I like to work in Vim as often as Gedit, but haven't come across any
highlighting files for EMC's NGC code in the wiki, nor through Google
searches. There IS a way in Gedit, and we have that in the wiki, which is
cool:
http://wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/emcinfo.pl?Highlighting_In_Gedit
It's mentioned in the Improvements here:
http://wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/emcinfo.pl?EMC2_Development
I've tried several times in the past to figure out Vim's syntax
highlighting, but it's been complicated enough to warrant giving up
immediately each time :) Tonight, however, something got into me, and I
pushed through pages and pages of documentation, and hours of testing my
from-scratch file as I went, comparing everything against the 'bible':
http://linuxcnc.org/docs/html/gcode_main.html
The syntax file I made (links/install how-to near the end of this email) is
understandably remedial, given the single night of R&D, but it already
properly¹ highlights a rather extensive set of the files I tested. I
endeavored to break up each highlighting type in sensible, pre-defined ways,
such that the power user with lots of the standard sub-types defined for
their Vim sessions could benefit from something passably² familiar. In fact,
there are no custom highlight types - all are linked to types that already
exist in Vim.
Here's what I got to highlight before giving up:
* conditionals (if, else, endif)
* repeats (do, while, endwhile, break, continue)
* functions (sub, endsub, call, return)
* comments
* special comments (log stuff, print, msg, debug)
* identifiers (e.g. vars: #1, #<foo>, #<also_works>)
* operators (+, -, *, /, %, and all the EQ, and ACOS things)
* constants (ints, and floats)
* all g-codes³
* all m-codes³
* any o-code style number
* old-fashioned n# line numbers
* TODO, FIXME, XXX
* axes (x, y, z, a, b, c, u, v, w)
* feed rates
* "special" characters (i, j, k, e, d, l, p, r, s)
* tool selects, w/ h offset tool indices
Cool extras:
* everything is case-insensitive, as w/ NGC/EMC2 (g1, and G1 are the same)
* line breaks in comments break their highlighting to indicate the error
* special comments allow whitespace around keyword (e.g. ( MSG , etc...)
* identifiers inside special comments have their own highlight type
* n# labels, and o-codes only match if first non whitespace block on line
* TODO stuff all works from within comments, of course (where else?)
* axes highlight only if preceded by whitespace, and followed by digit, or [
* feed rates follow axes' rules, but can also be first characters on line
* special chars follow the rules of axes
Caveats:
* "-" is a tough one, in that it means 'minus,' and also 'negative'
* it currently never highlights with the constant (always an operator)
* I've at various points had it working in various ways
* this has much to do with the order in which highlights are defined
* it would appear to have a non-trivial, multi-workaround solution
* any change to order, or method breaks other highlighting - sigh...
* I got a bit lazy by the time I got to special chars/tool select stuff
* there are likely some oddities in this stuff
* I rarely/never use any of that stuff; it was low-priority for me
* probably plenty more :)
There could be all manner of fancy extras, like catching lots of other
errors, and flagging them as such, but it gets rather complicated rather
quickly. I wanted to post this ASAP in case it helps any Vim users, and in
case any pros in here wanted to enhance it with things like more robust
error-checking, tighter adherence to the spec, or new ways to break up the
concepts (e.g. highlighting an entire X[#<something>] block as a single type
(not my preference, but perhaps someone would prefer that), or properly
checking item locations in lines, or getting negative constants working,
without breaking all else. There are a lot of parts of the g-code spec that
I've never touched (e.g. I've never used an M-code), so I've probably missed
whole swaths of highlightables.
So... interested in using it? Here's how:
1) make yourself a ~/.vim/ directory
2) make a syntax directory in there
3) save ngc.vim into ~/.vim/syntax/
http://www.garyfixler.com/emc/vim/syntax/ngc.vim
4) save filetype.vim into ~/.vim/ (or merge with your existing one, if any):
http://www.garyfixler.com/emc/vim/filetype.vim
5) open, or restart vim
6) open any files with *.ngc extensions, and it should auto-highlight them
You can also force highlighting with:
:set syntax=ngc
There are ways to have Vim check a few lines in the file to determine type,
but that's more involved, and an exercise for a later date. You can
duplicate the au! line in filetype.vim to add your own extension(s), or just
modify the one that's already there (*.ngc).
I copied and pasted many gcode examples³, and even noticed an error
immediately, thanks to the syntax colors:
http://linuxcnc.org/docs/html/gcode_main.html#r9_4_3
The second comment in the code in section 9.4.3: Jon Elson's Example is
missing its closing ")," and thus it didn't colorize :)
Here's a slightly nonsensical example screencap with syntax off:
http://www.garyfixler.com/emc/vim/syntoff.png
And here it is with the syntax turned on:
http://www.garyfixler.com/emc/vim/synton.png
I happen to have a lot of my subtypes as the same core type colors, so
there's actually more separation of highlight types than you're seeing, but
already I think it's a bit easier to visually parse. Just for fun, here's
the 3-monitor setup I was on while researching, and editing the syntax file
(left 2 panes show lots more highlighting):
http://www.garyfixler.com/emc/vim/editing.png
Anyway, feedback/corrections much appreciated, and if anyone gets it
working, or makes some nice modifications, I'd love to hear about it. I
don't think I have wiki powers, but if someone would like to add it, that
would also be nice. Thanks!
-Gary Fixler
¹ for some non-zero value of 'properly' ;)
² for some non-zero value of 'passably' ;)
³ as per: http://linuxcnc.org/docs/html/gcode_main.html
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