Clean C++ Syntax

An alternative no-nonsense C++ syntax. And an opinionated light color theme designed to take advantage of it.

Why?

The stock C++ grammar is a huge 16kloc monstrosity that tries to be too clever for my taste. It tries to parse various C++ constructs to provide a poor man's semantic highlighting, which it has no business doing - that's a language server's job.

What?

This is a simpler C++ grammar, rewritten from scratch. It only highlights individual lexial elements: keywords, literals, etc.

Keywords are dividied into several categories, and the provided theme takes advantage of it.

Goals for the grammar:

• Conform to the standard C++ as much as possible.

  The stock grammar highlights a few non-standard elements, we don't do that.

• Convenient customization.

  Keywords are separated into dozens of categories, grouped by their meaning. Each category can be styled separately.

• It should be as simple as possible.

  Again, attempting to do advanced C++ parsing in a grammar is silly. I'm not going to try to highlight function/class/namespace names and such. If you want semantic highlighting, install an language server that does it properly.

Usage:

The custom grammar automatically overrides the default C++ grammar. The langauge name is changed to C++' to indicate that.

The color theme has to be enabled manually, if desired:

CtrlShiftP ▶ Preferences: Color Theme ▶ Clean C++ Light.