Distinguish TSSymbol from TSVariable

[mikehaertl]

In the current implementation TSSymbol (@symbol) and TSVariable (@variable) are both linked to Fg.

But I think that symbols have a quite different meaning in most languages, more like constants. So I suggest to make them also visually distinguishable from variables.

For example in Elixir a symbol (i.e. atom) is a global constant that looks like :foo or foo:.

The default schema makes it hard to see the difference.

Here I have :hi link TSSymbol Orange:

[antoineco]

I think that's reasonable. In the colorscheme we highlight the general purpose group @symbol, but this is a remnant from older Neovim versions which was since renamed to @string.special.symbol. :h treesitter-highlight-groups doesn't list the former anymore.

For reference, I ran a GitHub search for /@string.special.symbol/ path:/^queries\/highlights.scm/, which found this group used in the following grammars:

• solidity
• ruby
• elixir
• julia
• erlang
• haskell

[antoineco]

Tried the change on an Elixir file, but the result was aggressive to say the least:

before

after (TSField)

after (TSAttribute)

Granted, the file may not be representative of the typical Elixir code. In particular, values are mostly literals whereas in your code they are mostly variables.

[mikehaertl]

Your example shows an app configuration so it's clear that it's full of atoms (symbols) as all of them are well-known config keys. IMO they should pop out to separate them from variables.

So I still think the change would make sense. But of course it all also boils down to personal taste.

Even here at github they use different colors (blue vs. black). They are almost not distinguishable but github's color scheme in general has less contrast.

defmodule KV.BucketTest do
  use ExUnit.Case, async: true

  setup do
    {:ok, bucket} = KV.Bucket.start_link([])
    %{bucket: bucket}
  end

  test "stores values by key", %{bucket: bucket} do
    assert KV.Bucket.get(bucket, "milk") == nil

    KV.Bucket.put(bucket, "milk", 3)
    assert KV.Bucket.get(bucket, "milk") == 3
  end
end

[antoineco]

@sainnhe I'm thinking about linking @string.special.symbol.ruby and @string.special.symbol.elixir to TSField (Orange) in Ruby and Elixir files. Any objection from your side?

For information, these are linked to Constant in Vim's built-in syntax, which is Orange (Vim) / Fg (Tree-Sitter) in Sonokai.

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[sainnhe]

@antoineco Sorry for late reply. It looks good to me. I don't write Ruby and Elixir so I'd respect your opinion on this.