I've used several syntax-highlighting text editors to write Perl code, and I'm always disappointed that they do not usefully highlight complex variables inside double quoted strings.

What's the simplest way to get syntax highlighting to match the actual interpolation behaviour of the perl interpreter?

e.g. vim 7.1 type this:

print "There are $sanity->{sane} lights"

The $sanity is a different colour, indicating it will be interpolated. But the ->{sane} is the same colour as the rest of the string, implying it will not be interpolated (but it will in fact be interpolated).

Shouldn't the whole of $sanity->{sane} be the same colour as an interpolated variable? That way one could know whether or not the syntax was actually correct for interpolation.

Perhaps there's a way to do this with syntax highlighting settings? But even Padre failed to highlight properly and I thought that was supposed to know the most about Perl internals.

In reply to Useful syntax highlighting to illustrate variable interpolation? by will_

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