Highlighting code in Kramdown or Maruku with Vim

I write posts in Markdown for this blog. Also I use Kramdown (I used Maruku before) for compiling pages into HTML. Maruku has builtin support for syntax highlighting in but unfortuantely it supports only Syntax. Syntax is a great lib with simple yet powerful implementation but it’s very underdeveloped. It has only Ruby, XML and YAML syntax modules by default. With a fair bit of googling it’s possible to find a few more modules but most of them are outdated and not complete. Kramdown doesn’t have any built in support for syntax highlighting at all. There are many other solutions including CodeRay and Ultraviolet gems. For some reason I’m not a fan of those. I’ve come up with a solution to suit my needs. I use gvim to highlight code. First of all, this solution clearly has some disadvantages:

Though, I see some advantages that beat all the sad parts.

Basically this all done with two parts. First is a Kramdown/Maruku monkey patch to replace builtin syntax highlighting function. Unfortunately neither Maruku, nor Kramdown provides any API or something for this. The second part is a modified buf2html vim script that generates exactly what is needed for the Kramdown/Maruku part. Also highlighted code is cached so it won’t get highlighted on every compilation.

So here’s some examples of code highlighting and the code itself.

lib/vim_syntax_highlighter.rb

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230require 'digest'
require 'nokogiri'
require 'extlib'
require 'kramdown'
require 'maruku'

module VimHighlighter
  def highlight_code(code, options = {})
    options = {:lang => '', :css => true, :syntax => true,
      :line_numbers => true, :first_line => 1,
      :background => ''}.merge(options)
    options[:lang] ||= ''

    cache_key = Digest::SHA1.hexdigest(
      [ options[:lang], options[:syntax], options[:css],
        options[:line_numbers], options[:line_number],
        options[:background] ].join('-')) +
        '-' + Digest::SHA1.hexdigest(code)

        cache_file = File.expand_path(
          File.join('tmp', "#{cache_key}.codehl")
        )

    if File.exists? cache_file
      f = File.open(cache_file)
      code_html = f.read
      f.close
      code_html
    else
      if options[:syntax]
        require 'tempfile'

        synfile = Tempfile.new('synfile')
        synfile.flush
        codefile = Tempfile.new('codefile')
        codefile << code
        codefile.flush

        cmd = "gvim -vfnN -i NONE --remote-tab-wait-silent " \
          "'+set filetype=#{options[:lang]} | " \
        "set nonu | syntax on | " \
          "let b2h_use_css=#{options[:css] ? '1' : '0'} | " \
        "colorscheme desert | " \
          "source #{File.expand_path('lib/buf2html.vim')} | "\
          "w! #{synfile.path} | bd! | " \
          "bd!' '#{codefile.path}' > /dev/null 2>&1"

        `#{cmd}`

        unless $? == 0
          raise StandardError.new(
            "Vim syntax highlighter failed. Exit code: #{$?}"
          )
        end

        synfile.rewind

        code_html = synfile.read.strip
      else
        code_html = "<code>#{code}</code>"
      end

      doc = Nokogiri::HTML(code_html)
      code_el = doc.css('body>*').first
      code_el['class'] = options[:lang] unless options[:lang].blank?

      pre_el = Nokogiri::XML::Element.new 'pre', doc
      unless code_el['style'].blank?
        pre_el['style'] = code_el['style']
        code_el.remove_attribute 'style'
      end

      unless options[:css]
        style = "position:relative;padding:0.5em"
        if pre_el['style']
          pre_el['style'] += ";#{style}"
        else
          pre_el['style'] = style
        end
      end

      if options[:line_numbers]
        ln_holder = Nokogiri::XML::Element.new 'span', doc
        if options[:css]
          ln_holder['class'] = 'LineNr'
          pre_el['class'] = 'numbered'
        else
          ln_holder['style'] = "position:absolute;" +
                              "width:2em;text-align:right;"
          code_el['style'] = 'position:relative;left:3em'
        end
        ln_holder << Nokogiri::XML::Text.new(
          (
            options[:first_line]...(options[:first_line] +
                                code_html.lines.count)
          ).to_a.join("\n"), doc
        )
        pre_el << ln_holder
      end

      pre_el << code_el

      unless options[:background].blank?
        pre_el['style'] = "background: #{options[:background]};"
      end

