You can get different colors with something like this:
local styles = StylesGetDefault()
MarkupAddStyles(styles)
styles.text.fg = {0, 0, 255}
styles['**'].fg = {255, 0, 0}
styles['_'].fg = {0, 255, 0}
SetupKeywords(e,"lua",nil,styles,ide.font.oNormal,ide.font.oItalic)
StylesApplyToEditor(styles,e,ide.font.oNormal,ide.font.oItalic)
This will color the bold fragments green and italic fragments red
while the rest of the text will be blue.
Wow, I feel pretty stupid for not having that idea, with all the things that I tried ;) I am at a different task right now, so I won't be able to try it before tomorrow I think, but that seems like a safe bet.
I tried and couldn't get it to work using your markup (^^* and ^^_), so I'm checking what may be causing this. It's not intended to work with the markup you have, but I'm curious as to why it wouldn't. Will update if I find the issue...
I also wondered. Could it be the EscapeMagic function? I am no regexp expert, but that does SOMETHING with ^.
