Syntax colouring for RISC OS files

Hiya,

Over the past year or so I’ve released/updated support for syntax colouring RISC OS filetypes in a few open source components.
Largely this is because I use them and having colouring for the files you work with is obviously useful. And because obviously you want colours to brighten up your day.

As I’ve just had the most recent accepted, I thought I’d mention them here…

Sublime Text syntax mode for RISC OS Commands:
– URL: https://packagecontrol.io/packages/RISC%20OS%20Command%20Syntax
– Purpose: Editor syntax colouring
Hightlights many of the common RISC OS commands with colours (intended for Obey, Command, TaskObey, TaskExec files)
– To use: Instructions on the page, but basically just install through Package Control.
– Why: Sublime Text is my editor of choice in the GUI, so editing Obey and similar files with colouring is handy for me.

Nano editor syntax mode for RISC OS filetypes:
– URL: https://github.com/gerph/nanorc-riscos
– Purpose: Editor syntax colouring
Highlights the command files in a similar way to the Sublime Text mode.
ARM source code highlighting in the style used by ObjAsm, and JFPatch.
CMHG header file colouring.
– To use: Reference in your .nanorc with lines like `include “~/.config/nano/arm.nanorc”`
– Why: Outside the GUI, Nano is my editor of choice, so again having colouring is handy.

CodeMirror online editor syntax mode for RISC OS filetypes:
– URL: https://github.com/gerph/CodeMirror/tree/riscos-modes (ie in the `riscos-modes` branch of my fork)
– Purpose: Javascript Syntax colouring mode for the CodeMirror colouring library
For use with the CodeMirror colouring library, to colour code live in webpages.
ARM source code highlighting in the style used by ObjAsm, and JFPatch.
BBC BASIC code colouring.
– To use: See https://codemirror.net/ for details; live examples can be found on jfpatch.riscos.online.
– Why: I needed syntax colouring for the JFPatch editor I was building into JFPatch-as-a-service, quickly, and without too much fuss. And if I had JFPatch support, implicitly I had to support BBC BASIC and ARM assembler, so they were made separate modules – because JFPatch is icky.

Pygments colouring for BBC BASIC files:
– URL: https://pygments.org/languages/
– Purpose: Part of the lexers used by the Pygments python library
Highlights BBC BASIC text.
– To use: Select the lexer `bbcbasic` or use the extension `.bbc`.
– Why: I use pygments as a colouring filter for the `less` command and, combined with a detokeniser, this means that I can view BBC BASIC files with more colours at the command line.

How useful this is to anyone is really down to whether you use these editors or tools, but they are available.

Some of those definitely look useful! :-)

In a similar vein, I’ve got a mostly functional “BBC BASIC Text” syntax colouring mode for Visual Studio Code here. In the event that I’m not the only person in the world who might find that useful, I’d be happy to add investigating how to publish it to my “to do” list.

Sounds promising… :-)

I followed the links… I couldn’t find anything to install – RISC OS? For Linux, etc?

¯\(^>^)/¯

I followed the links… I couldn’t find anything to install – RISC OS? For Linux, etc?

The tools are for the systems on which the packages run:

• SublimeText is an editor for Linux, MacOS, Windows, BSD. Install the syntax mode by following the instructions given on the linked URL, in the sections ‘Installing manually’ or ‘Install with Package Control’.
• Nano is an editor for Linux, MacOS, Windows, BSD (and should be portable to RISC OS more easily than Pico on which it is based). Install the syntax modes by copying the nanorc syntax files into your ~/.config/nanorc folder (or as appropriate for your system) and following the instructions I gave in the announcement.
• CodeMirror is a Javascript library for editors and should be usable in any modern browser. As stated, the http://codemirror.net/ site includes installation instructions for how you can use the additional modes in your JavaScript, and if you go to jfpatch.riscos.online and view the source you will find live examples of how these can be used.
• Pygments is a Python library, installable on many systems through the pip tool (`pip install pygments`). Once installed the BBC BASIC colouring can be triggered by invoking the `bbclexer`, for example `pygmentize -l bbcbasic `.

These are largely useful for people who use non-RISC OS systems for editing RISC OS files, or (in the case of CodeMirror) are creating a cloud systems for editing RISC OS files (which, in reality, probably means just me… but that’s not the point… it’s available for all).

In a similar vein, I’ve got a mostly functional “BBC BASIC Text” syntax colouring mode for Visual Studio Code here. In the event that I’m not the only person in the world who might find that useful, I’d be happy to add investigating how to publish it to my “to do” list.

Cool :-) I don’t use VS Code, but I know people who like it; I’m a novelty in liking Sublime at work. I believe that the Monaco editor system is used by VS Code (from my investigation into how godbolt.org worked, as that’s what I was aspiring towards).

To continue the pattern, Ben Avison (I believe) introduced the BBC BASIC colouring to Rouge about a year ago (and from the look of the PR it was a somewhat tortuous process). Rouge is used by GitLab, and GitHub, and so the ability to colour BBC BASIC files allows syntax colouring in both those widely used systems. Rouge is a ruby library – see a live rendering, and find all the instructions for using it here: http://rouge.jneen.net/. Installation is, I believe, through the `gem` tool, although my knowledge of ruby is so limited that I think we’ve just exhausted it – I only really know enough to tweak bits of GitLab.

Thank you for the clarification. I’m sure that those working cross-platform will find them useful… :-)