vscode-arx

Highlight-only VS Code extension for the Arx programming language.

Features

• TextMate syntax highlighting (source.arx)
• Basic language configuration:
  • line comments (#)
  • brackets ((), {}, [])
  • auto-closing and surrounding pairs

This extension intentionally has no language server, commands, or runtime extension code.

Source of Truth

Lexical rules are sourced from:

• syntax/arx.syntax.json

This file is vendored from the main Arx repository and used to generate:

• syntaxes/arx.tmLanguage.json

Local Development

1. Open this repo in VS Code.
2. Run:

npm run build:grammar

3. Press F5 to launch an Extension Development Host.
4. Open an .arx file in the new window.

Keep It In Sync

From this repo:

npm run sync:syntax
npm run check:grammar

By default, sync:syntax clones:

• https://github.com/arxlang/arx.git
• branch/ref main

You can override source repo/ref:

ARX_REPO_URL=https://github.com/arxlang/arx.git \
ARX_REPO_REF=main \
npm run sync:syntax

Updating Keywords / Operators

1. Update the canonical manifest in the main Arx repo.
2. Run npm run sync:syntax in this repo.
3. Commit both:
   • syntax/arx.syntax.json
   • syntaxes/arx.tmLanguage.json

Build and Publish

Build a VSIX:

npm run build:vsix

Publish both Marketplace and Open VSX:

export VSCE_PAT="***"
export OVSX_PAT="***"
npm run publish:all

Marketplace only (bump patch):

export VSCE_PAT="***"
bash ./scripts/publish.sh --marketplace --bump patch --no-dependencies

CI (GitHub Actions)

This repo includes .github/workflows/main.yaml with:

1. PR branch freshness check.
2. Script syntax + grammar sync validation.
3. Optional VSIX packaging and artifact upload.

The VSIX packaging step is skipped until package.json placeholders are replaced:

• publisher
• repository.url

Pre-commit Hooks

This repo uses .pre-commit-config.yaml for local checks before commit.

Install once:

python3 -m pip install pre-commit
pre-commit install

Run manually on all files:

pre-commit run --all-files

Included hooks:

1. JSON/YAML/basic whitespace checks.
2. npm run check:grammar when syntax/grammar generator files change.
3. bash -n syntax checks for shell scripts.

Notes and TODO Defaults

The upstream manifest currently marks some lexical areas as unspecified. This extension uses conservative TODO defaults for highlighting only:

• TODO(ARX-VSCODE-STRINGS-001): provisional single/double-quoted string scopes.
• TODO(ARX-VSCODE-LITERALS-001): provisional true|false|null literal scopes.
• TODO(ARX-VSCODE-OPS-001): provisional multi-char operators (==, !=, <=, >=, ->).

When upstream syntax rules are finalized, these defaults should be replaced by manifest-driven values.

File Associations

This extension registers .arx by default.

TODO: .x is intentionally not auto-registered yet to avoid extension collisions. If you want local .x association now, add this in your user/workspace settings:

{
  "files.associations": {
    "*.x": "arx"
  }
}

Contributing

1. Keep syntax/arx.syntax.json as the single lexical source.
2. Regenerate grammar (npm run build:grammar).
3. Run check (npm run check:grammar).
4. Open PR with generated files included.