Indicate programming language in a file without extension

Question

When writing executable scripts, and declarative configuration files that use a common language (eg. Python), I often find it undesirable to add an extension to the file name. Many syntax-highlighting text editor (eg. Geany) are subsequently unable to automatically determine the filetype.

Is there any standard method for indicating to editors the type of source in the file?

Answer 1

Typically the shebang line is used as a fall-back.

For example, a Ruby script without an extension would begin with:

#!/usr/bin/env ruby