VS Code Playdate

Adds a custom command to compile your code and run it in the Playdate Simulator.

Getting Set Up

Since this plugin will need to access both pdc (the Playdate compiler) and the actual simulator which is bundled in the SDK the plugin needs to be able to determine where that is installed.

Either configure your environment variable PLAYDATE_SDK_PATH (will always take precedence) or add it in the settings/launch config. While in the settings it's also a good idea to add the Lua workspace libraries:

{
  "Lua.workspace.library": [
    "/path/to/PlaydateSDK/CoreLibs"
  ]
}

Command palette

To compile and run your code in the simulator through the command palette, hit Cmd + Shift + P on Mac or Ctrl + Shift + P on Windows/Linux and look for "Run app in Playdate simulator".

By default, the plugin will use source as source argument and output.pdx as output argument (note, these are case sensitive). If you want to use a different source or output, add the following to settings.json:

{
  "playdate.source": "Source",
  "playdate.output": "Output.pdx",
  // Optionally set sdkPath if not PLAYDATE_SDK_PATH is configured.
  // "playdate.sdkPath": "/path/to/PlaydateSDK"
}

They will both be relative to the workspace root.

Run as debugger

This plugin can also be configured to run as a debugger and launch the simulator by hitting F5 (or your configured key). To use it this way create the following .vscode/launch.json:

{
  "version": "0.2.0",
  "configurations": [
    {
      "request": "launch",
      "type": "playdate",
      "name": "Run app in Playdate simulator",
      "source": "${workspaceRoot}/source",
      "output": "${workspaceRoot}/output.pdx",
      // Optionally set sdkPath if not PLAYDATE_SDK_PATH is configured.
      // "sdkPath": "/path/to/PlaydateSDK"
    }
  ]
}

Notes

The playdate version of Lua has a few extras:

• The import function
• += and -=

To make VS Code not mark these as invalid syntax you can add the following to your settings.json:

"Lua.runtime.nonstandardSymbol": [
  "+=",
  "-=",
  "*=",
  "/="
],