Bracket highlighter overrides the main highlighter's substitution delimiter

[Iskustvo]

Steps to reproduce:

• Start the zsh in new terminal emulator, without any configuration

  termite -e 'zsh -dfi'

• Source z-sy-h from where it's installed, and use only the main highlighter with defined substitution style

  source "/usr/share/zsh/plugins/zsh-syntax-highlighting/zsh-syntax-highlighting.zsh"
  ZSH_HIGHLIGHT_HIGHLIGHTERS=(main)
  ZSH_HIGHLIGHT_STYLES[command-substitution-delimiter]='fg=magenta'

• Observe that highlighting of $( and ) is done with magenta color, as specified
• Add brackets highlighter to the mix

  ZSH_HIGHLIGHT_HIGHLIGHTERS+=brackets

• Observe that same expression has different highlighting for brackets now

Can this be changed so that main highlighter has priority when parenthesis is part of the delimiter syntax? I don't think hacking brackets highlighter's levels of nesting would solve this in the general case because some delimiters use only one pair of parentheses ($()), while arithmetic evaluation for example uses 2 pairs of parentheses ($(())).

Versions:

zsh - 5.9-1
zsh-syntax-highlighting - 0.7.1-1

[danielshahaf]

So, sort ZSH_HIGHLIGHT_HIGHLIGHTERS the way around (brackets before main)?

[Iskustvo]

While that solves the mentioned issue, doing that is equivalent to turning brackets off :smile:

• No warning for unbalanced parentheses
• No highlight for matching parenthesis when cursor is positioned on the parenthesis
• No colors for nested parentheses, even when they have no dollar signs in front of them

  ( ( ( echo a ) ) ) # All parentheses are colored with the same color
  { { { echo a } } } # All brackets are colored with the same color

[danielshahaf]

Sorry about that.

Two other ideas:

• Skip adding highlighting for a pair of brackets if either of them is already covered by a $region_highlight element for which $((end - start >= 2)) — i.e., an element that covers multiple characters.

• Have highlighters some information in the $region_highlight memo= field about the thing highlighted by that $region_highlight element: e.g., memo=zsh-syntax-highlighting:${ZSH_HIGHLIGHT_VERSION}:main:command-substitution. The brackets highlighter could use that information to selectively disable itself. Requires zsh ≥5.9.

[Iskustvo]

• Skip adding highlighting for a pair of brackets if either of them is already covered by a $region_highlight element for which $((end - start >= 2)) — i.e., an element that covers multiple characters.

This one feels kind of like a hack, so I would avoid it.

• Have highlighters some information in the $region_highlight memo= field about the thing highlighted by that $region_highlight element: e.g., memo=zsh-syntax-highlighting:${ZSH_HIGHLIGHT_VERSION}:main:command-substitution. The brackets highlighter could use that information to selectively disable itself. Requires zsh ≥5.9.

This one seems like a proper way to go about it. In fact, I read ZLE documentation multiple times last week and still couldn't understand the point of memo, just after reading your comment have I realized how it should be utilized :smile: Regarding the zsh version restriction, I find that perfectly fine - Community should strive to use latest versions of the packages.

[danielshahaf]

While that solves the mentioned issue, doing that is equivalent to turning brackets off :smile:

Now you're just moving the goalposts! :)

• No warning for unbalanced parentheses
• No highlight for matching parenthesis when cursor is positioned on the parenthesis
• No colors for nested parentheses, even when they have no dollar signs in front of them

Sorry about that.

Two other ideas:

• Skip adding highlighting for a pair of brackets if either of them is already covered by a $region_highlight element for which $((end - start >= 2)) — i.e., an element that covers multiple characters.

• Have highlighters some information in the $region_highlight memo= field about the thing highlighted by that $region_highlight element: e.g., memo=zsh-syntax-highlighting:0.8:main:command-substitution. The brackets highlighter could use that information to selectively disable itself. Requires zsh ≥5.9.