4DGL VSCode Extension

This extension adds initial IDE support for 4D Systems 4DGL on Diablo16 devices. Note that this repository has explicit permission from 4DGL to build intellisense using their documentation provided that this repository remains open source.

Phase 1 intentionally avoids a parser or language server. Built-in function docs are extracted into JSON and used directly for:

Hover documentation
Function autocomplete
Signature help

Internal functions libraries

4D Systems ships several display chips (Diablo16, Goldelox, Picaso, Pixxi), each with its own internal-functions manual and largely non-overlapping function/constant set — only 18 functions are common to all four. The extension can only target one library at a time; pick it via the 4dgl.library setting or the 4DGL: Switch Internal Functions Library command (settable globally or per-workspace). If unset, you're prompted the first time the extension activates.

Colour constants (colors.pdf) and language keywords/pre-processor directives (directives_and_syntax.txt) are shared across all libraries and always available regardless of which internal functions library is active.

Documentation Extraction

Built-in function docs, native constants, and language keywords/pre-processor directives are all extracted from the pure-HTML mirrors of the manuals under Resources/, not the PDFs. The HTML has real <table>/<p> structure, which is far more reliable than PDF text extraction — the previous PDF-based approach let unrelated tables (e.g. a GPIO pin availability table) bleed into function descriptions, and had no way to distinguish a real documented constant from a variable name that merely appeared in an example snippet.

Install the extractor dependency once:

python -m pip install beautifulsoup4 pdfplumber

Then regenerate everything:

python tools/extract_all_libraries.py   # Resources/<library>_internal_functions.txt -> data/4dgl_{functions,constants}_<library>.json, for all 4 libraries
python tools/extract_4dgl_syntax.py     # Resources/directives_and_syntax.txt        -> data/4dgl_keywords.json
python tools/extract_4dgl_colors.py     # Resources/colors.pdf                       -> data/4dgl_colors.json

extract_4dgl_docs.py/extract_4dgl_constants.py can also be run against a single library via --source Resources/<library>_internal_functions.txt (--library/--output are inferred from the source filename if omitted).

data/4dgl_functions_<library>.json — one entry per built-in function (signature, parameters, returns, description, examples).
data/4dgl_constants_<library>.json — native constants sourced only from documented tables/prose ranges (no more examples-derived fabrications like HELLO/OK/TEST).
data/4dgl_keywords.json — language keywords (private, while/wend, repeat/until/forever, for/next, func/endfunc, gosub/endsub, switch/case/endswitch, break/continue, goto, ...) and pre-processor directives (#DATA/#END, #MODE, #STACK, #inherit, #IF/#IFNOT/#ELSE/#ENDIF, #USE, #STOP, #MESSAGE/#NOTICE/#ERROR, ...), each with signature, description, parameter/related-statement tables, and examples.

tools/_html_extract_utils.py holds the shared HTML-walking helpers (all three HTML-based extractors rely on the same <article> → heading → section-body traversal).

The PDFs under Resources/ are kept for reference only; nothing is generated from them anymore except colors.pdf, which has a genuine text layer and is read directly by extract_4dgl_colors.py.

Running Locally

Open this folder in VSCode and press F5 to start an Extension Development Host. The Phase 1 provider code is plain JavaScript, so there is no TypeScript build step before local testing. Open a .4dg or .4dgl file and try:

gfx_Line(10, 10, 100, 100, BLUE);

Hover over gfx_Line, type gfx_ for completions, or place the cursor inside the call for signature help.

Packaging

Install the VSCE packager, then build a .vsix:

npm install
npm run package

Install the generated package:

code --install-extension 4dgl-vscode-0.0.1.vsix

The generated JSON database is deliberately isolated under data/ so a future parser or language server can reuse it without coupling to VSCode provider code.

Licensing

This extension is released under the MIT License.

4DGL language information, function names, constants, and reference material remain the intellectual property of 4D Systems. Their inclusion in this project is used with permission from 4D Systems for the purpose of providing editor tooling for the 4DGL programming language.

This project is not officially affiliated with 4D Systems.

See LICENSE and NOTICE.md for details.

4DGL Intellisense

Vases