CODEWITHSUNDEEP
vim
SilentDev
SilentDev

Reputation: 22777

How to use different colorscheme and syntax highlighting in vim?

Suppose I want to use this colorscheme: https://github.com/NLKNguyen/papercolor-theme

I copied the PaperColor.vim file into .vim/colors and made my .vimrc:

syntax on
colorscheme PaperColor
background=light

Now, I want to use this syntax highlighting for haskell files: https://github.com/raichoo/haskell-vim/tree/master/syntax

There are two syntax highlighting files. Which one am I supposed to use, and where do it put them?

Thanks!

Do I put it in ./vim/syntax and vim auto-loads all files in ./vim/syntax folder?

It seems like to load haskell.vim automatically. But doesn't load cabal.vim. Wondering if it only loads haskell.vim when I open .hs files? I'm trying to make it like that. Can vim load multiple syntax files at once?

Upvotes: 4

Views: 1697

Answers (1)

Ingo Karkat
Ingo Karkat

Reputation: 172738

TL;DR: Everything's (mostly) fine. There's a difference between colorschemes and syntax scripts.

Most filetypes (like python) in Vim come with a syntax that defines highlight groups (see them via :highlight python<C-d>). These particular groups (e.g. pythonFunction) are then linked to a set of default groups (:help highlight-groups, e.g. Identifier). A colorscheme then provides combinations of foreground / background color and/or formatting like bold and italic (separately for terminals, color terminals, and/or GVIM) for the default groups.

highlight group → default group → color + style
pythonFunction → Identifier → term=underline ctermfg=3 guifg=DarkCyan

So, for a set of beautifully matching colors that please your personal taste, you choose a colorscheme. For you, that would be colorscheme PaperColor. Note that the background needs to be set before choosing the color (and you've missed the :set command):

syntax on
set background=light
colorscheme PaperColor

The syntax scripts know how to parse a certain syntax (for you: both haskell and cabal; what gets activated depends on filetype detection, which usually does the right thing, but you could also manually override it (:setlocal syntax=cabal); I think the former is for Haskell source code while cabal is a package definition). They basically recognize certain syntax elements, and link them to generic highlight groups (like Statement, String, Comment, and so on). Now how these are then colored (e.g. bold green) is determined by your chosen colorscheme.

As you can see, colorschemes and syntax scripts each have a distinct role, and play together. While the former is a global personal choice, the latter is activated based on the detected filetype, which is different for each buffer.

Upvotes: 2

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