Question: AucTeX on emacs is pretty amazing tool, but when I write one single '$', all the coloring is broken. 

Normally one '$' is accompanied by another '$' to express math equations, but for source listing single '$' is frequently used. 

```
\begin{Verbatim}
(let ((buffer (url-retrieve-synchronously
...
    (re-search-forward "^$" nil 'move) <-- It breaks the coloring 
...
\end{Verbatim}

```

The easy solution is as follows to match the '$'.

```
(re-search-forward "^$" nil 'move) ;; $

```

Is there any option in AucTeX to prevent this single '$' problem?

Answer: 
AUCTeX knows that `$` is not special in verbatim environments, but you have to tell it that `Verbatim` is a verbatim environment by arranging for it to appear in `LaTeX-verbatim-environments-local`.

If AUCTeX is installed optimally, it already knows, because AUCTeX loads a style hook for each file you load through `\usepackage` and friends. You may need to tell it to parse your header file with `C-c C-n` (`TeX-normal-mode`).

If that's not enough, it means `Verbatim` was defined in a style file for which AUCTeX doesn't have enough information. You can tell AUCTeX to parse some or all the style files you have installed; see the “Automatic” chapter in the AUCTeX manual.

Sometimes AUCTeX doesn't manage to parse the style file; then you can do this part by hand. The code below assumes that you're getting the `Verbatim` environment from the `fancyvrb` package; adapt the name otherwise. Create a file called `fancyvrb.el` in one of the directories mentioned in `TeX-style-path` with the following contents (there may be other things worth putting there, I've just adapted `alltt.el`):

```

(TeX-add-style-hook
 "fancyvrb"
 (lambda ()
   (LaTeX-add-environments "BVerbatim" "LVerbatim" "SaveVerbatim" "Verbatim")
   (make-local-variable 'LaTeX-indent-environment-list)
   (add-to-list 'LaTeX-indent-environment-list '("BVerbatim" current-indentation))
   (add-to-list 'LaTeX-indent-environment-list '("LVerbatim" current-indentation))
   (add-to-list 'LaTeX-indent-environment-list '("SaveVerbatim" current-indentation))
   (add-to-list 'LaTeX-indent-environment-list '("Verbatim" current-indentation))
   (make-local-variable 'LaTeX-verbatim-regexp)
   (setq LaTeX-verbatim-regexp (concat LaTeX-verbatim-regexp "\\|\\([BL]?\\|Save\\)Verbatim"))
   (add-to-list 'LaTeX-verbatim-environments-local "BVerbatim")
   (add-to-list 'LaTeX-verbatim-environments-local "LVerbatim")
   (add-to-list 'LaTeX-verbatim-environments-local "SaveVerbatim")
   (add-to-list 'LaTeX-verbatim-environments-local "Verbatim")
   (when (and (featurep 'font-latex)
              (eq TeX-install-font-lock 'font-latex-setup))
     (font-latex-set-syntactic-keywords)
     (setq font-lock-set-defaults nil)
     (font-lock-set-defaults))))

```

(I thought you could also do it manually through file variables, but this turns out not to work, because the font-lock settings are built before the file local variables are initialized, and I don't see a workaround.)
Is there a reason to use Verbatim vs. verbatim? verbatim makes everything in the section the same color for me. As an aside, I prefer to use the [listings package.](http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX/Packages/Listings) for showing program code in latex.

> 
> Using the package listings you can add non-formatted text as you would do with \begin{verbatim} but its main aim is to include the source code of any programming language within your document.
> 
> 
>