[ANN] SciTE Tcl Lexer

Robert Hicks

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Mar 14, 2006, 8:23:57 PM3/14/06

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Just to let you all know that someone has created a full blown lexer
for Tcl under SciTE. So if you use SciTE make sure you get 1.68 and
bang on it. The author is very interested in making the lexer work well
for Tcl.

Robert

sleb...@gmail.com

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Mar 14, 2006, 9:47:09 PM3/14/06

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I don't see much of an improvement between the new lexer and the old C
based lexer. The only thing I noticed is that C comments /* */ and //
now are no longer highlighted so things like http:// can be written
without turning the rest of the line green. But the new lexer still
doesn't understand the common Tcl end of line commenting using ;#.
Previously I got around that by using ;#// because the C style comment
still works. With the new lexer I can't get the end of line comment to
turn green.

sleb...@gmail.com

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Mar 14, 2006, 9:54:46 PM3/14/06

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It would also be nice if the new lexer can recognise another form of
Tcl commenting: the if {0} hack. Anything between if {0} { and the
closing } should be colorised as comment. The old C based lexer doesn't
support this.

Donald Arseneau

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Mar 15, 2006, 12:00:56 AM3/15/06

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"sleb...@yahoo.com" <sleb...@gmail.com> writes:

> I don't see much of an improvement between the new lexer and the old C
> based lexer.

> doesn't understand the common Tcl end of line commenting using ;#.

It also doesn't handle comments at the beginning of a script arg,

if { $xxx } {# xxx flag to handle
blah bla
}

Like the question about a Tcl compiler/verifier today, the problem
is with Tcl being dynamic. Neither the editor nor the compiler can
be sure of the syntax except by executing the program. One could hold
out hopes for a compiler, but expecting this disambiguation in an editor
is foolish. A non contrived difficult example is

button .foo -bg {#ffeeee} -command {# to-do} -text {Push}

(I mean non-contrived in the mixed use of "#", which has happened
like that; all other details are contrived.)

--
Donald Arseneau as...@triumf.ca

sleb...@gmail.com

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Mar 15, 2006, 6:08:59 AM3/15/06

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Actually in this case I wouldn't mind if #ffeeee gets colorised green.
What annoys me is when writing comments like:

puts "Testing.." ;# Used for debugging..

the word "for" gets colorised as a keyword.. and that looks ugly. Hence
my workaround:

puts "Testing.." ;#// Used for debugging..

I also wouldn't mind if the contents of if {0} { .. } always gets
colored as comment even if it contains code since it is functionally
similar to /* .. */ in C. Parsing these would not be difficult since we
only need to process Tcl's grouping rules. No need to parse the rules
of substitution which is where a lot of the complexity is at.

Robert Hicks

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Mar 15, 2006, 9:11:37 PM3/15/06

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Your comments are all valid. Why is this better? Before the Tcl lexer
rode on the C++ lexer with no hope of getting any better. Now that the
Tcl lexer has been broken out it can be customized and tweaked for Tcl.

I will post some of the things you mention...and the author of the
lexer can fix them.

Robert

Robert Hicks

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Mar 15, 2006, 9:13:56 PM3/15/06

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No, technically that isn't a comment.

Robert

Robert Hicks

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Mar 15, 2006, 9:22:38 PM3/15/06

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I did ask him to try though. :)

Robert

Jeff Hobbs

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Mar 16, 2006, 1:10:00 AM3/16/06

to Robert Hicks

We have a scintilla Tcl lexer in Komodo (which uses scintilla as the
editor component) that we would be willing to open source. I believe it
is quite a bit further along, as we've been using it and refining it for
a while. Please remind me by email to go through the hoops to provide
this (and to whom I should do so).

--
Jeff Hobbs, The Tcl Guy
http://www.ActiveState.com/, Dynamic Tools for Dynamic Languages

ar...@kingston.net

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Mar 17, 2006, 4:14:41 AM3/17/06

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fixed in the next version

ar...@kingston.net

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Mar 17, 2006, 9:03:52 AM3/17/06

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new version supports
{ # comment
[# comment
aaaaa ; #comment \
line comment

Andre

ar...@kingston.net

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Mar 17, 2006, 9:21:41 AM3/17/06

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Was implemented in the original version just turn it off by accident
I know other do not make this kind of mistake.
Andre

sleb...@gmail.com

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Mar 17, 2006, 1:45:53 PM3/17/06

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ar...@kingston.net wrote:
> Was implemented in the original version just turn it off by accident
> I know other do not make this kind of mistake.

Ah, thank you very much. That was a quick response. I take it the
corrections will be in SciTe 1.69?

Robert Hicks

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Mar 17, 2006, 2:57:08 PM3/17/06

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Thanks for doing this Andre!

Robert

ar...@kingston.net

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Mar 18, 2006, 12:54:10 PM3/18/06

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I have uploaded what I hope is the final version. It includes colouring
fro box and block comment.

Andre