# Syntax highlighting for IDL
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/syntax-highlighting-for-idl/176988
**Category:** Development
**Created:** [January 22, 2021, 9:55pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/syntax-highlighting-for-idl/176988 "2021-01-22T21:55:41Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Wall-E](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Wall-E)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2021, 9:55pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/syntax-highlighting-for-idl/176988/1 "2021-01-22T21:55:41Z")
I am hoping to have syntax highlighting for the [Interactive Data Language (IDL)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IDL_(programming_language)) in our self-hosted Discourse instance.
It does not seem to be among the supported languages. It is indeed rather a niche but most of our users use IDL (astronomy & atmospheric physics). A few editors actually support it like BBEdit/TextWrangler and here is where a [.plist file](http://hintspace.blogspot.com/2014/02/bbedittextwrangler-codeless-language.html) can be found for it (I haven’t tested this in many years though).
Is there any way to use the work done in such a .plist file to provide IDL syntax highlighting in my Discourse instance without starting from scratch? Also, where can I find documentation on how to write the necessary file(s) for Discourse?
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### Author:  [@Falco](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Falco)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2021, 10:02pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/syntax-highlighting-for-idl/176988/2 "2021-01-22T22:02:05Z")
Discourse leverages Highlight.js for this work, which supports 191 languages, but I can’t find IDL on the list.
May be helpful to check the library and how you can add support for IDL on it:
> **[We're not a CDN - highlight.js](https://highlightjs.org/not-a-cdn)**
There are some issues mentioning IDL:
[https://github.com/highlightjs/highlight.js/pull/1315](https://github.com/highlightjs/highlight.js/pull/1315)
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### Author:  [@Wall-E](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Wall-E)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2021, 10:06pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/syntax-highlighting-for-idl/176988/3 "2021-01-22T22:06:57Z")
@Falco this is not the same language. That issue talks about the “Interface Definition Language”, same acronym but it is a completely different language.