Enhance WordPress Code Formatting with New Plugin

Many forum participants have voiced a strong desire for improved code formatting features. If you have expertise in PHP and WordPress, your skills could be pivotal in bringing this enhancement to life.

The goal is to create a WordPress plugin that integrates with the post display function. This plugin should identify HTML "code" or "pre" tags within the post content. Upon detection, it should eliminate any nested code/pre tags due to a known WordPress issue. The remaining content should be HTML-encoded, transforming backticks into HTML entities. Finally, the plugin should apply syntax highlighting or other formatting before returning the content to WordPress for display.

If you're interested in contributing to this project, please get in touch.

Current Code Formatters and Their Drawbacks

Although there are existing code formatting tools, they have certain limitations:

• Many require custom shortcodes, which forum users may not readily adopt. Encouraging the use of the standard CODE tag, which is available on the toolbar, is already a challenge.
• Some demand additional directives to specify the programming language and other details, which has historically been a barrier for users.
• Several rely heavily on client-side JavaScript, resulting in poor performance and compatibility issues with other site scripts.
• Most do not handle WordPress' treatment of backticks effectively. While WordPress uses them as code delimiters, they serve different purposes in languages like PowerShell.

The solution required is neither large nor complex, but it does require some investment of time.

Development Progress and Updates

Currently, I am working on a solution. I've implemented the GeSHi parser, similar to what is used on PoshCode.org, but with customized CSS styling. If anyone is interested in enhancing the parser or the CSS, feel free to contact me for the current code. As it stands, we achieve line-numbered, colorized syntax in a scrollable window when enclosing code blocks with the appropriate tags. WordPress backticks are not used for code, and inline code is unsupported. Older HTML-style CODE and PRE tags will be automatically converted. I believe this approach addresses the core needs.