      File.open(cache_file, 'w') do |f|
        f.write(pre_el.to_s)
      end
      pre_el.to_s
    end
  end
end

if defined? Kramdown
  module Kramdown::Converter

    class Html
      include VimHighlighter

      def get_option(el, key, default = nil)
        val = if el.options[:attr].nil? || el.options[:attr][key].nil?
          if @doc.options["syntax-#{key}".to_sym].nil?
            default.to_s
          else
            @doc.options["syntax-#{key}".to_sym].to_s
          end
        else
          el.options[:attr][key].to_s
        end

        if val.downcase == 'true' || val.downcase == 'no' ||
          (val.to_i != 0 && (default == true || default == false))
          return true
        end
        if val.downcase == 'false' || val.downcase == 'yes' ||
          (val.to_i == 0 && (default == true || default == false))
          return false
        end
        if val.to_i.to_s == val || val.is_a?(Numeric)
          return val.to_i
        end
        val
      end

      def convert_codeblock(el, inner, indent)
        lang = get_option el, 'lang', ''
        use_syntax = get_option el, 'syntax', true
        use_css = !!get_option(el, 'css', true)
        line_numbers = get_option(el, 'line-numbers', true)
        first_line = get_option(el, 'first-line', 1)

        code_html = highlight_code(el.value, :lang => lang, :css => use_css,
                      :syntax => use_syntax,
                      :line_numbers => line_numbers,
                      :first_line => first_line)

        "#{' ' * indent}#{code_html}\n"
      end
    end
  end
end

if defined? Maruku
  Maruku::Globals[:'syntax'] = true
  Maruku::Globals[:'syntax-lang'] = ''
  Maruku::Globals[:'syntax-css'] = true
  Maruku::Globals[:'syntax-line-numbers'] = true
  Maruku::Globals[:'syntax-first-line'] = 1

  module MaRuKu
    class MDElement
      include VimHighlighter

      def get_setting(sym, prefix = nil)
        if self.attributes.has_key?(sym) then
          self.attributes[sym]
        elsif self.doc && self.doc.attributes.has_key?(sym) then
          self.doc.attributes[sym]
        elsif MaRuKu::Globals.has_key?(sym)
          MaRuKu::Globals[sym]
        elsif !prefix.nil? then
          get_setting "#{prefix}-#{sym}".to_sym
        else
          $stderr.puts "Bug: no default for #{sym.inspect}"
          nil
        end
      end
    end

    module Out::HTML

    def to_html_code
      lang = get_setting :lang, :syntax
      use_syntax = get_setting(:syntax)
      use_css = get_setting :css, :syntax
      line_numbers = get_setting :'line-numbers', :syntax
      first_line = get_setting :'first-line', :syntax


      element =
        begin
          code_html = highlight_code(self.raw_code, :lang => lang, :css => use_css,
                        :syntax => use_syntax,
                        :line_numbers => line_numbers,
                        :first_line => first_line.to_i)
          Document.new(code_html, {:respect_whitespace =>:all}).root
        rescue Object => e
          maruku_error "Error while using the vim syntax highlighter\n\n" +
            "Code:  -------------------------------------------------------------------\n" +
            self.raw_code +
            "\nCode HTML:  --------------------------------------------------------------\n" +
            (code_html || '') +
            "\nLang:  -------------------------------------------------------------------\n" +
            lang +
            "\nObject: ------------------------------------------------------------------\n" +
            self.inspect +
            "\nException: ---------------------------------------------------------------\n" +
            "#{e.class}: #{e.message}" +
            "\nBacktrace: ---------------------------------------------------------------\n" +
            "\t#{e.backtrace.join("\n\t")}"

          tell_user "Using normal PRE because the vim syntax highlighter did not work."
          to_html_code_using_pre self.raw_code
        end
      add_ws element
    end
    end
  end
end

lib/buf2html.vim

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374" buf2html.vim - generate HTML/XHTML+CSS from a Vim buffer
"      (using the current syntax highlighting colorscheme)
"
" This script is heavily modified to suit my needs. Namely, use vim as
" code highlighting tool for Maruku.
"
" Based on buf2html 2.0b2
"
" Original script can be found at:
"   http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=2384

" ---------------------------------------------------------------------
" Usage:  :[<various settings>] | source buf2html.vim
" Options:
"       The following global ("g:") variables can be used to configure
"        the script's output. 'b2h_use_css' should nearly always be
"        defined, for example in .vimrc: let b2h_use_css = 1.  Using
"        plain HTML could be helpful if only a snippet of the output
"        is needed for something.
"
"  * b2h_use_css       - use CSS instead of HTML tag attributes markup.
"  * b2h_use_inlstyle  - use CSS but only in style="..." attributes
"            inside HTML element tags XXX CURRENTLY UNIMPLEMENTED.
"-----------------------------------------------------------------------

