EmEditor syntax highlighter matching priority / precedence: Flawed?

[Patrick C]

EmEditor’s highlighter would allow full customisation by using regex matches.
→ Emphasis on would.

Example 1: Javascript template string literal.
Regex: ‵.*?‵
→ Strings and comments in the regex result in the regex being ignored 😧

Example 2: Same as example 1, but with custom double quoted string detection.
Template string regex: ‵.*?‵
Double quoted string regex: “.*?”
→ Same flaw 😞

Example 3: Same as example 2, but with custom string and comment detection.
Template string regex: ‵.*?‵
Double quoted string regex: “.*?”
Line comment regex: //.*$
→ Same flaw 😭

Is this intended?
Did I miss a setting in the options?
How could I achieve the desired effect?

[Yutaka Emura]

This is currently by design, as ” and // are given higher priority than other general highlights.

[Patrick C]

Hello Yutaka,

Thank you for your feedback so far!

This is currently by design, as ” and // are given higher priority than other general highlights.

Perhaps you missed my last example, where " and // are disabled and only regex highlighting is used (guess I posted too many examples).

Motivated by your response, I’ve now looked into this a bit deeper and narrowed down the cause.
The problem arises when a regex matches multiple characters, i.e. when using * or + or {3,} etc.

The following is an updated example, putting aside " and //:
Two regex matches are active, all string and comment matches are disabled.

″.*?″ regex match 1/2
%%.*$ regex match 2/2

Same problem:
EmEditor stops matching ″.*?″ as soon as it encounters %%.*$, even though the regex match for ″.*?″ has not yet been completed.

Would this be difficult to fix?
Because it is a serious limitation. One could write much more accurate highlighters than what is currently possible.

Your help is greatly appreciated.
Many thanks!
Patrick

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