From jawilson@ix.netcom.comMon Jan 22 13:57:10 1996
Date: Mon, 1 Jan 1996 18:24:33 -0800
From: Jim Wilson <jawilson@ix.netcom.com>
To: aurora-editor@sfu.ca
Subject: Unix Syntax.Aml

All;

I don't know how many of you this will apply to but here goes...

The following is a SYNTAX.AML definition for Unix shell script. I
happen to admin a bunch of Unix servers and have the need to create
scripts fairly often. The only editor which is even remotely usable
that comes with the version of Unix on my servers is VI. Well, I
*hate* VI -- I seem to be entirely unable to memorize it's somewhat
limited command set (VI is a jack of all trades, well of all operating
systems at least, but a master of none!). So naturally, I use Aurora
to develop most of the script on my PC and then use VI only when I'm
testing it on the server.

Anyway, if your interested in adding a syntax definition for Unix to
Aurora you can do the following to SYNTAX.AML:

  1. Add the line  "when '.unx'"  (without the double quotes) to the
     'case  getext file' section. If you choose to use a different
     file extension for your Unix code just change the '.unx' to
     whatever is your preference, but make sure you also change the
     object name for the syntax definition in step 2.

  2. Add the following code to the end of SYNTAX.AML:

     // syntax highlighting for Unix shell script
     object  unix

       syntax
         'ci'                        // options:
                                     //  b=show through marked block
                                     //  c=don't highlight cursor line
                                     //  f=use only foreground colors
                                     //  i=ignore keyword case
                                     //  n=highlight numbers
         '(){}[].*:;<>,@^'           // symbol set
         '"\''                       // string characters
         ''                          // string literal char
         '$'                         // numeric char
         '#'           0             // eol comment 1 / start column
         '##'          0             // eol comment 2 / start column
         ''           ''             // multi-line comment 1
         ''           ''             // multi-line comment 2
         2                           // # of lines to scan backward

         color brightcyan   on blue  // keyword color
         color white        on blue  // symbol color
         color brightgreen  on blue  // string color
         color brightred    on blue  // numeric color
         color yellow       on blue  // eol1 comment color
         color yellow       on blue  // eol2 comment color
         color yellow       on blue  // comment1 color
         color yellow       on blue  // comment2 color

       keyword
         case, do, done, esac, echo, else, fi, in, if, read, then,
         while


Of course, your color scheme will probably differ from mine so you
have to change that as well. After you've got it all setup just
recompile Aurora and you're ready to go.

One note: Unix uses a $ sign to represent variables after they've been
assigned a value. I like to see where these variables are in my code
so I had to trick Aurora into displaying them for me. The way I
accomplished this was by using the $ sign as the 'numeric char'. This
way, when Aurora tries to display a "number" it's actually displaying
the variable name instead.

Good luck with it.


Jim Wilson
(jawilson@ix.netcom.com)