Re: [PATCH] let octave-mode understand single-quoted strings

["Eric M. Ludlam" <eric@siege-engine.com>]

The matlab mode that I support can be found here:

http://matlab-emacs.cvs.sourceforge.net/viewvc/matlab-emacs/matlab-emacs/

It has had many contributors so it couldn't be a part of emacs, but the 
string & comment font locking I wrote wholly myself as far as I 
remember.  If you would like to use it for octave I'm sure that could be 
arranged.

If not, the basic idea behind it is to use font-lock's functional 
matching stuff.  Look to these functions:

matlab-font-lock-string-match-normal
matlab-font-lock-string-match-unterminated
matlab-font-lock-comment-match

The strings and comments have to be done together, so you end up having 
to use these functions in a particular order, checking to see what faces 
are left behind while looking at comment chars to make sure it isn't in 
a string.

Eric

On 10/05/2010 04:28 AM, John W. Eaton wrote:
> On  3-Sep-2010, Stefan Monnier wrote:
>
> |>>  I just implemented the single-quote string support based
> |>>  on code I previously wrote for perl-mode, where it's used for
> |>>  string-like thingies that often span multiple lines.  I.e. it came "for
> |>>  free".
>
> In Octave and Matlab, character strings can't span multiple lines.
>
> | BTW, where can I find a definition of the syntax of single-quoted
> | strings (i.e. how does Octave distinguish a transpose from a single-quote
> | starting a string)?
> | The Octave docs I have don't say anything about it, AFAICT.
>
> It's messy.
>
> A single-quote character is recognized as a transpose operator if it
>
> * Follows a ), ], or } character
>
>      ( .. )'     =>  tranpose expression
>      [ .. ]'     =>  tranpose matrix expression
>      { .. }'     =>  tranpose cell array expression
>
> * Follows a literal double-quoted string, or a literal single-quoted
>    string if there is a space between the transpose operator and the
>    final single-quote character that delimits the string.  For example
>
>      "string"'   =>  transpose the character array 'string'
>      'string' '  =>  transpose the character array 'string'
>      'string''   =>  unterminated string constant
>      'a''b'      =>  1x3 character array containing the characters a'b
>
> * Follows an identifier (variable or function name) unless the
>    identifier could be a "command".  For example
>
>      pwd '       =>  unterminated string constant
>      (pwd)'      =>  transpose the output from the pwd function
>      dir 'foo'   =>  list contents of the directory foo
>
> * Follows an expression that references a structure element:
>
>      a.b'        =>  return the transpose of a.b
>
>    The Octave manual has a more complete description of how
>    "command-style" parsing works (yes, this is ugly; it was implemented
>    because it is required for compatibility with Matlab).
>
> Does that help?
>
> jwe
>
>