KND_KsHighlighter Editor Syntax Highlighting

Preface

Syntax highlighting is an important part of an editor. It helps developers visually identify code structure, improving writing efficiency and readability.
KND_KsHighlighter is a highlighter based on Godot's SyntaxHighlighter, designed specifically for KS scripts. It centralizes highlighting rules in a single script, making customization and extension very flexible. You can easily adjust existing rules or add entirely new color schemes.

Basic Implementation

In KND_KsHighlighter, highlighting rules are stored as an array. Each array element is a dictionary containing two keys:

• regex: Regular expression used to match text (Godot RegEx syntax).
• color: Color for matched text, represented by Color(r, g, b, a), where a is opacity (optional, default 1.0).

Example structure:

{
	"regex": "\\b(if|else|endif)\\b",
	"color": Color(1.0, 0.8, 0.2)
}

The highlighter matches rules in array order. Rules applied later may override earlier matches, so rule order is important. It is recommended to put general commands earlier and strings/comments later, so overriding behaves reasonably.

Custom Color Scheme

You can apply custom highlighting to the editor in two ways:

Method 1: Modify the Resource File (Recommended)

The default color scheme is stored as a resource file at:

res://addons/konado/editor/ks_editor/ks_syntax_highlighter.tres

Editing this resource file directly preserves changes and avoids regenerating it every time.
Load and use the resource in code:

set_syntax_highlighter(load("res://addons/konado/editor/ks_editor/ks_syntax_highlighter.tres"))

Method 2: Create an Instance Dynamically

You can also create a new KND_KsHighlighter instance directly in code and set custom rules for it, such as by modifying highlight_rules in the script:

set_syntax_highlighter(KND_KsHighlighter.new())

Note: If you modify the KND_KsHighlighter.gd script directly, you may need to regenerate the resource file for changes to take effect. Prefer using the resource file method for clearer color management.