php variables

[ghost]

Currently, php variables are not highlighted. These have a form of $var12, that is an alphanumerical string starting with a dollar sign '$', and, therefore, '\\b'+regex_escape(string)+'\\b' from the current word_highlight.py does not match. I have no idea how to fix this, apart from replacing the regular expression with regex_escape(string)+'\\b', which is obviously not well suited for everybody. '(?<=[^\w$])' + regex_escape(string)+'\\b' does the job as well, but I'm not comfortable with python regex, and it would be cool if someone could verify it really works as intended.

[bobthecow]

I would go with '\\b(\$|@@?)?'+regex_escape(string)+'\\b' personally, as this preserves the "on word boundary"-ness of the RegEx (i also threw in the @ / @@ from ruby as a bonus match).

[ghost]

@bobthecow: It appears your regex should actually be like this: '\\b($|@@?)?' + regex_escape(string)+'\\b' ($ not backslashed, otherwise it doesn't work). However, it doesn't suit my particular use case: i prefer to select whole variables in my code, including '$' (with ctrl-d or double-click), so I've adjusted the word_separators setting to exclude '$' sign -- it is subjectively more convenient that way. In this scenario, the regex you provided obviously doesn't do the job. Loosening the "on the word boundary" constraint, however, makes WordHighlight to perform in a more intuitive way, at least in regards to word_separators, and by letting "expand selection" series commands to do the job of detecting what is actually a word. Letting the user to set word_separators on per-syntax basis helps too.

Anyway, I'm making a pull request to modify the plugin. I've tested the change for the best of my ability, but if the "on the word boundary" (as mr. bobthecow named it) is a core principle, feel free to reject it.