knitr Markdown highlighting in Emacs?
Is there any modification of an existing tool or new tool that will syntax-highlight (colour) blocks of R code in a knitr markdown document when opened in Emacs?
The knitr chunks I am looking at are triple-backtick blocks [```] that contain R code inside.
EDIT: things that I tried so far:
- Ubuntu 12.04 with Emacs 23
emacs --version
GNU Emacs 23.3.1
1. Polymode
https://github.com/vitoshka/polymode/issues/3
I am trying to get polymode to syntax-highlight my Rmd files, but it's complaining about a 'color' load file:
cd ~/.emacs.d
git clone https://github.com/vitoshka/polymode.git
In my .emacs file:
(add-to-list 'load-path "/home/avilella/.emacs.d/polymode/")
(add-to-list 'load-path "/home/avilella/.emacs.d/polymode/modes/")
;; Require any polymode bundles that you are interested in:
(require 'poly-R)
(require 'poly-markdown)
eval-buffer:
Cannot open load file: color
- CentOS with Emacs 24:
emacs --version
GNU Emacs 24.2.1
1. Polymode installed correctly
Open a Rmd file, M-x polymode-minor-mode, no change to the syntax highlighting.
emacs --version
GNU Emacs 24.3.1
1. Polymode installed correctly
Open a Rmd file, M-x poly-markdown+r-mode, some of the syntax highlighting starts to appear, but I need to manually modify the test in each triple-tick block of code for it to fully show the syntax.
https://i.stack.imgur.com/bHbBY.png
https://i.stack.imgur.com/a6pVA.png
The second image is just after typing a Return before the knitr block.
polymode: github.com/vitoshka/polymode
Your problem
First of all, you say you have GNU Emacs 23.3.1, but in polymode readme.md, it reads:
Tested with Emacs 24.3.1 and 24.4.5.
As for your error: "Cannot open load file: color", in polymode.el, there is the line:
(require 'color)
this package is in Emacs 24, but it might well miss in your version.
Solution
Upgrade to a recent (therefore supported) version of Emacs. Extract the polymode.zip in a directory where you keep Emacs material, e.g.: ~\conf\emacs
and change the resulting polymode-master dir to polymode
Add this in your init file (and if you used different names above, change names below accordingly): ;; Just an Emacs personal dir containing polymode packages etc. (setq MY-EMACS "~/conf/emacs") (defun my-emacs (subfolder) "Get path to personal dir + subfolder" (concat (expand-file-name MY-EMACS) "/" subfolder)) ;; ESS Markdown ;; ------------- (defun rmd-mode () "ESS Markdown mode for rmd files" (interactive) (setq load-path (append (list (my-emacs "polymode/") (my-emacs "polymode/modes/")) load-path)) (require 'poly-R) (require 'poly-markdown) (poly-markdown+r-mode)) ;; Wrap line in markdown. Comment if you don't dislike words cut in the middle (add-hook 'markdown-mode-hook (lambda () (visual-line-mode 1))) ;; Let you use markdown buffer easily (setq ess-nuke-trailing-whitespace-p nil) Meta+rmd when the Rmd-file is open or set the mode in ... enjoy a dramatic change in your productivity.
PS Do not overlook last elisp line. It will allow to save markdown properly. Otherwise, when you reopen your doc, you'll have unpleasant surprises.
A note to Windows users
Skip this if you are a Linux guy, but, despite the question mention Ubuntu, my answer applies perfectly to Windows Emacs too. Just with respect to:
Step 2) You will extract polymode.zip in: %USERPROFILE%\conf\emacs As you guess, the environment variable %USERPROFILE% contains the path to your user profile directory. If you are not sure what it is, execute set USERPROFILE in the CLI prompt. As a Windows user you might be used to store things in My Documents. In that case your dir will be: %USERPROFILE%\Documents\conf\emacs
Step 3) If in Step 2) you used the path %USERPROFILE%\Documents\conf\emacs, change accordingly the first code line from: (setq MY-EMACS "~/conf/emacs") to (note the slashes): (setq MY-EMACS "~/Documents/conf/emacs") In both cases (with and without "My Documents"), you might prefer the more Windows style: (setq MY-EMACS (substitute-in-file-name "$USERPROFILE/Documents/conf/emacs"))
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(setq ess-swv-processor 'knitr)in you init file.