Adding a note about the inherent imperfection of using regular expressions

for syntax highlighting, as suggested by Mike Frysinger.

git-svn-id: svn://svn.savannah.gnu.org/nano/trunk/nano@5129 35c25a1d-7b9e-4130-9fde-d3aeb78583b8

diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 5ea577c189d201cb53afa8748a39e763f05689ad..baae28349eb26c9803018f4c368ff901c52db2a4 100644 (file)
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,6 +1,11 @@
+2015-03-07  Benno Schulenberg  <bensberg@justemail.net>
+       * doc/man/nanorc.5, doc/texinfo/nano.texi: Add a note about the
+       inherent imperfection of using regular expressions for syntax
+       highlighting, as suggested by Mike Frysinger in bug #30962.
+
 GNU nano 2.3.99pre2 - 2015.02.27
 2015-02-25  Chris Allegretta <chrisa@asty.org>
-       * src/rcfile.c (parse_binding): Add exception for do_toggle as
+       * src/rcfile.c (parse_binding): Add an exception for do_toggle() as
        rebinding toggles broke with r5022.
 
 2015-02-21  Benno Schulenberg  <bensberg@justemail.net>
@@ -46,7 +51,7 @@ GNU nano 2.3.99pre2 - 2015.02.06
 2015-01-13  Chris Allegretta <chrisa@asty.org>
        * src/files.c (open_buffer): Check here for locking and properly
        handle choosing to not open a file when locked instead of in
-       open_file().  Fixes Savannah bug 42373 reported by Benno Schulenberg
+       open_file().  Fixes Savannah bug 42373 reported by Benno Schulenberg.
 
 GNU nano 2.3.99pre1 - 2015.01.06
 2015-01-03  Chris Allegretta <chrisa@asty.org>

diff --git a/doc/man/nanorc.5 b/doc/man/nanorc.5
index 98efe6ef316fe1039f3cd8bb0df300a6d6bc114b..41d0f064485a1cc24cb2a7ebff703edb996441a6 100644 (file)
--- a/doc/man/nanorc.5
+++ b/doc/man/nanorc.5
@@ -250,7 +250,14 @@ characters as parts of words.
 
 .SH SYNTAX HIGHLIGHTING
 Coloring the different syntactic elements of a file
-can be defined via the following commands:
+is done via regular expressions (see the \fBcolor\fR command below).
+This is inherently imperfect, because regular expressions are not
+powerful enough to fully parse a file.  Nevertheless, regular
+expressions can do a lot and are easy to make, so they are a
+good fit for a small editor like \fBnano\fR.
+.sp
+A separate syntax can be defined for each kind of file
+via the following commands:
 .TP
 .BR syntax " ""\fIstr\fR"" [""\fIfileregex\fR"" ...]"
 Defines a syntax named \fIstr\fP which can be activated via the

diff --git a/doc/texinfo/nano.texi b/doc/texinfo/nano.texi
index cf58e3b65a9f9163fcf8219bb178ab01ba0baad6..9ceaace661ea1d8f379de5ba3beb95ca5f0ab891 100644 (file)
--- a/doc/texinfo/nano.texi
+++ b/doc/texinfo/nano.texi
@@ -812,7 +812,14 @@ characters as part of a word.
 @node Syntax Highlighting
 @section Syntax Highlighting
 
-Coloring the different syntactic elements of a file can be defined
+Coloring the different syntactic elements of a file
+is done via regular expressions (see the @code{color} command below).
+This is inherently imperfect, because regular expressions are not
+powerful enough to fully parse a file.  Nevertheless, regular
+expressions can do a lot and are easy to make, so they are a
+good fit for a small editor like @code{nano}.
+
+A separate syntax can be defined for each kind of file
 via the following commands in a nanorc file:
 
 @table @code