I just recently set up my Vim environment from Textmate, after becoming addicted to its modal input.
However, syntax highlighting seems to be not so beautiful in Vim. I code in C++ and since the function call and class names can't be highlighted, the code is more difficult to read. I played with color scheme for a bit, but couldn't find any field that corresponded to "class name" or "function name".
In the picture below, notice how DroughtLayer::
and *.size()
is not highlighted on the right in MacVim.
Picture comparison between Textmate(left) and Vim(right) http://ivzhao.com/temp/vimHL.png
Any ideas how to solve this? It really annoys me as I am so much a visual-sensitive guy.
Interestingly, the syntax highlighters in VIM don't support applying a syntax to identifiers or function names - at least not the syntax highlighters for C and C++. So, even if you do:
:hi Function guifg=red
or
:hi Identifier guifg=red
it doesn't give these a color. I just seems to be not much more than keywords and constants for these languages.
Here, someone has started extending the cpp syntax file to support method names. It's a start I guess.
http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Highlighting_of_method_names_in_the_definition
I had this very same problem when I started using vim. The solution is simple, you just have to edit the c syntax file used by vim, here's how to do it:
When you start editing a C or C++ file, vim reads the default c syntax file located in
$VIMRUNTIME/syntax/c.vim
(Where $VIMRUNTIME is where you have vim installed. You can find out it's default value by opening vim and using the command ":echo $VIMRUNTIME").
You can simply overwrite that file, or you can create your custom C syntax file (which will be loaded by vim instead of the default one) in this location:
$HOME/.vim/syntax/c.vim (for UNIX)
$HOME/vimfiles/syntax/c.vim (for PC or OS/2)
(I have never used a Mac so I dunno which one will work for you. You can find out more in the vim help, ":help vimfiles")
Now the fun part. Copy the default "$VIMRUNTIME/syntax/c.vim" file to your vimfiles directory ("$HOME/.vim/syntax/c.vim" for UNIX), and edit it by adding these lines:
" Highlight Class and Function names
syn match cCustomParen "(" contains=cParen,cCppParen
syn match cCustomFunc "\w\+\s*(" contains=cCustomParen
syn match cCustomScope "::"
syn match cCustomClass "\w\+\s*::" contains=cCustomScope
hi def link cCustomFunc Function
hi def link cCustomClass Function
That's it! Now functions and class names will be highlighted with the color defined in the "Function" highlight (":hi Function"). If you want to customize colors, you can change the last two lines above to something like this:
hi def cCustomFunc gui=bold guifg=yellowgreen
hi def cCustomClass gui=reverse guifg=#00FF00
or you can leave the C syntax file alone and define colors in your vimrc file (":help vimrc"):
hi cCustomFunc gui=bold guifg=yellowgreen
hi cCustomClass gui=reverse guifg=#00FF00
(Note the absence of the "def" keyword, go to ":help highlight-default" for details). For the available parameters to the ":hi" command see ":help :highlight".
You can find the complete c.vim file for Vim 7.2 on this link (Note: only use this if you have a non-modified Vim, version 7.2):
http://pastebin.com/f33aeab77
And the obligatory screenshot:
http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/2073/vimy.png (Sorry for imageshack)
this is my first post here and i didn't know how to make an observation, the answer of Eduardo makes "(" and "{" look unmached and bugs syntax foldind, I changed it a little to fix this.
syn match cCustomParen "?=(" contains=cParen,cCppParen
syn match cCustomFunc "\w\+\s*(\@=" contains=cCustomParen
syn match cCustomScope "::"
syn match cCustomClass "\w\+\s*::" contains=cCustomScope
hi def cCustomFunc gui=bold guifg=yellowgreen
hi def link cCustomClass Function
The one solution is to use built ctags database. So create one with the ctags utility. Then set the 'tags' variable and put the following to the
~/.vim/after/syntax/c.vim
function! s:highlight()
let list = taglist('.*')
for item in list
let kind = item.kind
if kind == 'f' || kind == 'c'
let name = item.name
exec 'syntax keyword Identifier '.name
endif
endfor
endfunction
call s:highlight()
I must warn you that this can work very slow on the very big ctags database.
Also there is one solution on the vim.org but I didn't try this one. Let me know if it works for you.
EDIT: color_coded may be too heavy for you. try octol/vim-cpp-enhanced-highlight. It supports C++11/14 and integrates what @Eduardo answers.
Semantic based highlighter:
I would recommend jeaye/color_coded,
A vim plugin for libclang-based highlighting
So sorry that i'm new to stackoverflow which means I've not enough reputation to post images. Go see its effects if you wanna give it a shot. :)
Pros:
- Easy installation
- Semantic highlighting
- Clighter mentioned as above, need vim compiled with
python2.7
.
However, color_coded is written in C++ and provides lua binding ->
C++.
Cons:
- It delays unless you make some vim events to acitve it.
- Customization is bit harder; you need to edit syntax/color_coded.vim
yourself. But customization has been placed on its roadmap.
Although it's still under development, it's increasingly gaining attention.
Sergey, changing the first line from
syn match cCustomParen "(" contains=cParen,cCppParen
to
syn match cCustomParen "(" contains=cParen contains=cCppParen
seems to fix it for me.
Use a plug-in for vim like Taglist or set up ctags
or cscope
integration with vim (here's a tutorial for the vim/cscope.)
Try using this plugin http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=2646
Its does all ctags highlighting very efficiently for you
I really recommend you the taghighlight
plugin, click here for it's website.
The Clighter
plugin can also be considered, which is a
plugin for c-family semantic source code highlighting, based on Clang
However, requires fairly recent versions and software: vim 7.4.330 +python2
and libclang
.