STALKER 2 (.cfg) Language Support

The essential VS Code extension for modding STALKER 2.

This extension provides comprehensive language support for .cfg files, transforming VS Code into a powerful and intelligent editor for Stalker 2 configurations. It goes beyond simple syntax highlighting to provide robust error-checking, smart formatting, and code navigation features that make modding faster, easier, and more reliable.

Built on a resilient, stack-based parser, this tool correctly understands your code's structure, even with complex nesting and inconsistent whitespace.

Key Features

The extension is designed to feel like native language support, providing the features you'd expect from a professional IDE.

Smart Validation & Diagnostics

• Real-time Error Checking: Instantly spots syntax errors, from missing struct.end blocks to malformed properties.
• Intelligent Typo Detection: Catches common misspellings of keywords like struct.begin and suggests the correct alternative.
• Style & Consistency Linter: Provides warnings for inconsistent spacing, duplicate property keys, and invalid block or property names, helping you maintain clean code.
• Floating Value Detection: Warns you about unassigned string or number literals that would otherwise be ignored by the game engine.

Powerful Formatting

• Format on Save: Automatically formats your entire document to be clean, consistent, and readable every time you save.
• Whitespace Normalization: Solves the "tabs vs. spaces" problem by converting all indentation to a consistent format, eliminating a common source of parsing errors.
• Guaranteed Safety: The formatter automatically disables itself if it detects critical syntax errors, preventing any possibility of corrupting your file.

Enhanced IDE Experience

• Code Folding: Easily collapse and expand struct.begin/struct.end blocks to focus on the code you're working on.
• Document Outline: The Explorer pane provides a complete symbol tree of your document, allowing you to quickly navigate between any block, no matter how deeply nested.
• Syntax Highlighting: A dedicated grammar provides clear and accurate color-coding for keywords, types, properties, and values.

How It Works

This extension's power comes from its robust parser, which builds an Abstract Syntax Tree (AST) of your code in real-time.

1. Lexical Analysis: The code is first broken down into a stream of tokens (keywords, names, values).
2. Stack-Based Parsing: A stack-based algorithm reads the tokens to build a hierarchical tree of your struct blocks. This method is immune to errors from mixed tabs and spaces.
3. Validation & Formatting: The extension then walks this correct AST to identify errors, find style inconsistencies, and calculate formatting edits.

Configuration

You can customize the extension's behavior in your VS Code settings:

• stalker2CfgValidator.indentLevel: The number of spaces to use for each level of indentation when formatting. (Default: 3)
• stalker2CfgValidator.tabWidth: How many spaces a tab character (\t) should be treated as for validation purposes. (Default: 3)

Installation

From the Marketplace (Recommended)

1. Open the Extensions view in VS Code (Ctrl+Shift+X).
2. Search for STALKER 2 CFG Struct Validator.
3. Click Install.

From a VSIX File

1. Open the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P).
2. Run Extensions: Install from VSIX...
3. Select the .vsix file.

For Developers

Quick Start

1. Clone the repository: git clone https://github.com/Felicheat/stalker2-cfg-extension.git
2. Install dependencies: npm install
3. Compile the extension: npm run compile
4. Press F5 to open an Extension Development Host with the extension loaded.

Scripts

• npm run watch: Watch for changes and recompile automatically.
• npm run package: Build a .vsix distributable file.

Contributing

Contributions, issues, and feature requests are welcome! Please feel free to open an issue or submit a pull request on the GitHub repository.