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[git.ikiwiki.info.git] / doc / todo / syntax_highlighting.mdwn

diff --git a/doc/todo/syntax_highlighting.mdwn b/doc/todo/syntax_highlighting.mdwn
index 041d92b13259e7983e1f0d51bc599f8cbb70e297..dd7c8a117187394bc2a4fd99bf779c8754e75b28 100644 (file)
--- a/doc/todo/syntax_highlighting.mdwn
+++ b/doc/todo/syntax_highlighting.mdwn
@@ -1,43 +1,87 @@
 There's been a lot of work on contrib syntax highlighting plugins. One should be
 picked and added to ikiwiki core.
 
 There's been a lot of work on contrib syntax highlighting plugins. One should be
 picked and added to ikiwiki core.
 

-Ideally, it should support both converting whole source files into wiki
+> I'm calling this [[done]] since I added the [[plugins/highlight]]
+> plugin. There are some unresolved issues touched on here,
+> but they either have the own other bug reports, or are documented
+> as semi-features in the docs to the plugin. --[[Joey]] 
+
+We want to support both converting whole source files into wiki

 pages, as well as doing syntax highlighting as a preprocessor directive 
 pages, as well as doing syntax highlighting as a preprocessor directive 

-(which is either passed the text, or reads it from a file).
+(which is either passed the text, or reads it from a file). But,
+the [[ikiwiki/directive/format]] directive makes this easy enough to 
+do if the plugin only supports whole source files. So, syntax plugins
+do no really need their own preprocessor directive, unless it makes
+things easier for the user.

 
 ## The big list of possibilities
 
 
 ## The big list of possibilities
 

-* [[plugins/contrib/highlightcode]] uses [[cpan Syntax::Highlight::Engine::Kate]],
+* [[plugins/contrib/highlightcode]] uses [[!cpan Syntax::Highlight::Engine::Kate]],

   operates on whole source files only, has a few bugs (see
   [here](http://u32.net/Highlight_Code_Plugin/), and needs to be updated to
   operates on whole source files only, has a few bugs (see
   [here](http://u32.net/Highlight_Code_Plugin/), and needs to be updated to

-  support [[bugs/multiple_pages_with_same_name]].
-* [[cpan IkiWiki-Plugin-syntax]] only operates as a directive.
+  support [[bugs/multiple_pages_with_same_name]]. (Currently a 404 :-( )
+* [[!cpan IkiWiki-Plugin-syntax]] only operates as a directive.

   Interestingly, it supports multiple highlighting backends, including Kate
   and Vim.
 * [[plugins/contrib/syntax]] only operates as a directive
   ([[not_on_source_code_files|automatic_use_of_syntax_plugin_on_source_code_files]]),
   Interestingly, it supports multiple highlighting backends, including Kate
   and Vim.
 * [[plugins/contrib/syntax]] only operates as a directive
   ([[not_on_source_code_files|automatic_use_of_syntax_plugin_on_source_code_files]]),

-  and uses [[cpan Text::VimColor]].
-* [[plugins/contrib/sourcehighlight]] uses src-highlight, and operates on
+  and uses [[!cpan Text::VimColor]].
+* [[plugins/contrib/sourcehighlight]] uses source-highlight, and operates on

   whole source files only. Needs to be updated to
   support [[bugs/multiple_pages_with_same_name]].
 * [[sourcecode|todo/automatic_use_of_syntax_plugin_on_source_code_files/discussion]]
   whole source files only. Needs to be updated to
   support [[bugs/multiple_pages_with_same_name]].
 * [[sourcecode|todo/automatic_use_of_syntax_plugin_on_source_code_files/discussion]]

-  also uses src-highlight, and operates on whole source files.
-  Has problems with [[bugs/multiple_pages_with_same_name]].
+  also uses source-highlight, and operates on whole source files.
+  Updated to work with the fix for [[bugs/multiple_pages_with_same_name]].  Untested with files with no extension, e.g. `Makefile`.
+* [[users/jasonblevins]]'s code plugin uses source-highlight, and supports both
+  whole file and directive use.
+
+* [hlsimple](http://pivot.cs.unb.ca/git/?p=ikiplugins.git;a=blob_plain;f=IkiWiki/Plugin/hlsimple.pm;hb=HEAD) is a wrapper for the the perl module [[!cpan Syntax::Highlight::Engine::Simple]].  This is pure perl, pretty simple, uses css. It ought to be pretty fast (according to the author, and just because it is not external).
+On the other hand, there are not many predefined languages yet.  Defining language syntaxes is about as much 
+work as source-highlight, but in perl.  I plan to package the base module for debian. Perhaps after the author 
+releases the 5 or 6 language definitions he has running on his web site, it might be suitable for inclusion in ikiwiki. [[DavidBremner]]
+
+* [[plugins/highlight]] uses [highlight](http://www.andre-simon.de) via
+  its swig bindings. It optionally supports whole files, but also
+  integrates with the format directive to allow formatting of *any* of
+  highlight's supported formats. (For whole files, it uses either
+  keepextension or noextension, as appropriate for the type of file.)
+
+## General problems / requirements

 
 

-## General problems
+* Using non-perl syntax highlighting backends is slower. All things equal,
+  I'd prefer either using a perl module, or a multiple-backend solution that
+  can use a perl module as one option. (Or, if there's a great highlighter
+  python module, we could use an external plugin..)

