Feature request: IDL syntax highlighting

[GoogleCodeExporter]

IDL is a math/science analysis code package from ITTVIS 
http://www.ittvis.com/ProductServices/IDL.aspx.  I have at least two code 
projects based primarily on IDL.  It would be nice to have syntax highlighting 
for them.  Highlighting exist for, e.g., Notepad++ 
(http://pocaracas.wordpress.com/2009/01/25/idl-syntax-highlighting-in-notepad/) 
and other programs (http://idl.tamu.edu/syntax_coloring.html) already.

Original issue reported on code.google.com by keflavich on 3 Aug 2010 at 3:49

[GoogleCodeExporter]

What are the file extensions typically used for IDL source files?

Do you know of any lexical grammars for the language?  I don't have any license 
to Notepad or any user extensions, so can't base an implementation from them.

Original comment by mikesamuel@gmail.com on 3 Aug 2010 at 4:52

[GoogleCodeExporter]

IDL files are typically .pro.

I don't know exactly what a "lexical grammar" should include, but as far as I 
can tell there are syntax highlighting routines for both vim and emacs, the 
latter at idlwave.org.  I can't find the vim syntax highlighting routines.

Original comment by keflavich on 3 Aug 2010 at 8:11

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I found the VIM idl syntax highlighting (attached).  "highlight" 
http://www.andre-simon.de/ also has a highlighting setup, but it is less 
intricate.

Original comment by keflavich on 3 Aug 2010 at 8:32

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Thanks keflavich, but I can't copy VIM or emacs modes without committing to 
their license, so I deleted your attachment.

By a lexical grammar, I mean the grammar used by a tokenizer.
A lot of parser generators (e.g. yacc) have two grammars : a lexical grammar 
specified in terms of regular expressions or a regular subset of BNF used to 
break the input into a list of tokens, and a richer grammar used to build a 
parse tree usually specified in some kind of BNF form.  I only need the former.

Original comment by mikesamuel@gmail.com on 26 Oct 2010 at 4:27

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, there is no yacc grammar or lexical 
grammar available for IDL.  I've asked the experts I know and they seemed to 
have no idea.  I'll update this thread if I ever find one, though.  Thanks for 
the effort.

Original comment by keflavich on 26 Oct 2010 at 11:12