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I am trying to set up a script for the conceal feature to prettify strings in Python. This worked fine so far for single word substitutions. But now I would like to replace "not in" with "∉". I tried this:

syntax match pyOperator "not in" conceal cchar=∉

But that does not match anything and I don't see why not. e.g.

x not in l stays x not in l

However

syntax match pyOperator " not in " conceal cchar=∉

works. But I want the former version, as this one makes

x not in l to x∉l, hiding the spaces.

Why does the second version work and the first does not and how can I make it work?

btw. I also tried other variants, such as

syntax match pyOperator "\s\+not\s\+in\s\+'" conceal cchar=∉

That one does not work t all either, which also puzzles me, as t is a superset of the second version.

lo tolmencre
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  • That is odd. Your first command works for me (OSX NeoVim 0.3.1, Linux Vim 7.4), obviously as long as `set cole=2`. Can you try with `vim -u NONE` to make sure none of your other settings are interfering? – Amadan Aug 29 '18 at 05:19
  • Never mind - it doesn't work specifically in Python files. So the command itself is fine, but there's another syntax item that's blocking it. – Amadan Aug 29 '18 at 07:56
  • @Amadan I used this as the base for my file, if that helps: https://github.com/khzaw/vim-conceal/blob/master/after/syntax/python.vim – lo tolmencre Aug 29 '18 at 08:30
  • Seems like `syntax keyword pythonOperator not` is taking precedence, and making it impossible to match `not in` at the same place. This is why putting a space in front makes a difference. – Amadan Aug 29 '18 at 08:45

1 Answers1

2

It is being blocked by the syntax keyword pythonOperator and in is or not definition, which seems to take precedence over syntax match (and doesn't allow for overlap). So we'll clear out that definition, and replace it with an equivalent syntax match one.

" ~/.vim/after/syntax/python.vim
syn clear pythonOperator
syn match pythonOperator /and\|is\|or\|not/
syn match pythonOperator /not in/ conceal cchar=∉
syn match pythonOperator /in/ conceal cchar=∈

I also changed your pyOperator to the standard pythonOperator; one reason is that it's already there (for in, and, is, or and not, as seen above); the other reason (from :help 44.2):

By convention, each group name is prefixed by the filetype for the language being defined. [...] In a syntax file for "csh" scripts the name "cshType" would be used. Thus the prefix is equal to the value of 'filetype'.

Amadan
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  • I see! Thanks a lot. Do you know any good general tutorial on defining custom syntax highlighting and concealment? – lo tolmencre Aug 29 '18 at 12:23
  • No idea, sorry. About Vim, I'm almost exclusively relying on `:help`; if that fails (and it's not common), then Google and random smart people on the Internet. I don't know any resource that would consistently outperform Vim's `:help`. In this case, `:help :syn-match`, `:help :syn-keyword`, `:help :syn-clear`, `:help pattern` and `:help /\|` should be useful. – Amadan Aug 29 '18 at 12:52