Example Text

Syntax languages have to ability to expose a small code snippet showing many of the constructs in the language.

This can be used in options dialogs to show the current classifications / syntax highlighting settings affect a particular language. In this case, it is best to use code the shows all the various classifications and related highlighting styles.

Basic Concepts

The IExampleTextProvider interface is a simple interface that describes an ExampleText property. The property simply returns a code snippet that can be used by a language for example text purposes.

The ExampleTextProvider class implements the IExampleTextProvider interface and provides an easy way to associate example text with your languages.

Registering with a Language

Any object that implements IExampleTextProvider can be associated with a syntax language by registering it as an IExampleTextProvider service on the language.

This code creates XML example text and registers it with the syntax language that is already declared in the language variable:

language.RegisterExampleTextProvider(new ExampleTextProvider("<xml></xml>"));