In SciTe (Scintilla), how can I create Syntax-Highlighting for my own custom language?

Question

I want to create a custom Language, with its own custom Syntax Highlighting.

Notepad++ (a Windows SciTe/Scintilla based Text-editor), allowed me to create a custom "Language", and now, in Linux, I want to reproduce the same thing.

I need(?) to use SkiTe/Scintilla because unless someone knows otherwise, it is the only plain text editor which can display different size fonts in the same text-file (eg. default-font= 12pt, comment-font=24pt).

I used the comments font to display a complex script(alphabet) in a larger font.
Please let me know if there is any other plain text editor which does this.

I assume this is a feature of SciTe/Scintilla (and not of Notepad++).
Some of the magic is possible/probably(?) done in files such ase:
/usr/share/scite/.properties

Notepad++ has a GUI interface to set up a new language/syntax,
...but I could use some direction on exactly how to go about it in SciTe.

Thanks...

Answer 1

I looked at it once, it's quite painful, because all is defined statically in the c++ source code.

You have to define a certain number of rules among the one already existing in scintilla, for things like... well it's quite mangled. You can quickly search for "scintilla lexer" on google, but you to understand that syntax highlighters are very sophisticated to code, just look at notepad++ and all its features: it's almost a code parser, which is found in compilers.

On top of that, a scintilla lexer can be made for any type of language.

Another problem is that coloring the text has to be platform agnostic, and again, I guess it favors windows (duh), and don't forget the font renderer, which can also be another thing.

I'm not sure scintilla has been ported to gnome or kde, has it ?

Answer 2

This probably will not suit your request, but jEdit has an extensive configuration for language highlighting if you want an editor that will highlight your new language.