How can I get syntax highlighting for common lisp in SLIME's REPL?

Question

I want to learn Common Lisp and have installed emacs (24.3) and slime via the emacs package manager.

In the slime REPL syntax highlighting doesn't work. When I start Lisp-Mode (while in the slime REPL) on the other hand, the values of the expressions don't get printed anymore (when I type, say "Hello World" and hit enter I get a new line instead of the value of the expression.

(If I open lisp files syntax highlighting works)

Lodicule

Where exactly is syntax highlighting not working? Are you talking about *.lisp buffers or the REPL or both? You also might want to add the common lisp tag to your question to increase visibility. – Aid

I'm talking about the REPL. – Lodicule

Added the tag and edited the question, hope it is more clear now. – Lodicule

I get syntax highlighting for the buffer, although I don't get the differentiated syntax highlighting as in a CL code buffer. Instead the entire *slime-repl*buffer gets syntax-highlighting which allows to quickly distinguish between code you typed, warnings or messages from your CL system and return values. – Aid

Answer 1

this works for me (https://comp.emacs.narkive.com/AWoywbFs/tweaking-slime):

(defvar slime-repl-font-lock-keywords lisp-font-lock-keywords-2)
(defun slime-repl-font-lock-setup ()
  (setq font-lock-defaults
        '(slime-repl-font-lock-keywords
         ;; From lisp-mode.el
         nil nil (("+-*/.<>=!?$%_&~^:@" . "w")) nil
         (font-lock-syntactic-face-function
         . lisp-font-lock-syntactic-face-function))))
      
(add-hook 'slime-repl-mode-hook 'slime-repl-font-lock-setup)
      
(defadvice slime-repl-insert-prompt (after font-lock-face activate)
  (let ((inhibit-read-only t))
    (add-text-properties
     slime-repl-prompt-start-mark (point)
     '(font-lock-face
      slime-repl-prompt-face
      rear-nonsticky
      (slime-repl-prompt read-only font-lock-face intangible))))))

Behling

I use evil for vi bindings, and this config was preventing me from scrolling through my REPL history while in Normal mode. The solution was to change (point) to (1- (point)), which essentially has the effect of only applying read-only and other properties to the prompt itself and not the space character immediately after it. – Revareval