Code4Delphi — Delphi Language Support for Visual Studio Code

Code4Delphi by Developer Experts, LLC — Modern, high-quality Delphi / Object Pascal language support for Visual Studio Code, covering the latest Delphi language features (through Delphi 13.1 and all older versions back to Delphi 7), plus the code-navigation shortcuts Delphi developers expect from the RAD Studio IDE.

Quick Info

Syntax Highlighting & Familiar Keybindings for Delphi in Visual Studio Code — out of the box:

Why Code4Delphi?

There are other Delphi extensions for Visual Studio Code — some of them are very powerful, but they often bundle complex additional features: language servers, project & build tooling, completion engines, dependency analyzers and more. That is great when you need all of it — and heavy when you don't.

Code4Delphi is deliberately lightweight:

• 🎨 just excellent syntax highlighting and
• ⌨️ the familiar Delphi keybindings for fast code navigation —
• 🪶 no Language Server (LSP), no build integration, no telemetry, zero runtime dependencies.

Instead of a language server — a separate process with its own runtime and dependencies — Code4Delphi uses a small, built-in static analyser that runs directly in the extension host. It is purely syntax-based (lexical) and needs no external components: nothing to download, no server to start, no extra memory beyond the document itself. That keeps the extension small, fast to install, and instant to activate.

It activates instantly and stays out of your way — the ideal companion when you want to read, review and inspect Delphi code, for example code written by Claude or other AI agents.

Features

Code4Delphi brings the features Delphi developers know from the RAD Studio IDE into Visual Studio Code:

1. High-quality syntax highlighting — a hand-crafted TextMate grammar that covers the complete Delphi 13.1 language and every older version. Unit sections, class/record/interface declarations, generics, attributes, operator overloading, managed records and multi-line string literals are all colored precisely — in any theme.

2. Delphi-IDE code navigation — jump from an interface method declaration to its implementation (Ctrl+Shift+↓), back with Ctrl+Shift+↑, and step through methods with Alt+↓ / Alt+↑. Navigation is overload-aware (parameter types are compared, so you always land on the right method) and understands classes, records, helpers, generics and global routines.

3. Selectable color schemes — four syntax schemes for Delphi code: Fancy (the vivid Code4Delphi look), Turbo Pascal (the classic IDE) and the authentic Delphi Light / Delphi Dark colors of Delphi 13.1. The default auto follows your VS Code light/dark theme. Only the Delphi highlighting changes — your global theme is never touched.

4. Code folding — fold unit sections (interface, implementation, …) and begin…end, case, try, record and class blocks; {$REGION} / {$ENDREGION} markers work, too.

5. Editor conveniences — comment toggling for // and { }, auto-closing brackets and strings (incl. multi-line '''…''' literals), and correct word selection for identifiers like TMyClass_123.

The details:

1. High-quality syntax highlighting

A carefully written TextMate grammar (source.delphi) that distinguishes:

Language features covered for Delphi 13.1 / 12 / 11 / 10.4 and older:

• Class / interface / record / record & class helpers / legacy object
• Generics with constraints, anonymous methods (reference to), nested types
• Inline var (function & block scope), managed records (class operator Initialize/Finalize/Assign/AddRef/Copy)
• weak / unsafe references, multi-line string literals ('''…''')
• Attributes, operator overloading (implicit, explicit, Add, …)
• strict private/protected, sealed, static, abstract, final, message handlers
• All calling conventions (register, cdecl, stdcall, safecall, pascal, fastcall, winapi)
• Compiler directives & predefined conditionals (IFDEF, REGION, VER400, WIN64, …)
• Unit, program, library & package files (.pas, .pp, .dpr, .dpk, .inc, .p, .int)

2. Delphi-IDE style code navigation

Navigation is overload-aware: when a class declares several overloads of the same method, parameter types are compared so you land on the correct implementation (and back). It understands:

• class methods (procedure TMyClass.Foo) and plain global routines
• generic methods & generic classes (procedure TMyGeneric<T>.AddItem)
• class operators, constructors, destructors, class function/class procedure
• multi-line parameter lists
• nested local routines are correctly ignored (only top-level routines are navigated)

Like the Delphi IDE, the navigation commands can use different keybinding styles — switch them with the delphi.keybindings.style setting:

3. Selectable color schemes

Code4Delphi ships four syntax color schemes for the Delphi highlighting — pick one via the setting delphi.colorScheme or the command palette (Code4Delphi: Select Color Scheme):

The default is auto: Code4Delphi detects whether your VS Code theme is light or dark and picks Delphi Light or Delphi Dark accordingly — and follows along automatically when you switch themes.

The schemes affect only the Delphi syntax highlighting — your global VS Code theme is never changed. The selected scheme's rules are written to editor.tokenColorCustomizations and target exclusively *.delphi scopes (no other language produces them), so the colors apply to Delphi files only and work with any theme you use. Existing user token rules for other languages are preserved. Choose None to fall back to the colors of your current theme.

4. Code folding

A folding provider creates fold regions for interface / implementation / initialization / finalization sections and for begin…end, case, try, record and class blocks. {$REGION} / {$ENDREGION} markers are honored too.

5. Editor conveniences

• Comment toggling for // and { }
• Auto-closing pairs for (), [], {}, strings and multi-line strings
• Proper word boundaries (TMyClass_123 selects as one word)

Configuration

Everything is configurable through settings (Preferences → Settings → Extensions → Delphi):

To change a shortcut, use Preferences → Keyboard Shortcuts and rebind Delphi: Go to Method Implementation / Interface Section, etc. (or edit keybindings.json).

Requirements

• Visual Studio Code 1.80 or newer. No runtime dependencies; works offline.

Known limitations

• Syntax highlighting is a TextMate grammar, so it is purely lexical (no semantic type resolution) — like every other non-LSP Delphi extension.
• Interface ↔ implementation matching is heuristic and line-based; extremely unusual formatting (e.g. procedure on a different line than the method name) may not be recognised.
• .dfm form files and XML .dproj files are not treated as Delphi code (they have their own formats).

Development

npm install          # only needed for tests (vscode-textmate + vscode-oniguruma)
npm test             # unit tests: parser/navigation + grammar tokenizer + commands + activation

Press F5 in VS Code to launch the Extension Development Host.

Marketplace publishing (publisher DeveloperExperts, PAT expiry, vsce commands) is documented in docs/publishing.md.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.