Custom Syntax Coloring
There are two ways to configure syntax highlighting in Wing: Minor adjustments can be made in preferences, and comprehensive configuration can be achieved by creating a syntax color specification file.
Minor Adjustments
For minor tweaks to syntax coloring in the editor, use the Editor > Syntax Coloring > Syntax Formatting preference. For each supported file type, and each lexical state for the file type, it is possible to set the foreground and background colors, to use bold or italic font, and to fill the end of line character so it appears as a solid block of color.
Comprehensive Changes
For more comprehensive changes to syntax coloring, textual syntax coloring specifications can be placed into a directory called syntax within the Settings Directory. This directory must be created if it is not already present.
Your custom syntax coloring configuration files can be modeled on the system-wide defaults, which are stored in resources/syntax within the Install Directory listed in Wing's About box. Copy only the files you intend to edit. Any values missing from these files cause Wing to fall back to the system-wide defaults.
Wing must be restarted to pick up changes made in these files. To make this easier to do while working on syntax color configurations, bind a key to the command restart-wing or right-click on the toolbar to add an icon for this command.
Changing Editor Background Color
The editor background color is set not by the syntax configuration file, but rather in the theme selected by the User Interface > Light Editor and User Interface > Dark Editor preferences.
Wing automatically adjusts all configured editor foreground colors when necessary to ensure that the text remains visible. This avoids the need to create completely new color configurations for different editor background colors.
This feature applies both to colors set in preferences and colors in a *.stx file. However, automatic color adjustment is disabled when using a theme-specific syntax configuration file, as describe below, since in that case the colors are being designed for a specific background color.
To select a specific editor background color, you must create and use a custom display theme. The color value editor-background determines the editor background color. See Adding a Custom Theme at the end of Display Styles and Colors for more information on creating custom themes.
Overriding Preferences
Note that any non-default syntax coloring preferences will take precedence over syntax files found in the settings directory or system-wide. So if you have previously set syntax colors in preferences, you will need to undo those settings. One way to do this is to edit the preferences file in your Settings Directory and remove the value for edit.syntax-formatting. You'll need to do this when Wing is not running, or edit a copy of the file in Wing and move it into place while Wing is not running.
Theme-Specific Configuration
To override syntax colors only for one particular theme listed in the User Interface > Light Editor Theme and User Interface > Dark Editor Theme preferences, place the syntax file in a sub-directory of the syntax directory whose name matches the theme specification .plt file name. For example, use syntax/black-background/python.stx to specify colors to use in Python files only with the Black Background display theme, which is defined in resources/palettes/black-background.plt in Wing's installation directory.
Print-Only Colors
To override syntax colors for printing only, place the syntax file in a print sub-directory of the syntax directory. For example, use syntax/print/python.stx to specify colors to use in Python files when printing.
Color Names for Python
The syntax color names shown in preferences and the *.stx files vary by file type. For Python they are defined as follows:
- default -- any text that is not covered by the following (does not include white space)
- commentline -- a comment starting with a single #
- number -- any integer, float, binary, octal, or hexadecimal number
- string -- a string with double quotes "like this"
- character -- a string with single quotes 'like this'
- word -- any Python keyword, like if, else, for, try, etc.
- triple -- a triple quoted string with single quotes '''like this'''
- tripledouble -- a triple quoted string with double quotes """like this"""
- classname -- the name of a class when just after the keyword class
- defname -- the name of a function or method when just after the keyword def
- operator -- any operator, like +, -, /, ==, and so forth
- identifier -- any variable including function or class names if not at point of definition
- commentblock -- a comment starting with ##
- stringeol -- indicates an unterminated string
- word2 -- any Python builtin like open, file, ord, int, isinstance, and so forth
- decorator -- a function, method, or class decorator starting with @
- fstring -- a double-quoted f-string f"like this"
- fcharacter -- a single-quoted f-string f'like this'
- ftriple -- a triple quoted f-string with single quotes f'''like this'''
- ftripledouble -- a triple quoted f-string with double quotes f"""like this"""