" various and sundry script-scoped variables
let s:sourcefilepathname = substitute(expand("%:p"),'\\','/','g')
" Save the file basename + extension (the 'tail'):
let s:srcfile_bnsuff = expand('%:t')
" Save the filetype:
let s:source_ft = &filetype
" Work out the encoding:
if   &fileencoding != ""
  let s:quoted_enc = "\"" . &fileencoding . "\""
  let s:unquoted_e = &fileencoding
elseif &encoding != ""
  let s:quoted_enc = "\"" . &encoding . "\""
  let s:unquoted_e = &encoding
endif

" Work out what to name the new buffer when created:
if s:srcfile_bnsuff == ""
  let s:synhl_HTMLfile = 'Untitled.html'
elseif  s:srcfile_bnsuff[-5:-1] =~ '\.html'
  let s:synhl_HTMLfile = substitute(s:srcfile_bnsuff
        \ , '\c\.HTML$', '_HTML_', '') .'.html'
else
  let s:synhl_HTMLfile = s:srcfile_bnsuff . '.html'
endif

" Work out what a suitable tmp directory might be:
let s:badfnchars = "\t\n'".' "*?[{`$\\%#|!<>'
let s:mytmpdir = ''
let s:dex = ( exists($TMP)      ?  '$TMP'
  \        : exists($TEMP)     ?  '$TEMP'
  \        : exists($TMPDIR)   ?  '$TMPDIR' : '')
if s:dex && isdirectory(s:dex)
    let s:mytmpdir = escape(expand(s:dex), s:badfnchars)
else
    let s:mytmpdir = '/tmp'
endi


" Options governing script operations.
let s:useCSS   = 0
let s:inlstyle = 0
if exists('g:b2h_use_css') && g:b2h_use_css
  let s:useCSS = 1
  if exists('g:b2h_use_inlstyle') && g:b2h_use_inlstyle
    let s:inlstyle = 1
  endif
endif

" When not in gui we can only guess the colors.
if has("gui_running")
  let s:whatterm = "gui"
else
  let s:whatterm = "cterm"
  if &t_Co == 8
    let s:cterm_color0  = "#808080"
    let s:cterm_color1  = "#ff6060"
    let s:cterm_color2  = "#00ff00"
    let s:cterm_color3  = "#ffff00"
    let s:cterm_color4  = "#8080ff"
    let s:cterm_color5  = "#ff40ff"
    let s:cterm_color6  = "#00ffff"
    let s:cterm_color7  = "#ffffff"
  else
    let s:cterm_color0  = "#000000"
    let s:cterm_color1  = "#c00000"
    let s:cterm_color2  = "#008000"
    let s:cterm_color3  = "#804000"
    let s:cterm_color4  = "#0000c0"
    let s:cterm_color5  = "#c000c0"
    let s:cterm_color6  = "#008080"
    let s:cterm_color7  = "#c0c0c0"
    let s:cterm_color8  = "#808080"
    let s:cterm_color9  = "#ff6060"
    let s:cterm_color10 = "#00ff00"
    let s:cterm_color11 = "#ffff00"
    let s:cterm_color12 = "#8080ff"
    let s:cterm_color13 = "#ff40ff"
    let s:cterm_color14 = "#00ffff"
    let s:cterm_color15 = "#ffffff"
  endif
endif

" Return good color specification: in GUI no transformation is done, in
" terminal return RGB values of known colors and empty string on unknown
if s:whatterm == "gui"
  function! s:HtmlColor(color)
    return a:color
  endfun
else
  function! s:HtmlColor(color)
    if exists("s:cterm_color" . a:color)
      execute "return s:cterm_color" . a:color
    else
      return ""
    endif
  endfun
endif

