Are there any tools available that simplify the creation of the syntax XML? In its current state, this part of sugar development is a major and critical obstacle.

I can imagine it would be fantastic to generate the XML from BNF notation or translate from other editor products via XSLT or something.

Any ideas?

There’s a tool to convert from Textmate syntax files, but it’s pretty hit and miss and you definitely have to go through and clean/test things after the fact:

http://wiki.macrabbit.com/index/Syntaxes/

(Link midway down; called the Espresso Syntax Tool.)

I don’t think anyone has written converters for other products, although it would certainly be possible to do via just about any scripting language with basic XML support.  So far, most Sugar authors have just been coding by hand.

There is also a very basic Sugar.sugar that contains snippets and codesense for most Sugar XML tags to help speed up development:

http://github.com/derekr/sugar.sugar

I tried using the tool to convert a tmLanguage file, but I can’t figure out where the result ends up. Doesn’t seem to output to the clipboard or a file.

Any pointers on how to use it?

...martin

(OS 10.6.4)

1) Launch the TM syntax tool application
2) Click the Convert TextMate Syntax button
3) Navigate to the TM syntax definition in the resulting window, select it, and click Open
4) Navigate to where you want to save the Espresso syntax XML file and hit Save