# Syntax Highlighting

Syntax highlighting engine for Kate syntax definitions

## Table of contents

1. [Introduction](#introduction)
2. [Syntax Definition Files](#syntax-definition-files)
3. [Out of scope](#out-of-scope)
4. [Build it](#build-it)
5. [How to contribute](#how-to-contribute)
6. [Adding unit tests for a syntax definition](#adding-unit-tests-for-a-syntax-definition)
7. [Report bug or help to fix them](#report-bug-or-help-to-fix-them)

## Introduction

This is a stand-alone implementation of the Kate syntax highlighting engine.
It's meant as a building block for text editors as well as for simple highlighted
text rendering (e.g. as HTML), supporting both integration with a custom editor
as well as a ready-to-use QSyntaxHighlighter sub-class.

## Syntax Definition Files

This library uses Kate syntax definition files for the actual highlighting,
the file format is documented [here](https://docs.kde.org/stable5/en/applications/katepart/highlight.html).

More than 300 syntax definition files are included, that are located
in **data/syntax/** and have the **.xml** extension. Additional ones are
picked up from the file system if present, so you can easily extend this
by application-specific syntax definitions for example.

To install or test a syntax definiton file locally, place it in
**org.kde.syntax-highlighting/syntax/**, which is located in your user directory.
Usually it is:

<table>
    <tr>
        <td>For local user</td>
        <td>$HOME/.local/share/org.kde.syntax-highlighting/syntax/</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>For <a href="https://flathub.org/apps/details/org.kde.kate">Kate's Flatpak package</a></td>
        <td>$HOME/.var/app/org.kde.kate/data/org.kde.syntax-highlighting/syntax/</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>For <a href="https://snapcraft.io/kate">Kate's Snap package</a></td>
        <td>$HOME/snap/kate/current/.local/share/org.kde.syntax-highlighting/syntax/</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>On Windows®</td>
        <td>%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\org.kde.syntax-highlighting\syntax\ </td>
    </tr>
</table>

For more details, see ["The Highlight Definition XML Format" (Working with Syntax Highlighting, KDE Documentation)](https://docs.kde.org/trunk5/en/applications/katepart/highlight.html#katehighlight-xml-format).

Also, in **data/schema/** there is a script to validate the syntax definiton XML
files. Use the command `validatehl.sh mySyntax.xml`.

## Out of scope

To not turn this into yet another text editor, the following things are considered
out of scope:

* code folding, beyond providing folding range information
* auto completion
* spell checking
* user interface for configuration
* management of text buffers or documents

If you need any of this, check out [KTextEditor](https://api.kde.org/frameworks/ktexteditor/html/).

## Build it

1. Create and change into a build directory. Usually, a folder called **build**
   is created inside the **syntax-highlighting** source directory.

   ```bash
   mkdir <build-directory>
   cd <build-directory>
   ```

2. Run the configure process with *cmake* and compile:

   ```bash
   cmake <source-directory>
   make
   ```

   For more details see ["Building Kate from Sources on Linux" (Kate Editor Website)](https://kate-editor.org/build-it/).

   **NOTE:** If running *cmake* shows an error related to your version of KDE
   Frameworks, you edit the **CMakeLists.txt** file in the line
   `find_package(ECM 5.XX.X ...)`.

3. To run tests:

   ```bash
   make test
   ```

   The tests are located in the **autotests** directory.
   This command can be used to check changes to units test after modifying some
   syntax definition file. To add a unit test or update the references, see the
   section ["Adding unit tests for a syntax definition"](#adding-unit-tests-for-a-syntax-definition).

## How to contribute

KDE uses a GitLab instance at **invent.kde.org** for code review. The official
repository of the KSyntaxHighlighting framework is [here](https://invent.kde.org/frameworks/syntax-highlighting).

All the necessary information to send contributions is [here](https://community.kde.org/Infrastructure/GitLab).

### What you should know before working with syntax definition files and sending a patch

* If you are modifying an existing syntax definition XML file, you must increase
  the version number of the language.

* The KSyntaxHighlighting framework is under [MIT license](https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/License:Expat).
  Ideally, use MIT license for your contributions, including new XML files.

* Do not use hard colors, as they may not look good or be illegible in some color
  themes. Prefer to use the default color styles.

  For more information, see:
    * [Available Default Styles (Working with Syntax Highlighting, KDE Documentation)](https://docs.kde.org/trunk5/en/applications/katepart/highlight.html#kate-highlight-default-styles)
    * [Kate Part (KF5): New Default Styles for better Color Schemes (Kate Editor Website)](https://kate-editor.org/2014/03/07/kate-part-kf5-new-default-styles-for-better-color-schemes/)

* Important: add test files, these are found in **autotests/input/**.
  If you are going to add a new syntax XML file, create a new test file; if you
  are going to modify a XML file, adds examples to existing test files.

  Then, it is necessary to generate and update the files in **autotests/folding/**,
  **autotests/html/** and **autotests/reference/**, which must be included in the
  patches. The instructions are in the [next section](#adding-unit-tests-for-a-syntax-definition).

## Adding unit tests for a syntax definition

1. Add an input file into the **autotests/input/** folder, lets call it
   **test.&lt;language-extension&gt;**.

2. If the file extension is not sufficient to trigger the right syntax definition, you can add an
   second file **testname.&lt;language-extension&gt;.syntax** that contains the syntax definition name
   to enforce the use of the right extension.

3. Do `make && make test`.

   Note that after adding or modifying something in
   **&lt;source-directory&gt;/autotests/input/**, an error will be showed when
   running `make test`, because the references in the source directory do not
   match the ones now generated.

4. Inspect the outputs found in your binary directory **autotests/folding.out/**,
   **autotests/html.output/** and **autotests/output/**.

5. If OK, run in the binary folder `./autotests/update-reference-data.sh`
   to copy the results to the right location.
   That script updates the references in the source directory in
   **autotest/folding/**, **autotest/html/** and **autotest/reference/**.

6. Add the result references after the copying to the git.

## Report bug or help to fix them

KDE uses Bugzilla to management of bugs at **bugs.kde.org**. You can see the bugs
reported of **frameworks-syntax-highlighting** [here](https://bugs.kde.org/describecomponents.cgi?product=frameworks-syntax-highlighting).

Also, you can report a bug [here](https://bugs.kde.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=frameworks-syntax-highlighting).

However, some users often report bugs related to syntax highlighting in
[kate/syntax](https://bugs.kde.org/buglist.cgi?component=syntax&product=kate&resolution=---)
and [kile/editor](https://bugs.kde.org/buglist.cgi?component=editor&product=kile&resolution=---).
