Andy> Hello, Andy> Please forgive me, I'm rather new at using Xemacs (21.1 on Andy> SunOS) so it is most likely that my question has a simple Andy> answer. I code primarilly in Perl and for some reason one Andy> of my scripts will not fontify and the syntax will not So it does not fontify at all? Is the file extension the same of your other scripts? Do any of the files contain "file variables" like # -*-CPerl-*- ? See (Info-goto-node "(xemacs)Choosing Modes") Andy> highlight when I open it using Xemacs. What baffels me is Andy> that this one script is the only one out of dozens of Andy> scripts with problems. Also, this problem has only come up That's pretty strong evidence against this one script, I'd say. Andy> recently. I'm wondering if there is any possible way that a Andy> bad keystroke or bad combination of keystrokes in the script Andy> could cause problems when Xemacs scans the code? The code Sure. I would expect some coloring though. What does the modeline say? Does it contain "CPerl"? Andy> is Andy> > 7000 lines long and I just went through and made some Andy> > major revisions, so Andy> finding something which I don't know what to look for would Andy> be tough. I've messed around with the Syntax Highlight That's why revision control is such a wonderful thing. Andy> options and nothing seems to correct the problem short of Andy> rewriting the code. If you have any thoughts on this I'd Andy> greatly appreciate as I'm too much of a rookie to know what Andy> else to do. You should try to reduce the file size until the problem goes away. Then send us the smallest part of the script which still shows the problem. Use binary search to do this: Is the problem in the first half of the script or in the second? Cut down the part with the problem again and see which part shows the problem. This should allow you to come up with a fairly small test-case. Hope this helps, Adrian Andy> Thank you, Andy> Andy Fortna Andy> Research Assistant Andy> Eleanor Roosevelt Institute Andy> 1899 Gaylord Street Andy> Denver, CO 80206-1299 Andy> Email: andy(a)eri.uchsc.edu Andy> Phone: (303) 336-5681 -- Adrian Aichner mailto:adrian＠xemacs.org http://www.xemacs.org/

Andy> I'm wondering if there is any possible way that a bad Andy> keystroke or bad combination of keystrokes in the script Andy> could cause problems when Xemacs scans the code? Yes, this is possible. Several complex kinds of code interact in font-lock. It is occasionally the case with this kind of problem that simply inserting a newline or a comment in the right place will suddenly allow font-lock to proceed. Such problems are much more common with development versions, though. It's unusual in 21.1. As recommended by Adrian and Craig, you can do binary search on the file. You can use M-x font-lock-fontify-region to fontify regions. Also look at the " *Message-Log*" buffer (the quote marks should be omitted, the leading space is significant) to see if there are any interesting messages or (more interesting!) missing ones. Font-lock is normally pretty verbose, telling you about each of several phases. To see what's "normal", font-lock one buffer that "works." -- University of Tsukuba Tennodai 1-1-1 Tsukuba 305-8573 JAPAN Institute of Policy and Planning Sciences Tel/fax: +81 (298) 53-5091 _________________ _________________ _________________ _________________ What are those straight lines for? "XEmacs rules."