From: Benno Schulenberg Date: Sat, 7 Mar 2015 21:30:36 +0000 (+0000) Subject: Adding a note about the inherent imperfection of using regular expressions X-Git-Tag: v2.4.0~21 X-Git-Url: https://git.wh0rd.org/?a=commitdiff_plain;h=32e76c4386cfa69b182c598814a605c73265e282;p=nano.git 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 5ea577c1..baae2834 100644 --- a/ChangeLog +++ b/ChangeLog @@ -1,6 +1,11 @@ +2015-03-07 Benno Schulenberg + * 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 - * 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 @@ -46,7 +51,7 @@ GNU nano 2.3.99pre2 - 2015.02.06 2015-01-13 Chris Allegretta * 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 diff --git a/doc/man/nanorc.5 b/doc/man/nanorc.5 index 98efe6ef..41d0f064 100644 --- 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 cf58e3b6..9ceaace6 100644 --- 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