# 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:** 1\
**Showing post:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Wall-E](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/wall-e/32/184438_2.png) [@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")

</div>

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?

---

_[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/syntax-highlighting-for-idl/176988)._