Re: syntax files: how to prevent embedded syntax from leaking out of a region?

On Wednesday, October 4, 2023 at 8:02:42 PM UTC-5 M wrote:

> a consequence of having many poorly written syntax files. Main distribution included

Your idea of a different override for syntax-include is the practical solution. As you pointed out, syntax-include is dependent on the authors of all the syntax files in the distribution to beware of what happens when their syntax is syntax-included. It's the moral equivalent of cooperative multitasking or running a processor in real mode -- you have to trust every other syntax not to step on yours. A region needs some way to absolutely stop an included syntax from highlighting past the region.

My project is a free syntax file for Noweb source files.* A single Noweb source file can contain all the objects in multiple languages that make up a package. Those objects can be represented in the Noweb source file as fragments, to be pieced together by Noweb. For example, an inner syntax region can easily contain the open-brace for a block but not the close-brace.

An included syntax file will seize on that open-brace and highlight forward until it finds a matching close-brace. But it actually needs to stop at the end of the region that contains the code fragment. Because the close-brace it finds is likely to be in a different inner syntax region, maybe even one written in a different language!

As a plan "B", I hate to have to reinvent stock syntaxes, and I would probably do a poor job. This is my first major foray into Vim syntax highlighting. I might eventually take a stab at it, for languages I use where I have run into the problem. Plan "C" is to just document the problem, and give advice if I can for writing code fragments that sidestep the problem. Or plan "D", I could disable recognition of certain languages, which is what I do now, but I had been thinking of that as a stopgap measure during development, not a solution.

* https://metaed.com/papers/vim-noweb/

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