Re: How to add syntax-highlighting to a Help buffer?

[Emanuel Berg]

Raffaele Ricciardi <rfflrccrd@gmail.com> writes:

> I thought that Help buffers relied on Font Lock Mode
> because -- in a Help buffer -- `C-h v font-lock-mode
> RET' replied:
>
>     Its value is t Local in buffer *Help*; global
> value is nil
>
>     Non-nil if Font-Lock mode is enabled.
>
> Had the value of `font-lock-mode' been `nil',
> I would have thought otherwise.

Yeah, but just because it is enabled doesn't mean it
is used.

I don't know why it is enabled if it isn't used,
perhaps someone else can answer that.

> Now that I have understood how things work, I doubt
> that it would be beneficial to use Font Lock Mode in
> Help buffers, because the text could be mixed (for
> example: Emacs Lisp code and regular text).

That is not a problem and that happens all the time.
The regexps are so advanced.

This sentence -

    describe-key is an interactive compiled Lisp
    function in `help.el'

- can be picked apart with only one regexp, and with
groups every single word can be highlighted in
a different color, and none of that that appears
anywhere else would get that color.

I'll do an example some other time and show you.
But if you don't want it, I still want it :)

-- 
underground experts united
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573