Language and tool support for the Inform ecosystem in Visual Studio Code.
Inform is a family of tools for writing interactive fiction, and this extension
aims to support all of it from one place:
| Language |
File extensions |
What you get |
| Inform 7 source |
.ni, .i7 |
Syntax highlighting; folding by heading and by rule indentation; an outline of headings, rules, phrases and tables; snippets |
| Inform 7 extensions |
.i7x |
As above, plus rubric, credits and documentation sections |
| Inform 6 |
.inf, .i6, .h, .i6h |
Syntax highlighting including library functions, actions, attributes and opcodes; an outline of objects, classes, routines, constants and verbs; snippets |
| Inform 6 templates |
.i6t |
Highlighting for the literate template files used by Inform 7 |
| Preform |
.preform |
Highlighting for Inform's grammar-definition syntax |
| Intest |
.intest |
Highlighting for Delia test recipes |
| Inweb |
.w, .inweb |
Highlighting for literate-programming webs |
Inform 6 code included in Inform 7 source between (- and -) is colored as
Inform 6, with (+ ... +) references back to Inform 7 marked. A [preform]
comment before (- colors the block as Preform instead. Texts used with
Vorple's execute JavaScript command, or preceded by [js], are colored as
JavaScript.
The .i6 and .i6h extensions are not official. Inform 6 traditionally used
.inf and .h, which collide with other languages, so the i6 variants are
offered as an unambiguous alternative.
How it works
Highlighting uses TextMate grammars
in JSON, with Oniguruma regular expressions.
VS Code tokenises each file with the grammar as you type. Folding for Inform 7
is a small folding-range provider, since headings and indentation are
structural in Inform 7 and a grammar alone cannot express that.
The outline (the Outline view, breadcrumbs, and "Go to Symbol in Editor") comes
from a line-based scan that relies on Inform's own conventions: headings stand
alone between blank lines, Inform 7 rule and phrase preambles start at the left
margin and end with a colon, and Inform 6 declarations start at the left margin
with their bodies indented.
Snippets: type a prefix such as room, instead, action, table or to
in an Inform 7 file, or object, routine, verb, objectloop or story in
an Inform 6 file, and accept the suggestion.
Compiling from VS Code
With an Inform 7 file open, the run button in the editor title bar compiles the
enclosing .inform project the way the Inform IDE does: inform7, then
inform6, and for a release also inblorb. Errors appear in the Problems
panel, linked to the source line, and the full compiler output is in the
"Inform" output channel. The commands are also in the palette under
"Inform:" and in the Explorer context menu of a project folder.
| Command |
What it does |
| Inform: Compile Project (debug build) |
inform7 then inform6 with debugging on; output in the project's Build folder |
| Inform: Release Project |
Release build; bound into a Blorb if the project's settings ask for one and Release.blurb exists |
| Inform: Play Compiled Story |
Opens the newest story file in Build in the player tab |
| Inform: Play Compiled Story in External Interpreter |
Opens it with your system's associated application instead |
| Inform: Compile Inform 6 File |
Compiles a stand-alone .inf with inform6, to Glulx by default |
| Inform: Show Compiler Locations |
Prints which compilers and Internal folder will be used |
The project's own settings are honoured where they exist: the story format
(Glulx or Z-machine), whether to create a Blorb, and the predictable-random
option come from Settings.plist written by the IDE. Projects without one
compile to Glulx unless informEcosystem.inform7.defaultFormat says otherwise.
A bare project folder with only Source/story.ni works; the uuid.txt that
inform7 requires is created for you.
Where the compilers come from
The extension does not bundle compilers. It looks, in order, at the
informEcosystem.compilersPath setting, the INFORM_COMPILERS environment
variable, a Windows-Inform7\Build\Compilers folder near the workspace (the
layout produced by the companion inform-builder project), an installed Inform IDE
(Program Files\Inform\Compilers on Windows, Inform.app on macOS), and the
PATH. The Internal folder is taken from informEcosystem.internalPath or
found beside the compilers.
Playing stories in VS Code
Story files open in a player tab: .ulx and .gblorb (Glulx), and .z3,
.z4, .z5, .z8 and .zblorb (Z-machine). After a successful compile the
story opens beside your source by default (informEcosystem.openStoryAfterCompile),
and when the file changes on disk, for example after the next compile, the
player restarts it. A Restart button sits in the corner of the tab. Saves and
autosaves are kept in the editor's storage, per story.
The interpreter is Parchment, in
the same "for Inform 7" bundle that Inform's own Release along with an
interpreter ships, so what you see in VS Code is what players will see on the
web: Glulxe for Glulx and Bocfel for the Z-machine, both compiled to
WebAssembly. Version 6 Z-machine files are the one format it does not play.
The bundle is fetched at build time (npm run fetch-parchment) and is not
part of this repository; see THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md for its licences.
Status
Highlighting, folding, outline, snippets, compiling and playing are in place.
See the CHANGELOG.
Acknowledgements
Parts of the grammars were informed by Natrium729's Inform 6 and Inform 7
extensions; see THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.
Licence
MIT; see LICENSE.
