Enabling italics in vim syntax highlighting for mac terminal
italics, macos, syntax-highlighting, terminal, vim
Solution
As of SnowLeopard, Terminal doesn’t support the italic attribute (SGR, value 3). Feel free to file a request at http://bugreporter.apple.com.
Update: Italic support was added to Terminal in macOS Sierra 10.12. Note that the xterm terminfo files included with that version of ncurses do not declare the italic `sitm` capability. See the vim-specific workaround in Bahman Eslami’s answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/53625973/754997 or cheon’s answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/48512956/754997 for creating a terminfo file that declares `sitm`.
Problem
I'd like to have vim display my comments in italics, and I understand I need to place ``` cterm=italic ``` in the ``` hi Comment ``` line in the color.vim file I'm using. This, however, is having no effect on the text display, which I suspect has to do with some Terminal.app setting, unless I'm misunderstanding the vim syntax. I'd appreciate if someone can show me how to enable this feature. Additionally, I am currently using the Monaco font, which does not have a separate italic file (however, the italic syntax-highlighting doesn't work for Consolas, Lucida, Bitstream Vera or other italic- or oblique-enabled fonts either). Assuming that a solution exists for fonts with italics, do I have to jump through any further hoops to get Monaco working? Thanks for any input. EDIT: I'm surprised I haven't gotten an answer yet; this doesn't seem like it should be too difficult to do. Maybe it is. Alternatively, could someone explain why this would not be possible?