I am proficient in developing basic syntax highlighting modes based on font-lock-defaults and regex (even with font-lock-multiline and font-lock-extend-region-functions).
Today I faced with format of natural language translation dictionary which look like:
__
begin
[bɪˈgɪn]
v1
began
[bɪˈgæn]
v2
begun
[bɪˈgʌn]
v3
v
ru: начать
ua: починати
__
smile
[smaɪl]
v
ru: улыбаться
n
ru: улыбка
__
e.g.
abbr
en: for example
la: exempli gratia
__
x-rays
topic: sci
en: a kind of radiation that can pass through
most solid materials, often used in medicine
__
woman
[ˈwʊmən]
s
women
[wɪmɪn]
pl
n
ru: женщина
ua: жінка
__
colour
gb
['kʌlə]
color
us
['kʌlər]
n
ru: цвет
ua: колір
__
white
[waɪt]
adj
ant: black
ru: чорный
ua: чорний
As easy to see indenting and new lines with special prefixes define syntax.
Indenting in first part of entry used to separate word variances. Blank lines in second part of article separate different word meaning, lines should begin with defined prefixes and indenting is not allowed.
regex is not context aware and can't be used to properly highlight such file format.
File format have property that is can be validated from any point of file with small lookup around for ^__$ regex.
So I am interested in writing mode that properly highlighted and "localy" validated file (no need to validate far from screen several screens).
Is it possible to develop code or mark text in buffer after parsing so in a few cases when intending necessary function for indenting (by TAB) would be easy to code?
What API should I use to develop such mode myself?
Are there any good reference of existing code to follow?
