Syntax highlighting in a textarea

Hi folks,

I was wondering whether it is possible to colour some text within a
textarea a different colour than the rest of the text? JavaScript would
be fine for this (and I suspect it is the *only* way to do it client
side) as it's only for bells and whistles.

I ask this because I have a textarea that I am typing XML into and would
like to be able to apply basic syntax highlighting so that the tags
stand out a little more. Has anybody tried to do this?

Cheers,

--
Dylan Parry
http://webpageworkshop.co.uk -- FREE Web tutorials and references

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and is the only post proven to actually *lower* your cholesterol.

And lo, Dylan Parry didst speak in alt.www.webmaster:

> Hi folks,
>
> I was wondering whether it is possible to colour some text within a
> textarea a different colour than the rest of the text? JavaScript would
> be fine for this (and I suspect it is the *only* way to do it client
> side) as it's only for bells and whistles.
>
> I ask this because I have a textarea that I am typing XML into and would
> like to be able to apply basic syntax highlighting so that the tags
> stand out a little more. Has anybody tried to do this?

It would probably be necessary to "fake it" with a similarily styled
<div>. Allow users to type in a normal textarea, but after each keypress
the results would appear syntax-highlighted up above. It would require
Javascript, and two views of the code at once, but it would work.

Alternatively, if you could jigger a way to show users the location of the
cursor, you could hide the textarea (or at least make it really really
small), while still applying focus to it, so it would appear that the user
was typing directly into the <div>

Grey

--
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pitfall corollary that nothing is ridiculous.
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and site-search engine

Dylan Parry wrote:

> I have a textarea that I am typing XML into and would like to be able
> to apply basic syntax highlighting so that the tags stand out a little
> more.

I would expect that the only way to do this (well) would be to create a
Java/Flash applet to implement the widget for you.

Java would probably be a good choice as it has fairly mature XML support:
you could add more than just syntax highlighting: e.g. automatic closing
tags (type "</" and the editor finishes closing the most recently opened
element for you) and a well-formedness check.

--
Toby A Inkster BSc (Hons) ARCS
Contact Me ~ http://tobyinkster.co.uk/contact