Syntax highlighting in Vim (Was: Lua impressions from a scheme/f# programmer

[Dirk Laurie <dpl@...>]

On Tue, Jul 19, 2011 at 03:07:57AM +0200, Steve Litt wrote:
> 
> 7) Use Python's space delimited blocks instead of end. I like the way 
> Python does it. But seeing as nobody else does, I'll shut up. Vim has 
> excellent syntax highlighting, making this a trivial point.
> 

The most useful thing about Vim's Lua syntax highlighting is that `end`
is a different color (same as `function`) at the end of a function than
elsewhere.  This makes it much easier to track where the many `end`s
come from.  But an already excellent implementation could be even better
if `do` ... `end also differed from `if` ... `end`.

I'm using a hack: in ~/.vim/syntax/lua.vim (which, if present, is
preferred to the system-wide one), I've changed this line:

>  HiLink luaCond        Structure   " was: Conditional

(The "Structure" class has a color of its own, used only to highlight
`{` and `}`.)

This makes the three kinds of `end` all different, but `then` and
`else` also get highlighted differently, whereas only `if` IMHO needs 
to be: it's the `if` that gets paired with the `end`. But  short of 
learning how to write syntax files, as opposed to patching them from 
a position of ignorance, I can't see how.

Dirk