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Asked: 2026-06-01T15:12:47+00:00

I come from the ruby and python worlds where we have many libraries that

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I come from the ruby and python worlds where we have many libraries that can syntax highlight arbitrary code from many languages. I am looking for something similar in the objc ecosystem, but i can’t seem to find such, is there one available?

The equivalent libraries in Ruby would be CodeRay and Pygments for Python,

thanks in advance!

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  1. Editorial Team

    Banister,

    I myself have searched for a long time for a nice and robust Cocoa Syntax Highlighter, and since I’m currently building a code-oriented text editor myself, that would be a major part of the project.

    So, I found out that there are plenty of Objective-C/Cocoa -friendly Syntax Highlighting libraries/components. For a starter (for something relatively basic, that is), I would suggest you have a look at :

    However, if you really need something POWERFUL, well-tested and still Cocoa-friendly, I would definitely suggest you to try the Scintilla component (for Cocoa). The code is great, and the community (at Scintilla-Interest Group) will gladly help you iron out any issues you may encounter.

    In a few words :

    I’m currently using on an about-to-be-release big project and it’s working beautifully for me.

    Scintilla

    Scintilla is a free library that provides text-editing functions, with
    an emphasis on advanced features for source code editing. SciTE
    (cross-platform), Geany, Notepad++ (Windows), and Notepad2 (Windows)
    are examples of standalone editors based on Scintilla.

    Scintilla Editing Component in use (SciTe)

    Scintilla Editing Component

    Features

    Scintilla supports many features to make code editing easier in
    addition to syntax highlighting. The highlighting method allows the
    use of different fonts, colors, styles and background colors, and is
    not limited to fixed-width fonts. The control supports error
    indicators, line numbering in the margin, as well as line markers such
    as code breakpoints. Other features such as code folding and
    autocompletion can be added.

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