What is on Your Mind?

Hey,

Just added a new UserCP option so you can change the code tags to look like the code tags in this example (turn this on and off):

Note: I set the default to "SyntaxHighlighting" for debugging purposes. We can change the default back to the original code tags later.



You can change this (turn it off or on)

in the UserCP -> Thread Display Options:



I'm still experimenting with different brushes and formats. Also, I have not yet been able to get the scroll bars to work (same issue as before), but I'm working on it, LOL

Here is a list of "brushes" used by this SyntaxHighlighter.

I may make most or all off the configuration settings available in the UserCP as time goes by.

Please go into your UserCP and turn this off if you want the original code tags (made the default to the new system for now):

Also, if you really want to help out, visit the examples and demos on the web and comment on what you would like to see in the code tags.

Thanks!

OBTW, for those interested, here is the HTML I'm using for the new bbcode tags:

Code:

<if condition="$bbuserinfo[field41]=='SyntaxHighlighting'">  

<br />
<div class="smallfont" style="margin-bottom:2px;">$vbphrase[code]:</div>
<div>
<br />
<pre class="brush: bash php xml css plain;">$code</pre><br />
</div>
<br />
<else />
<style>
pre {
   overflow:auto;
   margin:2px;
   padding:15px;
   border:1.2px solid;
   margin-right:10px;

}
</style>
<br />
<br />
<div class="smallfont" style="margin-bottom:2px;">$vbphrase[code]:</div>

<div><pre class="alt2">$code</pre><br /></div>
</if>

EDIT/ UPDATE: I turned off the option to (turn it off) while we are debugging. The reason is that I want to debug for guests who do not have the option to use user profile fields and options.

The line numbering will be very helpful in many cases. The missing shaded frame around the code tagged sections is a wee bit irritating; right now I'd appreciate to have it, but may get along without it in the course of time.
Would it be possible to switch the syntax highlighting when reading the post / thread, on top of setting it in options?

I may be in the minority here, but I'm not sure I like it - yet. It's a good idea, and the line numbering is especially helpful, but the feature needs to be thought through.

This disrupts our habitual use of [color=red] to highlight important changes, for one thing. Either it needs to be opt-in a la [code=bash] or the syntax highlighting colors should be more subdued.

And unless it's done very well, syntax highlighting can be misleading. The one thing which really needs to work perfectly here, the detection of lines and strings, has done a hash job. It looks great, until you think about it -- it's highlighting "shell code" inside quoted and unquoted string literals! It's finding strings inside strings! I really don't want to explain to new programmers why I'm right and the website is wrong.

I agree with Corona688... There are problems with the current presentation.

When I use:
[CODE]command [color="red"]<<[/color][b]word[/b]
text
[b]delimiter[/b][/CODE]
I get:

Code:

command <<word
text
delimiter

I expect to see command in black text (not red), << in red (not black text with color tags showing), and word and delimiter (not seeing those words in normal text with the bold tags).

Note that the printed color tags in the code tags were displayed with the [ and ] tag delimiters, but the [b] and [/b] tags were translated to <b> and </b>???

Agreed. So, let's try the "plain" brush and see how that does.

So, I just changed:

Code:

<pre class="brush: bash css php xml plain; ruler: true;">$code</pre>

To this:

Code:

<pre class="brush: plain;">$code</pre>

That (the "plain" brush) did not help much (just removed all the color).

So it looks like this will not work well for all of the reason's posted above.

Without objections, I have reverted back to the original way of the code tags.

Do you guys want me to turn it back on and try on "plain" as a final test?

I agree that this syntax highlighter is "pretty" but not accurate and so therefore misleading.

It's certainly faster using the original HTML without all the extra JS code to load in the browser.

If it is not adding real value (and not solving the "original sin" scrollbar issue), we don't need the overhead and performance hits.

Should I turn on "plain" and see how it goes without the colors? Or just abandon this idea?

Suggestions welcome!

While I still appreciate the line numbering, I found editing and formatting code snippets extremely tedious with the new approach, having to go to and fro many times more than before.
In retrospect, I'd vote for the original code tags.