Re: Making a verbatim file for another language

[Taco Hoekwater <taco@elvenkind.com>]

cormullion@mac.com wrote:
> I'm going to try to make a 'verbatim- module' (don't know what the  
> right word is) for another language. I've found:
> 
> /usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf.tetex/tex/context/base/verb-pl.tex

The syntax of your intended language is indeed similar to perl?

There a few definition files already there, and you should start
from the one that is closest to the language you want to define
(especially wrt comment and string syntax).

   verb-c    C
   verb-eif  Eiffel
   verb-js   JavaScript
   verb-jv   Java
   verb-mp   MetaPost & MetaFont
   verb-pas  Pascal & Modula
   verb-pl   Perl 5
   verb-sql  SQL
   verb-tex  TeX
   verb-xml  XML

> and can probably have a go at making a version of this. Some  
> questions occur:
> 
> 1: where should i put my file?

Possibly the
best place is:     in the context distribution, but that depends a bit
                    on what language it is, precisely (you can email me
                    the completed file, in that case).

Second best place: http://modules.contextgarden.net, so it can be
                    included in cont-ext.zip (third-party addons that
                    are distributed by Pragma-Ade alongside the normal
                    distribution).

Third best:        The directory <$HOME/texmf/tex/context/base> (the
                    place where your TeX installation finds local files,
                    I do not immediately recall the name gwTeX uses).

Final option:      Same directory as the file to be processed

> 2: do I have to do anything else to get Context to recognise and use it?

Your file has to have a name like verb-xxxx.tex, with xxxx a lowercase
short identifier (example: verb-php.tex), and then you have to use one
or two commands to make ConTeXt use the file.

First:

    \installprettytype [PHP]        [PHP]

This maps the command \starttyping[option=PHP] to verb-php.tex.
The first argument is the option as passed to \starttyping,
the second argument is an uppercase version of xxxx (thus
allowing context to find the file),

And you probably also want:

    \definetyping[PHP]   [option=PHP]

Because that allows  \startPHP ... \stopPHP as a shortcut to
\setuptyping[option=PHP]


Good luck, Taco