" Added 2008-08-26 ---------------------------------------
function! s:BrightAverage(hexspec)
    let triplet = strpart(a:hexspec, 1)
    let bfact = 1.10
    let R = str2nr(triplet[0:1],16)
    let G = str2nr(triplet[2:3],16)
    let B = str2nr(triplet[4:5],16)
    if R + G + B == 0|let s:abitbrighter = '#403040'|return 0|endif
    if R == 0|let Rs = 2|endif
    if G == 0|let Gs = 2|endif
    if B == 0|let Bs = 2|endif
    let rv = printf( '%d', ( R + G + B ) / 3 )
    let factrRGB =
      \ [ printf('%02x', bfact * (R || Rs))
      \ , printf('%02x', bfact * (G || Gs))
      \ , printf('%02x', bfact * (B || Bs)) ]
    let s:abitbrighter = '#'.factrRGB[0].factrRGB[1].factrRGB[2]
    return rv
endfu
" --------------------------------------------------------

if ! s:useCSS
  " Return opening HTML tag for given highlight id
  function! s:HtmlOpening(id)
    let style = s:CSS1(a:id)
    if (style != "")
      return '<span style="' . style .'">'
    else
      return ''
    end
  endfun

  " Return closing HTML tag for given highlight id
  function s:HtmlClosing(id)
    if (s:CSS1(a:id) != "")
      return '</span>'
    else
      return ''
    endif
  endfun
endif

" Return CSS style describing given highlight id (can be empty)
function! s:CSS1(id)
    let a = ""
    if synIDattr(a:id, "inverse")
      " For inverse, we always must set both colors (and exchange them)
      let x = s:HtmlColor(synIDattr(a:id, "bg#", s:whatterm))
      let a = a . "color:" . ( x != "" ? x : s:bgc ) . ";"
      let x = s:HtmlColor(synIDattr(a:id, "fg#", s:whatterm))
      let a = a . "background-color:" . ( x != "" ? x : s:fgc ) . ";"
    else
      let x = s:HtmlColor(synIDattr(a:id, "fg#", s:whatterm))
      if x != "" | let a = a . "color:" . x . ";" | endif
      let x = s:HtmlColor(synIDattr(a:id, "bg#", s:whatterm))
      if x != "" | let a = a . "background-color:" . x . ";" | endif
    endif
    if synIDattr(a:id, "bold")
      let a = a . "font-weight:bold;"
    endif
    if synIDattr(a:id, "italic")
      let a = a . "font-style:italic;"
    endif
    if synIDattr(a:id, "underline")
      let a = a . "text-decoration:underline;"
    endif
    return a
endfun

" Set some options to make it work faster.
" Expand tabs in original buffer to get 'tabstop' correctly used.
" Don't report changes for :substitute, there will be many of them.
let s:old_title    = &title
let s:old_icon     = &icon
let s:old_et       = &l:et
let s:old_report   = &report
set notitle noicon
setlocal et
set report=1000000

" >>>> NEW BUFFER / WINDOW CREATED HERE -- % NOW MEANS SOMETHING ELSE!  <<<<
exec 'new '.s:mytmpdir .'/'. s:synhl_HTMLfile
set modifiable
%d
let s:old_paste = &paste
set paste

" Begin creating the new document.
"--------------------------------


" Now that we have our HEAD on straight... NOTE do NOT do a NEWLINE after
" <code> or will get a silly empty line at top of output HTML.
exe "normal a<code>\e"

" Jump back to previous buffer.
exe "normal \<C-W>p"

" List of all id's
let s:idlist = ","

" Find the background and foreground colors.
let s:fgc = s:HtmlColor(synIDattr(highlightID("Normal"), "fg#", s:whatterm))
let s:bgc = s:HtmlColor(synIDattr(highlightID("Normal"), "bg#", s:whatterm))
if s:fgc == ""
  let s:fgc = ( &background == "dark" ? "#ffffff" : "#000000" )
endif
if s:bgc == ""
  let s:bgc = ( &background == "dark" ? "#000000" : "#ffffff" )
endif

" Have a way to represent a (invisible) TAB char for makefiles:
let s:TAB_Repr = '<span class="tabchar">|-TAB-\&gt;|</span>'


" Loop over all lines in the original text
let s:end = line("$")
let s:lnum = 1
while s:lnum <= s:end
  " Get the current line, with tabs expanded to spaces when needed
  " FIXME: What if it changes syntax highlighting?
  let s:line = getline(s:lnum)
  if stridx(s:line, "\t") >= 0
    if s:source_ft != 'make'
      exe s:lnum . "retab!"
      let s:did_retab = 1
      let s:line = getline(s:lnum)
    endif
  else
      let s:did_retab = 0
  endif

  let s:len = strlen(s:line)
  let s:new = ""

