntax of a certain filetype must be
highlighted. ":syntax on" can be used in your vimrc to enable syntax
highlighting. ":syntax sync" with no arguments and ":syntax list" are
used from the keyboard, to request information.



The 'syntax' option is something else: it defines which named syntax
applies to a given file. It can be set, usually by ":setlocal"; normally
this is done automatically as part of the FileType event handling. You
can also do it manually, for instance

:setlocal syntax=

to remove all syntax highlighting for one editfile only, until it is
reloaded.



As for the :colorscheme command, ":colorscheme foobar" is approximately
equivalent with (IIUC) ":doautocmd ColorScheme foobar | runtime
colors/foobar.vim" which is also a command. If you want to determine
which colorscheme is in use, you should check the global variable
colors_name which every properly constructed colorscheme will set to its
own filename (without the path and the .vim extension). You can do that
with ":colorscheme" with no argument, which (in a Vim with +eval
compiled-in) does something similar to ":if exists('g:colors_name') |
echo g:colors_name | else | echo 'default' | endif", another command.


Best regards,
Tony.
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