Over time, Prism has become the foundation for other modern syntax highlighters such as Refractor. Prism also provides a large collection of themes and styles for developers to customize the look and feel of the highlighted code. To stay lightweight and performant, Prism provides only basic features by default and allows developers to extend their existing features or add new ones through external plugins. Prism supports a wide variety of programming and markup languages. Prism.js is a lightweight and performant syntax highlighter library at an 18.8KB minified bundle size. ![]() Let’s examine these popular syntax highlighting libraries for JavaScript applications. To reduce the complexity of highlighting the code within an editor, open source packages such as Prism.js and Highlight.js have been made available to developers to leverage within their code editors. Comparing libraries for syntax highlighting ![]() So, developers need to create custom code editors within their applications to render code inputs and blocks.Īlthough building a custom code editor will require significant engineering resources, having a custom code editor will let you tailor the user experience to meet the needs of your users through customized user interfaces. While the HTML code element recognizes and displays computer code using the monospace font, it doesn’t do much to highlight code syntax. Advantages of creating a custom code editor Technical articles that contain code samples use syntax highlighting to differentiate the code blocks within the tutorial from the normal text. Highlighting code blocks makes it more human-readable, and helps with error detection and visual code navigation. Syntax highlighting contributes to the developer experience (DX) obtained from coding in a specific language. Since then, IDEs such as Turbo Pascal have been developed, which provide more advanced syntax highlighting features to differentiate code keywords with colors and font styles. Syntax highlighting dates back to the late 60s when text editors such as Emacs and Vi introduced basic styling features such as line numbering and character highlighting. Syntax highlighting is a feature built into text and code editors alongside Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) to style a rendered block of code according to the linting rules and conventions of the programming language. Adding the react-syntax-highlighter package.Setting the states in React with useState Hook.Setting up the React code editor project.Wireframing the React code editor and syntax highlighter.Comparing libraries for syntax highlighting.Advantages of creating a custom code editor. ![]() The source code will be available here, for reference. We will also provide interactivity within the editor, meaning users will be able to switch between multiple languages and themes. ![]() In this tutorial, we will create a React code editor and syntax highlighter so you can type in your code and see how it gets highlighted. Highlighted code is much more pleasing to the eye and far easier to read. Long gone are the days when developers coded in Notepad and blogs displayed the code blocks using just HTML. Building a React code editor and syntax highlighter from scratchĮditor’s note: This article was last updated by Nwani Victory on to add information about the advantages of customizing your syntax highlighter, as well as to compare different syntax highlighting libraries, such as Prism.js and Highlight.js. In his spare time, he loves to explore new topics and contribute to open-source web development. Madars Bišs Follow Madars Bišs (aka Madza) is a technical writer.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |