dtab for VS Code

Syntax highlighting, a live JSON preview and a Δ file icon for .dtab files.

dtab (Delta Tab) is a config format made of tab-separated paths: one line is one path into a tree, and later lines are deltas on top of earlier ones. Format, parsers and a live demo: https://github.com/RyannDaGreat/dtab

Object keys, leaf keys, values, comments (entries starting with a space) and invalid keys each get their own scope, so any color theme applies. The Tab key inserts a tab.

To see the whitespace that carries the structure, press the whitespace button in the editor title bar (a Δ with a dot), or run dtab: Toggle Whitespace. It draws every tab, and the spaces that start or end an entry (a comment's leading space, trailing spaces), but not the spaces between the words of a value or comment. It switches the dtab.showWhitespace setting. VS Code's own Toggle Render Whitespace works as usual, independently.

Inside a multiline string (a key word line with lines indented under it) the Tab key inserts four spaces, since code indents with spaces and tabs are dtab structure. Everywhere else it inserts a tab.

Cmd+/ (Ctrl+/) comments and uncomments the entries a selection touches, even part of a line, or every entry of a cursor's line: when all of them are comments each loses its leading space, otherwise each gains one, so toggling twice gives the text back. Vim and the demo do the same.

The preview button in the editor title bar (or Cmd+K V / Ctrl+K V) opens the file's tree as JSON beside it, updated as you type. While the file does not parse, it shows the parser's message with the line number.