 
 

-* Using non-perl syntax highlighting backends is slow. I'd prefer either
-  using a perl module, or a multiple-backend solution that can use a perl
-  module as one option. (Or, if there's a great highlighter python module,
-  we could use an external plugin..)
-* Currently no single plugin supports both modes of operation (directive
-  and whole source file to page).
+  Of course, some perl modules are also rather slow.. Kate, for example
+  can only process about 33 lines of C code, or 14 lines of
+  debian/changelog per second. That's **30 times slower than markdown**!
+
+  By comparison, source-highlight can do about 5000 lines of C code per
+  second... And launching the program 100 times on an empty file takes about
+  5 seconds, which isn't bad. And, it has a C++ library, which it
+  seems likely perl bindings could be written for, to eliminate 
+  even that overhead.
+  > [highlight](http://www.andre-simon.de) has similar features to source-highlight, and swig bindings
+  > that should make it trivial in principle to call from perl.  I like highlight a bit better because 
+  > it has a pass-through feature that I find very useful.  My memory is unfortunately a bit fuzzy as to how
+  > well the swig bindings work. [[DavidBremner]]
+
+* Engines that already support a wide variety of file types are of
+  course preferred. If the engine doesn't support a particular type
+  of file, it could fall back to doing something simple like
+  adding line numbers. (IkiWiki-Plugin-syntax does this.)
+* XHTML output.
+* Emitting html that uses CSS to control the display is preferred,
+  since it allows for easy user customization. (Engine::Simple does
+  this; Kate can be configured to do it; source-highlight can be 
+  made to do it via the switches `--css /dev/null --no-doc`)

 * Nothing seems to support 
   [[wiki-formatted_comments|wiki-formatted_comments_with_syntax_plugin]]
   inside source files. Doing this probably means post-processing the 
   results of the highlighting engine, to find places where it's highlighted
   comments, and then running them through the ikiwiki rendering pipeline.
 * Nothing seems to support 
   [[wiki-formatted_comments|wiki-formatted_comments_with_syntax_plugin]]
   inside source files. Doing this probably means post-processing the 
   results of the highlighting engine, to find places where it's highlighted
   comments, and then running them through the ikiwiki rendering pipeline.

-  This seems fairly doable with [[cpan Syntax::Highlight::Engine::Kate]],
+  This seems fairly doable with [[!cpan Syntax::Highlight::Engine::Kate]],

   at least.
 * The whole-file plugins tend to have a problem that things that look like
   wikilinks in the source code get munged into links by ikiwiki, which can
   at least.
 * The whole-file plugins tend to have a problem that things that look like
   wikilinks in the source code get munged into links by ikiwiki, which can


@@ -45,45 +89,30 @@ pages, as well as doing syntax highlighting as a preprocessor directive
   One approach that's also been requested for eg,
   [[plugins/contrib/mediawiki]] is to allow controlling which linkification
   types a page type can have on it.
   One approach that's also been requested for eg,
   [[plugins/contrib/mediawiki]] is to allow controlling which linkification
   types a page type can have on it.

+
+  > The previous two points seem to be related.  One thought: instead of
+  > getting the source from the `content` parameter, the plugin could
+  > re-load the page source.  That would stop directives/links from
+  > being processed in the source.  As noted above, comments
+  > could then be parsed for directives/links later.
+  >
+  > Would it be worth adding a `nodirectives` option when registering
+  > an htmlize hook that switches off directive and link processing before
+  > generating the html for a page?
+

 * The whole-file plugins all get confused if there is a `foo.c` and a `foo.h`.
   This is trivially fixable now by passing the keepextension option when
 * The whole-file plugins all get confused if there is a `foo.c` and a `foo.h`.
   This is trivially fixable now by passing the keepextension option when

-  registering the htmlize hooks, though.
+  registering the htmlize hooks, though. There's also a noextension option
+  that should handle the
+  case of source files with names that do not contain an extension (ie,
+  "Makefile") -- in this case you just register the while filename
+  in the htmlize hook.

 * Whole-file plugins register a bunch of htmlize hooks. The wacky thing
   about it is that, when creating a new page, you can then pick "c" or
 * Whole-file plugins register a bunch of htmlize hooks. The wacky thing
   about it is that, when creating a new page, you can then pick "c" or

-  "h" or "pl" etc from the dropdown that normally has "mdwn" etc in it.
-  Is this a bug, or a feature? (Even if a feature, plugins with many
-  extensions make the dropdown unusable.. One way to deal with that is have
-  a config setting that lists what extensions to offer highlighting for.
-  Most people won't need/want the dozens some engines support.)
-* The per page highlighters can't handle creating wiki pages from 
-  "Makefile", or other files without a significant extension.
-  Not clear how to fix this, as ikiwiki is very oriented toward file
-  extensions. The workaround is to use a directive on a wiki page, pulling
-  in the Makefile.
-
-## format directive
-
-Rather than making syntax highlight plugins have to provide a preprocessor
-directive as well as handling whole source files, perhaps a generic format
-directive could be used:
-
-       \[[!format pl """..."""]]
-
-That would run the text through the pl htmlizer, from the syntax hightligh
-plugin. OTOH, if "rst" were given, it would run the text through the rst
-htmlizer. So, more generic, allows mixing different types of markup on one
-page, as well as syntax highlighting. Does require specifying the type of
-format, instead of allows it to be guessed (which some syntax highlighters
-can do).
-
-Hmm, this would also allow comments inside source files to have mdwn
-embedded in them, without making the use of mdwn a special case, or needing
-to postprocess the syntax highlighter output to find comments.
-
-       /* \[[!format mdwn """
-
-       This is a comment in my C file. You can use mdwn in here.
-
-       """]] */
+  "h" or "pl" etc from the dropdown that normally has "Markdown" etc in it.
+  Is this a bug, or a feature? Even if a feature, plugins with many
+  extensions make the dropdown unusable.. 

 
 

-Note that this assumes that directives are expanded in source files.
+  Perhaps the thing to do here is to use the new `longname` parameter to
+  the format hook, to give them all names that will group together at or
+  near the end of the list. Ie: "Syntax: perl", "Source code: c", etc.