Sublime Text 3 Doesn't Recognize %i in ruby

Question

I'm using the latest build of Sublime Text 3. When typing %i[foo bar] Sublime does not seem to recognize this and I don't get the proper highlighting.

Has anyone else experienced this? If so, is there a way I can fix this on my end or is this something that Sublime HQ would have to fix?

Answer 1

The %i[foo bar] # [:foo :bar] literal notation for a symbol array was only implemented in Ruby 2.0, while the Ruby language definition that ships with ST3 is mostly focused on 1.9 and earlier. I searched around a bit, but unfortunately I couldn't find any .tmLanguage files that are updated for 2.0, let alone include this literal notation, so I can't point you to a ready-made solution. But, I do have a few suggestions.

First, head over to the unofficial Sublime Text Issues tracker and post a bug report. We're not sure how much attention is paid to this list by the developer, but it at least broadens the issue's visibility and may prompt someone to post a fix. You can also reply to this thread on the Sublime Text forum and perhaps reference your issue.

The second option, if you have good regex-fu, is to hack the Ruby.tmLanguage file and add support yourself. I was going to post directions on how to do it, but then I tried it myself and it seemed to work, so feel free to use my work:

1. Go to Preferences -> Browse Packages to open up the Packages folder in your system's file explorer.
2. Create a folder called Ruby2.
3. Copy the contents of this gist into a new file, and save it in your Ruby2 directory as Ruby2.tmLanguage.
4. Restart Sublime, switch to your problematic code, and select View -> Syntax -> Ruby2. Both lines should now be highlighted the same way. Here's a before and after screenshot using the Neon Color Scheme:

I hope this helps. I'm not a Rubyist, so if I made any blatant errors please let me know.

From my (brief) research there definitely seems to be a need for an updated version of Ruby.tmLanguage for all the new features in 2.0, so hopefully any issues you post will prompt someone to start/publish a project. I've already done something similar for Python, but my Ruby skillz just aren't there for this project :)

Good luck!