  " Loop over each character in the line
  let s:col = 1
  while s:col <= s:len
    let s:startcol = s:col " The start column for processing text
    let s:id = synID(s:lnum, s:col, 1)
    let s:col = s:col + 1

    " Speed loop (it's small - that's the trick)
    " Go along till we find a change in synID
    while s:col <= s:len && s:id == synID(s:lnum, s:col, 1)
      let s:col = s:col + 1
    endwhi

    let s:backedup = s:col
    if ' ' == matchstr(getline(s:lnum), '.\{' . -1 + s:backedup . '}\zs.')
      while ' ' == matchstr(getline(s:lnum), '.\{' . s:backedup . '}\zs.')
        let s:backedup -= 1
      endwhile
    endif

    let nonblank = ( s:backedup < s:col ? s:backedup : s:col )

    " Output the text with the same synID, with class set to c{s:id}
    let s:id = synIDtrans(s:id)
    let s:new = s:new . '<span class="c' . s:id . '">' .
                \ substitute(substitute(substitute(substitute(
                \ substitute(substitute(strpart(s:line, s:startcol - 1,
                \ nonblank - s:startcol), '&', '\&amp;', 'g'), '<',
                \ '\&lt;', 'g'), '>', '\&gt;', 'g'), '"',
                \ '\&quot;', 'g'), "\x0c", '<hr class="page-break">',
                \ 'g'), "\x09", s:TAB_Repr, 'g')
                \ . '</span>'

    while s:backedup < s:col
      let s:new = s:new . ' '
      let s:backedup += 1
    endwhi

    " Add the class to class list if it's not there yet
    if stridx(s:idlist, "," . s:id . ",") == -1
      let s:idlist = s:idlist . s:id . ","
    endif
    if s:col > s:len | break | endif
  endwhile

  if s:did_retab | undo | endif
  exe "normal \<C-W>pa" . strtrans(s:new) . "\n\e\<C-W>p"
  let s:lnum = s:lnum + 1
  +
endwhile



" Finish with the last lines.
exe "normal \<C-W>p\<Up>\<End>a</code>\e"

" Normal/global attributes:
if ! s:useCSS
  exec '%s/<code\([^>]*\)>/<code\1 style="background-color:' .
        \ s:bgc . ';color:' . s:fgc . '">/'
endif

" Gather attributes for all other classes
let s:idlist = strpart(s:idlist, 1)
while s:idlist != ""
  let s:attr     = ""
  let s:col      = stridx(s:idlist, ",")
  let s:id       = strpart(s:idlist, 0, s:col)
  let s:id2name  = synIDattr(s:id, "name", 'gui')
  let s:idlist   = strpart(s:idlist, s:col + 1)
  let s:attr     = s:CSS1(s:id)

  if strlen(s:attr) != 0
    if s:useCSS && ! s:inlstyle
      exec '%s+<span class="c' . s:id . '">+<span class="' .
            \ s:id2name . '">+g'
    else
      let s:Tag_attr_id_to = s:HtmlOpening(s:id)
      let s:Tag_attr_id_tc = s:HtmlClosing(s:id)
      exec '%s+<span class="c'. s:id .'">\([^<]*\)</span>+'.
            \ s:Tag_attr_id_to .'\1'. s:Tag_attr_id_tc .'+g'
      let s:Tag_attr_id_to = ''
      let s:Tag_attr_id_tc = ''
    endif

  else
    " clean attribute-less syn id segments
    exec '%s+<span class="c' . s:id . '">\([^<]*\)</span>+\1+g'
  endif
endwhile


" Cleanup (we've already lost last user's pattern match highlighting)
%s:\s\+$::e
if has("extra_search") | nohlsearch | endif

" Restore old settings
let &report   = s:old_report
let &title    = s:old_title
let &icon     = s:old_icon
let &paste    = s:old_paste
exe "normal \<C-W>p"
let &l:et     = s:old_et
exe "normal \<C-W>p"

" Save a little bit of memory (Is this worth doing?)
unlet s:old_et s:old_paste s:old_icon s:old_report s:old_title
unlet s:whatterm s:idlist s:lnum s:end s:fgc s:bgc
unlet! s:col s:id s:attr s:len s:line s:new s:did_retab
delfunc s:HtmlColor
delfunc s:CSS1
if ! s:useCSS
  delfunc s:HtmlOpening
  delfunc s:HtmlClosing
endif
unlet s:useCSS