Luca Code for VS Code

Official language support for Luca Code — .lucc syntax highlighting, snippets, one-key run, syntax/import validation, and clickable diagnostics. This page mirrors the same documentation as the repository, so what you read on the Marketplace matches GitHub.

Requirements

The extension drives the luca CLI. Install it first (a Rust-based build; no account needed):

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/LucaEcosystem/luca-code.git
cd luca-code
bash scripts/install.sh            # Windows: .\scripts\install.ps1 in PowerShell
luca --version                     # prints: luca 1.0.3 Beta

Full per-OS instructions and PATH fixes: install guide.

Features

• Syntax highlighting for .lucc files — keywords, strings, interpolation, comments, numbers.
• Snippets — type try, error, raise, func, if, for, while, ask, import, or print, then press Tab.
• Run — Luca: Run Luca File (⇧⌘P → "Luca", or the ▷ button in the editor's title bar) saves and runs the active file.
  • Default: integrated terminal (a shared "Luca" terminal) so output lands where you look and ask can read typed input.
  • Optional: Output > Luca Code channel (set luca.runInTerminal to off) — here Error at line:column: and Warning at line:column: lines turn into clickable squiggles in your editor.
• Check — Luca: Check Luca File saves the file and runs luca check --format json, marking syntax and import-graph errors inline without executing the program. It does not evaluate expressions or touch the filesystem, so dynamic errors still appear only when you run.
• New Luca File — Luca: New Luca File opens a starter program.
• Diagnostics — error and warning lines from run or check map to inline editor markers, with the first error popping up at its location.

Settings

If the extension reports "the 'luca' CLI was not found": put luca on your PATH (restart VS Code afterwards) or set luca.cliPath to the binary's absolute path. Troubleshooting guide.

Limitations

• Check is syntax + imports only. luca check validates parseable source and the transitive import graph. Type mismatches, arity on runtime values, division by zero on computed values, and ask conversion errors surface only when you run.
• The CLI must be installed. This extension is an editor front end for the luca binary; it does not bundle an interpreter.
• Source nesting is capped at 32 levels and recursion at 64 frames. Deeper code reports a normal diagnostic (see known limitations).
• No language server. Highlighting is TextMate-based; run/check diagnostics come from the CLI, not from live incremental analysis.

License

The extension and the Luca Code repository are free to use, including commercially; modifying or redistributing the Software itself requires prior written permission. Programs you write are yours. Full terms: LICENSE.

Learning Luca Code

Start with the first program and the guided tour — twelve short chapters with runnable snippets and their real output; the language reference and standard library reference hold the complete rule set.

About Luca Code

Luca Code is a small, general-purpose language: top-to-bottom execution, exact decimal math, worded comparisons (if n is > to 3 then :), indented blocks, and plain-language error messages like Error at 2:5: 'visits' is not declared. Source and docs live in the luca-code repository; releases are recorded in its changelog.

Developing the extension

npm test runs the unit tests (no dependencies to install). Snippets live in snippets/luca.json, the TextMate grammar in syntaxes/luca.tmLanguage.json.