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You’ve probably noticed in my Programming entries, I’m using a WordPress plugin to display code in a color-formatted view with line numbers.

The plugin I am using is iG:Syntax Hiliter, made by Amit Gupta, a fellow geek based in India. (I had a friend in grade school named Manish Gupta; I don’t know if maybe they are related. From what I gather, “Gupta” is the “Smith” of India; but I digress.)

Anyway, Amit used the very popular GeSHi (Generic Syntax Highligher) code highlighting program, written in PHP, as the building block; he also relied on the Yahoo! User Interface Library. Amit didn’t credit those as clearly as I would have, but he didn’t hide the fact he used them, either, and he is distributing his code under an open license.

That makes him good people, as we say in Maine.

There are a number of benefits to iG:Syntax Hiliter:

• It’s one of the few that works with WordPress 2.x
• It’s easy to skin.
• He’s taken care so that the default install works with most WordPress themes.
• He’s done a good job of documenting the operation of the plugin, but it’s not that hard to use.

I chose it because the other WordPress 2.x-compatable syntax highlighters I could find, I didn’t like. They all had one or two serious problems with aesthetics; Amit’s plugin is by far the most elegant.

I highly recommend iG:Syntax Hiliter. It’s right up there with Akismet, in my humble opinion.