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The Rocket Enterprise extension provides support for compiling, editing, and debugging PL/I source code in Visual Studio Code on Windows and Linux. This extension also installs the Rocket COBOL extension.
Read the full documentation of the Rocket Enterprise Extension here
Features include:
- Colorization in the editor for Assembler, BMS, JCL, IMS, and PL/I code.
- Editing support for PL/I, Mainframe Assembler, BMS, IMS, and JCL. The PL/I editor supports advanced editing and navigation features provided by the PL/I Language Server.
- Compilation of PL/I, BMS, IMS, and Mainframe Assembler code - supports the compiling of source files when either a Rocket Enterprise Developer Eclipse project or a Rocket Enterprise Developer Visual Studio solution file is present, or using custom build scripts.
- Debugging of PL/I code - offers debug configurations, breakpoints, watchpoints, PL/I data breakpoints, conditions and signals, inline values of variables.
Note:
- Visual Studio Code version 1.73 or later is required.
- The advanced editor features, compile, and debug are available when a compatible version of Rocket Enterprise Developer is installed on the same machine. See Scope of Support and also the full documentation of this extension for details.
Requirements
See Additional Software Requirements in the full documentation of this extension for details on how to enable certain functionality.
Help with the extension
Visit the Community Forum for help with the extension and to discuss this product with other users and Rocket specialists. For help with functionality in the extension that relies on your licensed Rocket Enterprise Developer product, you can also contact Rocket Customer Care.
Verifying the Digital Signature
The .vsix package for this extension can be verified using a hosted digital signature. For more details, see Verifying the Digital Signature of a Rocket Extension for Visual Studio Code.
New Features
For features that were added in earlier versions, check the Changelog of this extension.
Editing Support
The editor supports various productivity features to help you write PL/I code efficiently:
- Code snippets
- Command Palette commands for commenting out lines of code
- Outline view and breadcrumb navigation
- Renaming data items
The the following functionality is provided by the PL/I Language Server that comes with your licensed Rocket Enterprise Developer product:
- Hover pop-ups for data items - hovering data items in the source provides a basic description of the data item
- Go to/Find/Peek definition and references - provide quick navigation from a data item to its definition or to other locations where the code references it
- Go to/Peek definition for include statements - hover include statements to view their full path
- Collapsible regions in the editor - you can collapse sections of code in the editor
- OUTLINE view - a tree-view outline of a PL/I program that shows the programs, and data items defined in the program
- Error highlighting and reporting - compilation errors are highlighted in the editor and shown in the PROBLEMS section
- Rename command available across multiple files
- Specify a main file for an include file
Refer to the full documentation of the extension for a complete description of the editor features.
- The Outline view shows the overall structure of any PL/I file. Click an item in the Outline window to navigate to its definition in the file.
- IntelliSense is supported for PL/I. Receive code suggestions and inline code completion as you type.
- Peek Definition and Rename Symbol are also supported for PL/I code. Right-click an item and go to Peek > Peek Definition to open a pop-up window to see where an item is defined within the program. Right-click the item and select Rename Symbol to change its name throughout your program(s) and preview the changes before applying them.
Compiling Support
Note: This functionality requires a licensed Rocket Enterprise Developer product.
The Rocket Enterprise extension provides auto-generated build tasks for PL/I projects. Visual Studio Code offers build tasks that use the Rocket Enterprise Developer compiler to build your PL/I files. The build tasks are available from the Terminal menu.
For information on configuring Visual Studio Code for compiling, compiling using either project files, or with custom build tasks, see the full documentation.
Debugging PL/I files
Note: A fully licensed version of Rocket Enterprise Developer must be installed on the same machine on which you are running Visual Studio Code in order for this feature to work.
Rocket Enterprise supports debugging of PL/I code. You can specify debug configurations for various debug scenarios, incldung launching the application with various settings and attach to process. Visual Studio Code geenrates a launch.json files under the .vscode folder in your workspace where you can set configuration options for debugging.
The following image shows some of the features available to you while debugging PL/I code:
- Stepping into code
- Viewing the values of variables inside the editor
- VARIABLES, WATCH, CALL STACK, BREAKPOINTS, WATCHPOINTS views
- Monitoring local variables and changing their value in the VARIABLES view
- Adding breakpoints in the editor and from the BREAKPOINTS view
- Adding and monitoring watchpoints in PL/I
- Viewing the binary values of items in a Memory view
- Navigating the code from the CALL STACK view
Refer to the full documentation of the extension for possible debugging scenarios and for the requirements.
Scope of the Support in This Version
This version of the Rocket Enterprise extension has the following limitations:
- Compiling and debugging are supported only if you have a licensed version of a Rocket Enterprise Developer product on the same machine. See Installing in the full documentation for details.
- The advanced editor features require a licensed version of a Rocket Enterprise Developer product on the same machine.
- The PL/I Language Server only parses PL/I files that have been opened. Any workspace-wide features such as the symbol search only return results for files that have been opened.
- A file in the workspace can only have one project association. If multiple projects reference the same file, it can only be associated with the first project that is scanned.
- Rename Symbol only works for files that have been opened and parsed.
.pliproj project files created with Rocket Enterprise Developer for Visual Studio are not supported on Linux.- The preprocessors settings are not supported.
For full edit, compile, and debug capabilities for PL/I applications, install one of the Rocket Enterprise Developer products that support a fully-fledged IDE - either Rocket Enterprise Developer for Eclipse or Rocket Enterprise Developer for Visual Studio. Click here for further details.
