[tug-summer-of-code] Project idea: Hyperlinked syntax highlighting for TeX code

[Will Robertson]

On 16/02/2009, at 5:50 PM, Jonathan Fine wrote:

> This project has three parts.  The first is providing enhanced  
> syntax highlighting for TeX code.  The second is creating a commands  
> database.  The third is linking together the first and second parts.

The highlighting part is easy enough, right? All editors can do that  
capably enough (although understanding keyval lists would be novel).  
And the commands database should be straightforward albeit tedious.

The value in this sort of system for me would be to provide the  
information in such a way that interactive editors could use it as  
well as pretty-printing engines. Having auto-complete and spell check  
while writing documents/package would be quite the value proposition.

With a system in place to support these ideas, formats such as LaTeX3  
could provide features to aid integrating the syntax of new packages  
into whatever this system is. (Such as producing a listing for CTAN of  
all macros defined in a package.)

Ideas such being able to understand package and class options in LaTeX  
would fit into this concept, as well. Even a short description (taken  
from the CTAN catalogue) of what each package/class is.

* * *

So clearly there's scope for this sort of project; the utility of it  
hinges fairly drastically around being able to be actually used  
somewhere -- and where better than the TeXworks editor?

If there is more than one student interested, it would be possible to  
get one working on the hyperlinked pretty-printing engine, and another  
working on incorporating it into TeXworks.

Hmmm. Interesting stuff.

Will
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