Re: Are Lua's own lexer/parser suitable for writing a syntax highlighter?

[KHMan <keinhong@...>]

On 9/10/2014 3:21 AM, Steven Degutis wrote:
> Are Lua's llex.h and lparser.h files suitable for me to use to build a
> structure that I can then traverse to do my syntax highlighting in a
> rich text field?
>
> If so, is there any documentation anywhere on using functionality
> within these files for this purpose?
>
> Note: This is for educational reasons, so while I could just use a
> third party library, it defeats the point.

If you just convert the lexer, then you can classify many types of 
tokens and highlight accordingly. The result will be roughly 
equivalent to the kind of output that SciTE or Notepad++ 
(Scintilla-based editors) provides. (For smarter editors this may 
not be enough.)

I have done one using a Lua 5.1 llex more-or-less work-alike, 
heavily modified to use Lua shortcuts rather than C-style coding. 
The text-to-HTML function clocks in at 208 SLOC, plus an 
additional small function to generate some HTML entities.

--
Cheers,
Kein-Hong Man (esq.)
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia