> Is there some way, perhaps through a syntax rule, or
> rules, to have Vim shade the background of *alternating*
> CSS definitions, assuming this file format?
While I'm not sure the below will solve it, I've pasted in
some dialog from Benji Fisher and Tony Mechelynck (from back
in February of this year, which I saved as I thought it was
a nifty stunt) regarding the highlighting of alternate
*lines*. One might be able to use this as a foundation for
doing alternate CSS-rule-blocks:
BF>> I have not used syntax much either, but I decided to test
BF>> this. I think what you want is (two :hi lines and)
BF>> something like this:
BF>>
BF>> :syn match Oddlines "^.*$" contains=ALL nextgroup=Evenlines
skipnl
BF>> :syn match Evenlines "^.*$" contains=ALL nextgroup=Oddlines
skipnl
BF>>
BF>> In other words, drop "transparent" and add "skipnl". I
BF>> tested it with
BF>>
BF>> :syn clear
BF>>
BF>> first; I am not sure how well it will work without that.
AM>
AM> I agree about "skipnl".
AM>
AM> Got it to work on text files, as follows (on W32)
AM>
AM> ---- ~/vimfiles/after/syntax/text.vim
AM> hi default Oddlines ctermbg=grey guibg=#808080
AM> hi default Evenlines cterm=NONE gui=NONE
AM>
AM> syn match Oddlines "^.*$" contains=ALL nextgroup=Evenlines skipnl
AM> syn match Evenlines "^.*$" contains=ALL nextgroup=Oddlines skipnl
AM>
AM> ---- $VIM/vimfiles/after/filetype.vim
AM> augroup filetypedetect
AM> au BufRead,BufNewFile *.txt setf text
AM> augroup END
AM>
AM> ---- ~/vimfiles/colors/almost-default.vim
AM> [...]
AM> hi Oddlines ctermbg=yellow guibg=#FFFF99
AM> hi Evenlines ctermbg=magenta guibg=#FFCCFF
AM> [...]
AM>
AM> Notes:
AM> 1. filetype.vim in an "after-directory" and with ":setf"
AM> to avoid overriding already-detected "special" .txt files.
AM> 2. With "default" before the highlight name in the syntax
AM> file (but not without it) the colors from the colorscheme
AM> (invoked from the vimrc) are used. (Without a colorscheme,
AM> the "default" colors from the syntax file are still used.)
AM> 3. Haven't succeeded (but haven't much tried) to make it
AM> work for a more complex filetype with an already defined
AM> syntax like HTML
AM> 4. After entering the above changes, Vim must be restarted
AM> for them to take effect.
Hope it helps give you some grounds from which to find a
solution (even if I think Tony's a tad messed-in-the-head for
choosing yellow/magenta for alternating colors ;-)
-tim
