I had to build my own binaries to enable syntax highlighting for elvis 2.2_0 on Slackware 12.2. My SlackBuild, info and package are available. Note that my package has three bugs:
You will need to symlink /usr/bin/vi to /usr/bin/elvis:

#ln -s /usr/bin/elvis /usr/bin/vi

You will need to add ELVISPATH="/usr/share/elvis" to your .bashrc, .bash_profile or /etc/profile
:help does not find the html help files.

Documentation for syntax highlighting:
http://elvis.vi-editor.org/elvisman/elvisdm.html#syntax
http://elvis.vi-editor.org/elvisman/elvisex.html#color

.elvisrc plaintext (right-click, Save As)

color normal light yellow
color idle green
color bottom green
color lnum gray
color showmode gray
color ruler gray
color selection boxed magenta
color hlsearch boxed white
color hlobject boxed white
color spell boxed white
color fold yellow
color header white
 
color comment gray
color string light blue
color char light blue
color regexp like string
color regsub like string
color number light white
color other light red
color keyword light magenta
color function cyan
color variable green
color prep light magenta
color prepquote light blue
color doc white
color docmarkup white
color docindent white
color kindt like keyword
color libt like keyword
 
color specialkey yellow
color nontext yellow
color extends yellow
 
color hexheading red
color hexoffset red
color hexcursor red
 
set showmatch
set showmode
set prompt
set number
set autoindent
set undolevels=25
set ruler
set magic
set nottyunderline
set hlsearch

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