Martians Tool's Martians Tool's adds clean, layered code shading to Visual Studio, so structure becomes obvious at a glance. Each feature supports alpha transparency, which means you can stack multiple colouring layers and still keep the code readable. The result is subtle depth and clarity — not noisy highlighting. TableColor TableColor detects brace-based, comma-separated patterns like { ... , ... } and highlights each “column” (each comma-separated item) with a predefined background colour. Pattern recognition: Works on {, , } style lists, e.g. {1,2,{a,b,c,{Q,W,E},d},3} Nested structures: Supports multiple levels of nesting (braces inside braces) Visual linking: {} and separators , use configurable separator (foreground) colours Customisation: Enable/disable, 16 token background colours (RGB), 16 separator colours (RGB), global alpha (0–255)
ParameterColor ParameterColor works like TableColor, but targets parenthesis-based, comma-separated parameter lists: ( ... , ... ). Each argument slot gets its own background colour. Pattern recognition: Detects (, , ) lists, e.g. Foo(int x, int y, int z) and call(x, y, z)
Nested parentheses: Supports multiple levels of nesting (calls inside calls)
Visual linking: ( ) and , use configurable separator (foreground) colours
Customisation: Enable/disable, 16 token background colours (RGB), 16 separator colours (RGB), global alpha (0–255)
IndentColor IndentColor highlights indentation levels by drawing subtle, coloured background bands behind each indent step. This makes deeply nested scopes readable without counting spaces. Indent level shading: Each indentation level gets its own background colour
Helps with structure: Great for if/else, loops, early returns, and deep nesting
Customisation: Enable/disable, 16 indent background colours (RGB), global alpha (0–255)
PatternColor PatternColor searches for user-defined string patterns and applies configurable highlighting. Ideal for marking tags like TODOs, section headers, debug markers, or custom “landmarks”. Up to 50 rules with per-rule enable/disable Global enable plus per-rule settings Per-rule styling: mode, alpha, RGB colour Modes: 0 – Match only: only the matched text is highlighted 1 – Match → end of visible line: from match start to the end of the visible line 2 – Full line: highlights the entire line containing the match 3 – Brace block mode: pairs {} and highlights from the match until the end of the corresponding closing brace block (supports nesting). If an empty line appears immediately after the matched line, only the matched line is highlighted.
BlockColor BlockColor highlights {} brace pairs by drawing a subtle rectangular background that spans the entire block, making scope boundaries obvious without hunting for the matching brace. Brace pair detection: Finds matching { and } and highlights the block between them. Column-anchored layout: The opening { defines the column (this becomes the rectangle’s top-left alignment), and the rectangle extends down to the corresponding closing }. Nested blocks supported: Correctly handles nested {} pairs, so inner scopes are highlighted within outer scopes. Customisation: Enable/disable Global alpha (transparency) 16 configurable block colours (RGB) It’s basically “show me the real shape of the code” — perfect for dense if/else, loops, and deeply nested scopes.
One more important thing: all colouring features are designed to work together. Because each layer supports alpha transparency, you can stack effects and still keep the code readable — the result is more like shading than loud highlighting.
In the example above, the //#1 PatternColor rule is used to apply a base highlight to the whole function region. On top of that, BlockColor (with a lower alpha) adds soft block shading for each {} scope. This creates a clean, “layered depth” effect where the structure pops out automatically: PatternColor defines the area, and BlockColor gently reveals the nested blocks and indentation inside it. Global settings + INI import/export All configured colours and rules can be saved to and restored from a plain-text INI file. This makes it easy to back up your setup, share colour presets with others, or keep multiple profiles for different themes. Export INI: Writes the current configuration to a text-based INI file Import INI: Loads a previously saved configuration back into the extension
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