help: Any way to setup inline code padding larger than "▐" & "▌" ?

[bew]

Neovim version (nvim -v)

0.11.4

Neovim distribution

N/A

Description

Hello!

As the title says, I'm currently using half-blocks:

  code = {
    inline_left = "▐",
    inline_right = "▌",
  }

Giving nice rendering like:

But I don't like how it looks like there's a lot of empty space around the code (1.5 width of a block).

I'd like to try to have almost-full blocks on the left & right.
For the right side I can easily use: "▊" (~0.75 width of a block)

The issue is that for the left side there is no ready-to-use unicode block AFAIK.
There is this one instead: "▎" (~0.25 width of a block)

But I don't think there is a way with this plugin to reverse the color for this side only of the extmark 🤔

What do you think? What would be necessary to make this work?

Healthcheck output

==============================================================================
render-markdown:                                                            ✅

render-markdown.nvim [versions] ~
- ✅ OK neovim >= 0.11
- ✅ OK tree-sitter ABI: 15
- ✅ OK plugin: 8.12.2

render-markdown.nvim [configuration] ~
- ✅ OK valid

render-markdown.nvim [tree-sitter markdown] ~
- ✅ OK parser: installed
- ✅ OK ABI: 15
- ✅ OK highlights: /nix/store/p7yvhcf8lfnkbqk5jpfp8k422yrsls5w-nvim-deps-dir-nvim-bew-xdg/nvim-bew/site/pack/nix-managed-plugins/opt/nvim-treesitter/queries/markdown/highlights.scm
- ✅ OK highlights: /nix/store/fnd7aqj1dljf9ywch1b8a88m8bync266-nvim-dir-nvim-bew-xdg/nvim-bew/queries/markdown/highlights.scm
- ✅ OK highlighter: enabled

render-markdown.nvim [tree-sitter markdown_inline] ~
- ✅ OK parser: installed
- ✅ OK ABI: 15
- ✅ OK highlights: /nix/store/p7yvhcf8lfnkbqk5jpfp8k422yrsls5w-nvim-deps-dir-nvim-bew-xdg/nvim-bew/site/pack/nix-managed-plugins/opt/nvim-treesitter/queries/markdown_inline/highlights.scm
- ✅ OK highlights: /nix/store/fnd7aqj1dljf9ywch1b8a88m8bync266-nvim-dir-nvim-bew-xdg/nvim-bew/queries/markdown_inline/highlights.scm

render-markdown.nvim [tree-sitter html] ~
- ✅ OK parser: installed
- ✅ OK ABI: 14

render-markdown.nvim [tree-sitter yaml] ~
- ✅ OK parser: installed
- ✅ OK ABI: 14

render-markdown.nvim [icons] ~
- ✅ OK using: nvim-web-devicons

render-markdown.nvim [conflicts] ~
- ✅ OK headlines: not installed
- ✅ OK markview: not installed
- ✅ OK obsidian: not installed

Plugin configuration

{
  -- ...
  code = {
    border = "thin",
    conceal_delimiters = false,
    inline_left = "▐",
    inline_right = "▌",
    language_border = "▄",
    language_left = "▄█",
    language_right = "█"
  },
  -- ...
}

[MeanderingProgrammer]

I added a way to specify the highlight for the left and right icon separately here: e9d7409

So you can now do something like:

vim.api.nvim_set_hl(0, 'CodeInlineLeft', {
    fg = vim.api.nvim_get_hl(0, { name = 'Normal', link = false }).bg,
    bg = vim.api.nvim_get_hl(0, { name = 'RenderMarkdownCodeInline', link = false }).bg
})

require('render-markdown').setup({
    code = {
        inline_left = '▎',
        inline_right = '▊',
        highlight_inline_left = 'CodeInlineLeft',
    },
})

I think this works for the most part, but still has edge cases, like in floating windows where the background color is different the fg = vim.api.nvim_get_hl(0, { name = 'Normal', link = false }).bg won't quite match. Honestly no idea how to solve this in general. There's no way that I can tell to specify "use the current window's background color as the foreground for this highlight group".

LMK what you think!

[bew]

AWESOME ✨ I got it to work exactly as I want!
Thanks a lot!
bew/dotfiles@53f70f5

I re-defined all hl groups for inline code to precisely control the colors, and using a reversed hl for the left side made it work properly everywhere 😉

---

Render:

Insert mode:

Hover:

[MeanderingProgrammer]

That's interesting, I didn't know reverse = true functions like that, thanks!
Glad you got it working!

Below is how to make my previous attempt actually work:

local bg = vim.api.nvim_get_hl(0, { name = 'RenderMarkdownCodeInline', link = false }).bg
vim.api.nvim_set_hl(0, 'CodeInlineRight', { fg = bg })
vim.api.nvim_set_hl(0, 'CodeInlineLeft', { fg = bg, reverse = true })

require('render-markdown').setup({
    code = {
        inline_left = '▎',
        inline_right = '▊',
        highlight_inline_right = 'CodeInlineRight',
        highlight_inline_left = 'CodeInlineLeft',
    },
})