Error Elert 🔔

Error Elert is a hyper-responsive, smart audio alert extension for Visual Studio Code. It fundamentally changes how you code by playing customizable audio cues the exact moment you introduce a syntax error or a warning—but only after you've finished typing your thought.

No more switching contexts to check terminal logs or hunting for tiny red squiggles. Just pure, auditory feedback.

The Problem Statement

Developers lose countless hours to "silent errors". You type a line of code, press save, switch to the browser, and wonder why the UI is broken. Ten minutes later, you realize you missed a semicolon or introduced a type mismatch three files ago.

Visual warnings (red squiggly lines) require you to look directly at the problem. By adding an auditory dimension to diagnostics, Error Elert reduces cognitive load, speeds up debugging, and keeps you in the flow state.

✨ Features (New & Improved)

• 🧠 Smart Typing Detection: Error Elert watches your keystrokes. It remains completely silent while you are typing and only evaluates your code after a 1.5-second pause. You'll never get annoyed mid-thought!
• 🔀 Severity Sound Mapping: Map different .mp3 files to different severity levels!
  • Fatal Errors (Red Lines): Play one sound (e.g., an aggressive alert).
  • Warnings (Yellow Lines): Play a softer sound.
• 🔊 Native Volume Control: Set the extension's volume from 0-100% independently of your PC's master volume.
• 🤫 Focus Mode (DND): Mute the extension for 30 minutes, 1 hour, or 2 hours when you need complete silence.
• 🎛️ Custom Audio Support: Easily drag and drop any .mp3 or .wav file into the src/audio directory, and it will auto-populate in the settings menus.

💻 Installation

To run this locally or package it yourself:

1. Clone or download this repository.
2. Open the folder in Visual Studio Code.
3. Make sure you have at least one .mp3 or .wav file in src/audio/.
4. Run npm install (though this extension relies entirely on native modules with zero dependencies!).

🚀 How to Run (Testing Phase)

If you are developing or testing the extension:

1. Open the project in VS Code.
2. Press F5 on your keyboard. This will open an [Extension Development Host] window.
3. A setup wizard will greet you. Pick your sounds for Errors and Warnings.
4. Type an error (like const x = ;) and stop typing for 1.5 seconds.
5. You will hear your selected sound play!

🛠️ Command Reference

Access these by pressing Ctrl+Shift+P (or Cmd+Shift+P on Mac) and typing Error Elert:

🎵 How to Add Your Own Sounds

Error Elert uses a reactive, dynamic catalogue system. You do not need to edit code to add sounds!

1. Find any .mp3 or .wav file.
2. Drag and drop it into the src/audio/ folder inside the project.
3. Open VS Code, press Ctrl+Shift+P and execute Error Elert: Select Sound for Fatal Errors.
4. Your new sound will automatically appear in the list!

⚙️ Audio System & Cross-Platform Support

Error Elert was engineered from the ground up to have zero NPM dependencies while supporting every major operating system by utilizing native background processes:

• Windows: Uses a completely invisible cscript (VBScript) engine calling the WMPlayer.OCX COM object. This bypasses the Headless OS security restrictions and natively routes audio to your active Headphones/Speakers without flashing terminal windows.
• macOS: Uses the native Apple afplay command-line utility.
• Linux: Automatically fails-over through a chain of native utilities: paplay, aplay, mpg123, and ffplay.

🤝 Contribution

Contributions, issues, and feature requests are always welcome! Feel free to check the issues page or submit a Pull Request.

1. Fork the Project
2. Create your Feature Branch (git checkout -b feature/AmazingFeature)
3. Commit your Changes (git commit -m 'Add some AmazingFeature')
4. Push to the Branch (git push origin feature/AmazingFeature)
5. Open a Pull Request

📜 License

Distributed under the MIT License.