Verbatim text

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Displayed text

\starttyping, \typebuffer

Unlike LaTeX's verbatim environment, ConTeXt's typing environments have quite a range of built-in options for formatting the verbatim text, see below.

In-line text

\startTEX ... \stopTEX only works when typesetting the whole paragraph. If you need to type only a command or two as in-line text, you can use the following Taco's macro (hopefully this will land in the core once in the future):

\def\typeTEX
  {\bgroup
   \def\processinlineverbatim##1%
     {\processingverbatimtrue
      \localcatcodestrue
      \def\endofverbatimcommand{\TEXendofcommand##1}%
      \bgroup
      \aftergroup\endofverbatimcommand
      \futurelet\next\doprocessinlineverbatim}%
   \initializetyping{TEX}%
   \startverbatimcolor
   \processinlineverbatim\egroup }

Now you can say:

\typeTEX+\typeTEX{\typeTEX is a wonderful macro}+, isn't it?

Source: [1]

Embedded formatting commands

The option=commands setting allows the usage of ConTeXt commands inside verbatim text, as in this example:

\definetyping[C][option=commands]
\startC
#include <stdio.h>
int main(){
	return 0;
	/BTEX{\em unreachedCode;}/ETEX
}
\stopC

Included Formatters

There are already some formatters for several programming languages in the ConTeXt distribution:

Code	Language
C	C
EIF	Eiffel
JS	JavaScript
JV	Java
MP	MetaPost & MetaFont
PAS	Pascal & Modula
PL	Perl 5
SQL	SQL
TEX	TeX
XML	XML

Your own formatter

(from a ML answer by Taco, 2006-12-25, "Making a verbatim file for another language")

You should start from the definition that is closest to the language you want to define (especially wrt comment and string syntax) and can probably have a go at making a version of this. Some questions occur:

Where should i put my file?

1. Possibly the best place is: In the context distribution, but that depends a bit on what language it is, precisely (you can email me the completed file, in that case).
2. Second best place: http://modules.contextgarden.net, so it can be included in cont-ext.zip (third-party addons that are distributed by Pragma-Ade alongside the normal distribution).
3. Third best: The directory <$HOME/texmf/tex/context/base> (the place where your TeX installation finds local files).
4. Final option: Same directory as the file to be processed

Do I have to do anything else to get ConTeXt to recognise and use it?

Your file has to have a name like verb-xxxx.tex, with xxxx a lowercase short identifier (example: verb-php.tex), and then you have to use one or two commands to make ConTeXt use the file.

First:

\installprettytype [PHP]        [PHP]

This maps the command \starttyping[option=PHP] to verb-php.tex.

The first argument is the option as passed to \starttyping, the second argument is an uppercase version of xxxx (thus allowing ConTeXt to find the file),

And you probably also want:

\definetyping[PHP]   [option=PHP]

Because that allows \startPHP ... \stopPHP as a shortcut to \setuptyping[option=PHP]

Tabbing

The tab character normally corresponds to one character, as can be seen above. That value can be adjusted, using the following code (available in the 2005.06.01 version and later):

\definetyping[C][tab=3]
% for older ConTeXt versions: \chardef\spacespertab=3
\startC
int func(int a){
	if(a > 4)
		return 0;
	else
		return 10;
}
\stopC

Syntax highlighting in color

\setupcolors[state=start]
\setuptyping[option=color]

\starttext
\startXML
... your XML code ...
\stopXML
\stoptext

Defining your own set of colors

Sometimes you may be not quite satisfied with the default colors used in the built-in syntax highlighting. Taco posted this solution in the discussion on the mailing list:

\setupcolors[state=start]
\setuptyping[option=color]

% define the colors to fit your document style
\definecolor[MYcolorone]  [r=.8,g=.5,b=.5]
\definecolor[MYcolortwo]  [r=.8,g=.5,b=.2]
\definecolor[MYcolorthree][r=.8,g=.5,b=.8]
\definecolor[MYcolorfour] [r=.8,g=.2,b=.5]

% define a palete using these four colors
\definepalet[MYcolors]
  [prettyone=MYcolorone,
   prettytwo=MYcolortwo,
   prettythree=MYcolorthree,
   prettyfour=MYcolorfour]

% XML code will be typeset with the palette you just defined
\definepalet[XMLcolorpretty] [MYcolors] % the name is magic !

\starttext
\startXML
... your XML code ...
\stopXML
\stoptext

This results in:

Line numbering

In technical documents it can be required to display some code listings with the line numbers. You can do this with ConTeXt, and even more. All the features shown here are also available when displaying external files with \typefile.

Preliminary setting

Let's define our own typing style, named "code". The typing is put in a framedtext, to demonstrate the wrapping feature in a next section.

\defineframedtext
  [framedcode]
  [strut=yes,
   offset=2mm,
   width=7cm,
   align=right]

\definetyping[code][numbering=line,
                    bodyfont=small,
                    before={\startframedcode},
                    after={\stopframedcode}]

Default line numbering

With the defined typing, every line is numbered, and the number goes in the margin. The option to have the line numbers displayed is numbering=line.

\startcode
This is the first line
This is a rather long line that is wrapped, so look how the line numbering is done
Another line

Last line after an empty line
\stopcode

It is rendered as:

Line numbers in the text

To have the line numbers in the text, change the linenumbering setup like this:

\setuplinenumbering[location=intext]
\startcode
This is the first line
This is a rather long line that is wrapped, so look how the line numbering is done
Another line

Last line after an empty line
\stopcode

Continuing the numbering

Another handy feature is the ability to continue the numbering from one portion of code to another. Use the option continue for this.

\startcode
This is the first line
This is a rather long line that is wrapped, so look how the line numbering is done
Another line

Last line after an empty line
\stopcode

Some normal text to explain the first piece of code,
and introduce the following lines.

\startcode[continue]
This is the first continuing line
This is a rather long line that is wrapped, so look how the line numbering is done
Another line
Last line
\stopcode

Arbitrary starting line number

You can also decide what the starting line number is. Use the option start=number for this.

\startcode[start=200]
This is the first line
This is a rather long line that is wrapped, so look how the line numbering is done
Another line
Last line
\stopcode

Line number steps

You want to print a number every two lines? Ok, just use the option step=number for this.

\startcode[start=200,step=2]
This is the first line
This is a rather long line that is wrapped, so look how the line numbering is done
Another line
Last line
\stopcode