vscode-tiaportal-syntaxes README
Syntax highlighting for text sources exported from Siemens TIA Portal (STEP 7).
Languages
| Language |
Extensions |
Scope name |
| SCL |
.scl |
source.tia.scl |
| AWL / STL |
.awl, .stl |
source.tia.awl |
| DB |
.db |
source.tia.db |
| UDT |
.udt |
source.tia.udt |
All grammars share the same scope suffix (.tia), so one theme rule such as keyword.control.tia applies to every language.
SCL – Structured Control Language
High-level, Pascal-like PLC language for function blocks, functions and organization blocks. This is the base grammar; the other three reuse parts of it.
- Block structure:
FUNCTION_BLOCK, FUNCTION, ORGANIZATION_BLOCK, DATA_BLOCK, TYPE with their END_ counterparts, the block name, and REGION / END_REGION.
- Interface sections:
VAR, VAR_INPUT, VAR_OUTPUT, VAR_IN_OUT, VAR_TEMP, VAR_STAT with RETAIN / NON_RETAIN / CONSTANT, STRUCT, BEGIN, and the header lines TITLE, AUTHOR, FAMILY, NAME, VERSION.
- Pragmas such as
{ S7_Optimized_Access := 'TRUE' }, including pragmas that span several lines.
- Control flow:
IF, CASE, FOR, WHILE, REPEAT, EXIT, CONTINUE, RETURN, GOTO.
- Data types (elementary,
Array, String[n], HW_* and similar) and quoted user types.
- Literals: strings with
$ escapes, based numbers (16#FF), typed literals (T#2s, DINT#5, LDT#…), TRUE / FALSE, numbers, and 0..127 ranges.
- References: local tags (
#name), global tags ("name"), members, %X0 slice access, built-in functions, named call parameters (name :=, name =>) and calls to quoted blocks.
- Comments:
//, (* … *) and (/* … */).
AWL / STL – Statement List
Instruction-list language, one instruction per row. A source file is split into a header and a body:
- Before
BEGIN: the SCL grammar highlights the header, pragmas and VAR sections.
- From
BEGIN to the END_* of the block: AWL rules apply, and each statement may carry a leading label.
Highlighted in the body:
NETWORK and TITLE = … lines.- Labels (
next:) and jump targets (JC next).
- Instructions in the English and German mnemonic sets, grouped as logic (
A/U, O, X, S, R, =, A( … ), word logic), arithmetic, comparison (==I, >R), load / transfer / convert / shift / timer / counter, jumps, calls (CALL, CC, UC) and program control (BE, OPN, MCR().
- Operands: absolute addresses (
I0.1, MW10, DB1.DBX0.0, T 5, FC 10), symbolic tags ("Tag", #local), registers AR1 / AR2, pointers (P#M 10.0) and constants (L#-5, W#16#FF, S5T#2s, B#(1, 2), TOD#…).
- Call parameter lists with
:= and =>.
- Comments:
// and (* … *).
The mnemonic and operand rules follow the standard S7 instruction set. They have been checked against hand-written samples, not against real exports, so please report anything that is mis-scoped.
DB – Data Block
Global and instance data blocks (DATA_BLOCK "Name" … END_DATA_BLOCK).
- Everything from the SCL grammar: header lines, the block-level pragma (
{ S7_Optimized_Access := 'FALSE' }), VAR / STRUCT member declarations with their attribute pragmas ({ ExternalAccessible := 'False'; … }), types, comments.
- The instantiated function block of an instance DB: the quoted name on its own line, for example
"FB_Motor".
- Start values after
BEGIN: the target path (Data.Event[3].TimeStamp) is highlighted as a member, and the value as a literal (LDT#…, DINT#…, T#…, strings).
UDT – User-Defined Type
PLC data types (TYPE "Name" … END_TYPE).
- The UDT grammar is the SCL grammar:
TYPE header, TITLE, VERSION, nested STRUCT … END_STRUCT, member attribute pragmas, quoted UDT references, Array[a..b] of …, String[n] and comments.
- Initial values in declarations: plain and typed literals (
:= 1.5, := T#2s, := BYTE#16#FF) and aggregate initializers ([(1, ()), (2, ())], [8(1.0)]).
Development
The grammars are in syntaxes/. scripts/tokenize.js tokenizes sample files with them and lists every token that has no scope, plus how often each scope occurs:
npm install
npm run tokenize -- --dir <samples> --ext <scl|awl|db|udt> [--strict] [--top 25]
--dir defaults to test/, which is git-ignored and holds local samples.--strict exits with code 1 if any token has no scope.
Resources
AWL/STL – Statement List
SCL – Structured Control Language
UDT – User-Defined Type
DB – Data Block
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