ASF Language Support
A comprehensive Visual Studio Code extension providing rich language support for the Advanced Scripting Framework (ASF) — a modern, JavaScript-like scripting language implemented entirely in VBA that transforms VBA into a powerful script host.
ASF brings first-class functions, closures, classes, modules, template literals, destructuring, spread/rest operators, and much more to the VBA ecosystem. This extension makes writing ASF code a first-class experience inside VS Code.
Features
Syntax Highlighting
Full TextMate grammar covering every construct in the ASF language:
- Keywords & control flow —
if, elseif, else, for, while, switch, case, try, catch, return, break, continue
- Declarations —
let, fun, class, field, constructor, static, extends
- Module system —
import, export, from, as, default
- Literals — numbers, single/double-quoted strings with escape sequences, booleans (
true, false), null
- Template strings — backtick strings with
${expression} interpolation, fully recursive highlighting
- VBA escape hatch —
@(VBA_EXPR) blocks highlighted as embedded VBA source
- Operators — arithmetic, comparison, logical, bitwise, assignment, spread (
...), ternary (? :)
- Comments — line (
//) and block (/* */)
- Classes — class names, inherited classes, constructors, static methods, and field declarations
- Functions — named declarations and anonymous function expressions
Code Snippets
Over 20 built-in snippets for rapid development:
| Prefix |
Description |
fun |
Function declaration |
afun |
Anonymous function expression |
class |
Class declaration |
classx |
Class with extends |
if |
If statement |
ife |
If-else statement |
ifel |
If-elseif-else statement |
for |
C-style for loop |
forin |
For-in loop |
forof |
For-of loop |
while |
While loop |
switch |
Switch statement |
try |
Try-catch block |
let |
Variable declaration |
imp |
Default import |
impn |
Named import |
impns |
Namespace import (* as) |
exp |
Named export |
expd |
Default export |
dest |
Array destructuring |
destr |
Array destructuring with rest |
print |
Print statement |
tpl |
Template literal |
vba |
VBA escape hatch @(...) |
Language Configuration
- Bracket matching —
{}, [], ()
- Auto-closing pairs — braces, brackets, parentheses, single quotes, double quotes, backticks
- Surrounding pairs — select text and wrap with any bracket or quote type
- Comment toggling —
Ctrl+/ for line comments, Shift+Alt+A for block comments
- Code folding — automatic folding on brace blocks plus
// #region / // #endregion markers
- Smart indentation — automatic indent/outdent based on braces
IntelliSense & Editor Support
- Hover information — hover over keywords to see quick descriptions
- Basic completions — suggestions for built-in objects and language keywords
- Folding ranges — intelligent code folding based on block structure
Requirements
No external dependencies are required. The extension works out of the box with any VS Code installation 1.109.0 or later.
To actually run ASF scripts, you will need:
- Microsoft Excel or Access (as the VBA host)
- The ASF runtime library imported into your VBA project
See the ASF documentation for setup instructions.
Extension Settings
This extension does not currently contribute any configurable settings.
Supported File Extensions
| Extension |
Description |
.vas |
ASF script file (can use import/export) |
Known Issues
- VBA escape highlighting — The
@(VBA_EXPR) construct uses a simplified matching strategy. Deeply nested parentheses inside the VBA expression may cause the closing delimiter to be detected prematurely.
- Template string nesting — Nested template literals (backticks inside
${} interpolations) may not highlight correctly beyond two levels of depth.
- No semantic tokenization yet — Highlighting is purely TextMate-based. Variable scoping, type inference, and cross-file symbol resolution are not yet supported.
Enjoy!
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