Syntax highlighting is a Code Editor's key feature which improves code readability by color-coding elements like keywords, strings, and comments.
Syntax highlighting is a fundamental feature of any robust syntax editor. It categorizes code elements like keywords, strings, comments, and numbers, applying distinct colors to improve readability, reduce errors, and improve productivity.
Syntax highlighting is powered by syntax parsers that analyze the user’s code, transforming it into a visually enhanced representation.
Code Editor supports syntax highlighting for a vast array of programming languages, including C#, Python, JavaScript, C++, and many more. Beyond basic highlighting, these parsers enable intelligent features like code completion and error checking, elevating user’s coding experience.
The regular expression-based Generic parser includes 30+ ready-to-use syntax highlighting schemes for the most commonly used programming languages. SyntaxBuilder tool is included for creating custom schemes to tailor syntax highlighting to your specific needs.
TextMate parser uses the same engine for syntax highlighting as Visual Studio Code does; it provides syntax highlighting, code outlining, and basic code completion for 40+ commonly used programming languages. TextMate parser provides additional features like indent-based outlining, and automatic brace matching.
C# and Visual Basic parsers rely on the Microsoft Code Analysis (‘Roslyn’) platform, which provides open-source C# and Visual Basic compilers with rich code analysis APIs. Roslyn-based parsers support advanced code editing features, such as code completion, outlining, finding declarations, and highlighting syntax errors.
TypeScript/JavaScript parser implement syntax analysis using the Microsoft TypeScript project, which provides a set of code syntax and semantic analysis APIs for parsing TypeScript and JavaScript code. These parsers support advanced code editing features, including code completion, outlining, highlighting syntax errors, warnings, and code refactoring.
Advanced code parsers implement syntax analysis using hard-coded algorithms for many modern programming languages, including Python, C#, Visual Basic, Java, ANSI-C, VBScript, JavaScript, HTML, and XML.
LSP code parsers implement syntax analysis using the LangServer protocol, which provides features like auto-completion, jumping to definition, finding symbol references, etc. LSP parsers are available for C/C++, Python, Lua, PowerShell, Java, and R.