ChoiceScript VS Code

A VS Code plugin for ChoiceScript, a language for writing choose-your-own-path text games.

Features

• Autocomplete
• Syntax highlighting
• Error highlighting
• Go to definition
• Highlight usage
• Scene outline
• Rename variables project-wide
• Snippets to match Choice of Games style rules
• Italicizing and bolding text
• Word count that counts only what the player will see

Installation

Install from the VSCode extension marketplace.

Use

Open your ChoiceScript folder, often named mygame, and the language server will index the entire project.

Note that, since ChoiceScript files are just text files, the extension treats all .txt files as ChoiceScript files. To avoid that, only enable the extension for workspaces that contain your ChoiceScript game.

Settings

To use the style snippets that turn ... into an ellipsis and -- into an em-dash, enable snippet tab completion. Then type three periods and hit tab to turn them into an ellipsis.

For writing ChoiceScript games, VS Code's auto-word suggestions can be annoying. To turn it off for ChoiceScript:

• Press F1 to open the command palette
• Type in Preferences: Configure Language Specific Settings... and run that command
• Select "ChoiceScript" from the dropdown
• Add the following text to the settings.json file that VS Code opens

{
    "[choicescript]": {
        "editor.quickSuggestions": {
            "other": false,
            "comments": false,
            "strings": false
        }
    }
}

Currently Unsupported Features

• Array notation. Right now it ignores arrays entirely.

Release Notes

[1.6.0]

• Variables aren't flagged as not existing until the full project has been indexed, getting rid of the flash of errors on startup.
• choicescript_stats is now recognized as a scene, allowing autocomplete and fixing erroneous warning messages.
• Empty *if/*elseif/*else errors now don't put the error squigglies on the whole line.
• Functions in multireplaces, like @{not(var) one|two}, are now parsed correctly.
• Label indexing now properly handles labels with punctuation.

[1.5.0]

• Warn when a *temp variable has the same name as an earlier-created one.
• *create, *temp, *gosub, and *gosub_scene now properly provide variable completions.

[1.4.3]

• Variable completion now works properly in multireplaces.
• Multireplace error catching improved.
• Multireplace syntax highlighting now properly handles nested parentheses thanks to a timely mailing list email from 2007.
• Can you tell I focused on multireplaces this go-round?

[1.4.2]

• Greatly sped up the extension by refactoring parsing and validation.
• Expression errors inside *if blocks and similar are now marked in the proper location.
• Multireplace errors inside *if blocks and similar are now marked in the proper location.

[1.4.1]

• Bug fixes to symbol indexing and syntax highlighting.
• Improved error handling for *label and *if in front of an #option.

[1.4.0]

• Word counter added that skips code but counts words shown to the reader.
• Improved parsing and error checking of *choice and *if/*elseif/*else blocks.

[1.3.0]

• The document outline now lists all individual options in a choice.

[1.2.0]

• The document outline lets you see the flow of choices, labels, and variables in your game.
• Expanded error checking in expressions to commands like *if.
• Expanded warnings on text that will be ignored.

[1.1.0]

• Added ability to italicize text using Ctrl+i or Ctrl+Shift+i and bold text using Ctrl+Shift+b.
• Labels and achievements can now be found and renamed.
• Choices with more than 15 words are now flagged for review.
• Error catching greatly expanded.

[1.0.0]

Created a language server for ChoiceScript, which provides the following features:

• IntelliSense automatic code completion for ChoiceScript commands like *choice
• Diagnostics to highlight errors
• Variable name changes project-wide
• Auto-indention after commands that require it, like *choice and *if
• Snippets to turn ... into an ellipsis and -- into an em-dash to match Choice of Games typography