iComment

A VS Code extension that toggles comments correctly for CL/CLLE, RPG/RPGLE (fixed and free format), and SQL source, all with one shortcut: Ctrl+/ (Cmd+/ on Mac).

What it does

The command is a single toggle: running it on already-commented lines removes the comment; running it on plain code adds it — same behavior as VS Code's built-in Ctrl+/, just language-aware for these IBM i types.

Any other file type falls back to VS Code's default editor.action.commentLine.

Comment a whole subroutine or procedure

For RPG/RPGLE, Ctrl+Shift+/ (Cmd+Shift+/ on Mac) toggles comments for an entire BEGSR/ENDSR, DCL-PROC/END-PROC, or DCL-PR/END-PR block in one command — place the cursor anywhere inside the block (including right on the begin/end line itself), no need to select every line.

It goes further than just the block, so disabling a procedure never leaves dangling references behind. Also toggled, within the same file:

• The matching DCL-PR/END-PR prototype, if the block is a procedure.
• Every call site referencing that name elsewhere in the file - a bare call, one embedded inside another operation (EVAL, DSPLY, anywhere an expression can appear), or (for subroutines) an EXSR reference.

Direction is decided once from the block's own current state, not per line, so the block, its prototype, and every call site always move together - a notification summarizes what was touched, e.g. "Commented procedure "proc1" (plus its prototype and 2 call sites)."

Other notes:

• Detection is keyword-based, not column-position-based, so it works for fixed format, free format, and mixed-format members with /free ... /end-free blocks.
• If the cursor isn't inside a recognized block, or the block is unterminated, you'll get a warning instead of a partial/incorrect edit.
• RPG subroutines and procedures don't nest, so there's no ambiguity about which block "wins" - it's always the nearest enclosing one.
• Scope is the current file only - references in other files aren't touched.

Try it

1. Open this folder in VS Code.
2. Run npm install.
3. Press F5 to launch an Extension Development Host.
4. Open a .cl, .rpgle, or .sql file, select some lines, press Ctrl+/.

Package for real use

npm install -g @vscode/vsce
npm install
npm run compile
vsce package

This produces a .vsix you can install via Extensions → ... → Install from VSIX.

A pre-built icomment-0.1.0.vsix is provided alongside this source for quick testing, built with the official vsce package command.

What happens if a line is too short to comment?

It never fails — short lines are padded with spaces automatically:

• RPG fixed-format: if a line is shorter than column 7, it's padded with spaces up to column 6 before * is inserted at column 7 (a blank line becomes *). Uncommenting replaces column 7 with a single space and never shifts any other column.
• CL and SQL: comment markers are just inserted/appended as text, so there's no fixed column to run out of space on.

Known limitations (worth knowing before relying on this)

• CL continuation detection is line-ending based. A line is treated as continued if its last non-whitespace character is + or -. This does not account for a +/- that appears as the last character inside a quoted string (rare, but possible) — such a line would be incorrectly treated as continuing.
• RPG fixed-format uncomment doesn't restore an overwritten conditioning indicator. Commenting a fixed-format line writes * into column 7. Uncommenting clears column 7 back to a blank. If that column originally held something other than a blank (unusual, but possible on older specs), that original value is not preserved.
• Column-7 detection assumes 1 tab = 1 character (i.e., no literal tabs in the source, which is standard for IBM i fixed-format members).
• Selections that end at column 0 of a later line (a common artifact of dragging a full-line selection) are treated as not including that final line, matching VS Code's normal line-comment behavior.

Extending

• To treat other extensions as CL/RPG/SQL, edit the classify() function in src/extension.ts.
• To change the RPG fixed-format comment column, change the 6 / 7 constants in toggleRpgFixedLine().