diff --git a/src/plugins/glsleditor/glsleditor.cpp b/src/plugins/glsleditor/glsleditor.cpp
index 18fa55228f3..b6d1f328562 100644
--- a/src/plugins/glsleditor/glsleditor.cpp
+++ b/src/plugins/glsleditor/glsleditor.cpp
@@ -163,7 +163,7 @@ GLSLTextEditorWidget::GLSLTextEditorWidget(QWidget *parent) :
 
     connect(this, SIGNAL(textChanged()), this, SLOT(updateDocument()));
 
-    baseTextDocument()->setSyntaxHighlighter(new Highlighter(this, document()));
+    new Highlighter(baseTextDocument());
 
 //    if (m_modelManager) {
 //        m_semanticHighlighter->setModelManager(m_modelManager);
@@ -312,7 +312,7 @@ void GLSLTextEditorWidget::updateDocumentNow()
 {
     m_updateDocumentTimer->stop();
 
-    int variant = languageVariant();
+    int variant = languageVariant(mimeType());
     const QString contents = toPlainText(); // get the code from the editor
     const QByteArray preprocessedCode = contents.toLatin1(); // ### use the QtCreator C++ preprocessor.
 
@@ -371,10 +371,9 @@ void GLSLTextEditorWidget::updateDocumentNow()
     }
 }
 
-int GLSLTextEditorWidget::languageVariant() const
+int GLSLTextEditorWidget::languageVariant(const QString &type)
 {
     int variant = 0;
-    QString type = mimeType();
     bool isVertex = false;
     bool isFragment = false;
     bool isDesktop = false;
diff --git a/src/plugins/glsleditor/glsleditor.h b/src/plugins/glsleditor/glsleditor.h
index ba228f4c22d..703569357fc 100644
--- a/src/plugins/glsleditor/glsleditor.h
+++ b/src/plugins/glsleditor/glsleditor.h
@@ -100,7 +100,7 @@ public:
 
     QSet<QString> identifiers() const;
 
-    int languageVariant() const;
+    static int languageVariant(const QString &mimeType);
 
     Document::Ptr glslDocument() const;
 
diff --git a/src/plugins/glsleditor/glslhighlighter.cpp b/src/plugins/glsleditor/glslhighlighter.cpp
index 7a5cb702d88..2055ac1ffc8 100644
--- a/src/plugins/glsleditor/glslhighlighter.cpp
+++ b/src/plugins/glsleditor/glslhighlighter.cpp
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@
 #include <glsl/glsllexer.h>
 #include <glsl/glslparser.h>
 #include <texteditor/basetextdocumentlayout.h>
+#include <texteditor/basetextdocument.h>
 
 #include <QtCore/QDebug>
 
@@ -41,8 +42,8 @@ using namespace GLSLEditor;
 using namespace GLSLEditor::Internal;
 using namespace TextEditor;
 
-Highlighter::Highlighter(GLSLTextEditorWidget *editor, QTextDocument *parent)
-    : TextEditor::SyntaxHighlighter(parent), m_editor(editor)
+Highlighter::Highlighter(BaseTextDocument *parent)
+    : TextEditor::SyntaxHighlighter(parent)
 {
 }
 
@@ -72,7 +73,8 @@ void Highlighter::highlightBlock(const QString &text)
     lex.setState(state);
     lex.setScanKeywords(false);
     lex.setScanComments(true);
-    const int variant = m_editor->languageVariant();
+    const int variant =
+        GLSLTextEditorWidget::languageVariant(static_cast<BaseTextDocument*>(parent())->mimeType());
     lex.setVariant(variant);
 
     int initialState = state;
diff --git a/src/plugins/glsleditor/glslhighlighter.h b/src/plugins/glsleditor/glslhighlighter.h
index e9dc44ef7e3..1d52f98d528 100644
--- a/src/plugins/glsleditor/glslhighlighter.h
+++ b/src/plugins/glsleditor/glslhighlighter.h
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ public:
         NumGLSLFormats
     };
 
-    explicit Highlighter(GLSLTextEditorWidget *editor, QTextDocument *parent);
+    explicit Highlighter(TextEditor::BaseTextDocument *parent);
     virtual ~Highlighter();
 
     void setFormats(const QVector<QTextCharFormat> &formats);
@@ -72,7 +72,6 @@ protected:
 
 private:
     QTextCharFormat m_formats[NumGLSLFormats];
-    GLSLTextEditorWidget *m_editor;
 };
 
 } // namespace Internal
diff --git a/src/plugins/texteditor/syntaxhighlighter.cpp b/src/plugins/texteditor/syntaxhighlighter.cpp
index 3dfe2b9a118..f10b2037860 100644
--- a/src/plugins/texteditor/syntaxhighlighter.cpp
+++ b/src/plugins/texteditor/syntaxhighlighter.cpp
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@
 **************************************************************************/
 
 #include "syntaxhighlighter.h"
+#include "basetextdocument.h"
 
 #include <qtextdocument.h>
 #include <qtextlayout.h>
@@ -324,6 +325,13 @@ SyntaxHighlighter::SyntaxHighlighter(QTextDocument *parent)
     setDocument(parent);
 }
 
+SyntaxHighlighter::SyntaxHighlighter(BaseTextDocument *parent)
+    : d_ptr(new SyntaxHighlighterPrivate)
+{
+    d_ptr->q_ptr = this;
+    parent->setSyntaxHighlighter(this); // Extra logic (including setting the parent).
+}
+
 /*!
     Constructs a SyntaxHighlighter and installs it on \a parent 's
     QTextDocument. The specified QTextEdit also becomes the owner of
diff --git a/src/plugins/texteditor/syntaxhighlighter.h b/src/plugins/texteditor/syntaxhighlighter.h
index fe61561fc21..112dd65378a 100644
--- a/src/plugins/texteditor/syntaxhighlighter.h
+++ b/src/plugins/texteditor/syntaxhighlighter.h
@@ -49,6 +49,7 @@ QT_END_NAMESPACE
 
 namespace TextEditor {
 
+class BaseTextDocument;
 class SyntaxHighlighterPrivate;
 
 class TEXTEDITOR_EXPORT SyntaxHighlighter : public QObject
@@ -58,6 +59,7 @@ class TEXTEDITOR_EXPORT SyntaxHighlighter : public QObject
 public:
     SyntaxHighlighter(QObject *parent);
     SyntaxHighlighter(QTextDocument *parent);
+    SyntaxHighlighter(BaseTextDocument *parent);
     SyntaxHighlighter(QTextEdit *parent);
     virtual ~SyntaxHighlighter();