Syntax highlighting rules and definitions

Question

Are there any standard syntax highlighting rules for R? If yes, where can they be found?

Or does each editor, IDE, package (e.g., the highlight package) create their own rule set?

Answer 1

Each editor creates their own rule set. For historical reasons, each editor has implemented syntax highlighting in its own way. Having a cross-editor standard may be possible using, for example, GeSHi, but it would almost certainly require a lot of effort getting editor makers to sign up to it, especially if they already have their own system.

Eclipse uses .hrc files for storing syntax information.
RStudio has a file called r_highlight.html.
Notepad++ stores keywords for different languages in a file named langs.model.xml.
Textpad has its own .syn format for the code highlighting.
TextWrangler has a plugin.