Clarion Extension for Visual Studio Code
Professional Clarion language support for Visual Studio Code with intelligent code navigation, IntelliSense, and build integration.
🚀 Quick Links
✨ Key Features
🎨 Clarion & Template Language Support
Full language support for Clarion code, basic support for templates.
- Clarion files (.clw, .inc) - Complete syntax highlighting and IntelliSense
- Template files (.tpl, .tpw) - Syntax highlighting with 100+ template keywords
- Code folding for structures and template blocks
- Context-aware coloring for Clarion code
- Note: Template files have syntax highlighting only (no IntelliSense/navigation)
- Learn more about Code Editing →
💡 Signature Help & Documentation
Get instant parameter hints and documentation - works immediately, no solution needed!
- 310 built-in functions with parameter hints and descriptions
- Method overload support — overloads narrowed by argument type (e.g.
OPEN(Window) shows only WINDOW signatures)
- Hover documentation for all symbols — procedures, classes, variables, attributes, built-ins
- Context-aware hover —
HIDE, DISABLE, TYPE show attribute or statement usage depending on context
- Hover for PROP:/PROPPRINT: runtime properties — descriptions from Clarion 11.1 docs
- Hover for EVENT: equates — category, description, and usage example
- Signature help for class methods including inherited members
- Learn more about Signature Help →
🤖 IntelliSense — Smart Completions
Type SELF. or MyVar. for context-aware member suggestions. Type PROP:, PROPPRINT:, or EVENT: for documented equate completions.
- Resolves
SELF., PARENT., MyVar., or ClassName. to the correct class
- Full inheritance walk — shows methods and properties from parent classes
- Access control aware —
PRIVATE / PROTECTED / PUBLIC scoping enforced
- Each overload shown as a distinct entry with parameter signatures
- Chained expressions (
SELF.Order.) resolve intermediate types
- PROP:/PROPPRINT: completions with description and read-only badge
- EVENT: completions with category label (Field-Specific / Field-Independent / DDE)
- Learn more about Navigation →
✏️ Code Snippets
Write code faster with 50+ smart snippets - works immediately!
📂 Solution Management
Open any Clarion solution - just open the folder.
🧭 Smart Code Navigation
Jump to definitions, find implementations, and explore references — works in same file immediately, cross-file with solution.
- Press F12 to go to definition (same file: no solution needed!)
- Press Ctrl+F12 to go to implementation
- Press Shift+F12 for Find All References — scope-aware across all project files
- Press F2 to Rename Symbol — renames across the entire workspace in one step
- Document Highlight — pressing on a symbol highlights all occurrences in the current file
- Workspace Symbol Search (
Ctrl+T) — search for any procedure, class, or label across all solution files
- Hover for documentation — declaration location, class/interface context, type info
- Chained navigation:
SELF.Order.RangeList.Init — hover, F12, Ctrl+F12, and references resolve through CLASS, QUEUE, and GROUP type chains
- SELF/PARENT properties: F12 on
SELF.List navigates to the class member declaration
- Typed variable members: F12/Ctrl+F12/hover on
obj.Method() where obj is any typed variable
- INTERFACE support: hover, F12, Ctrl+F12, and references for interface methods, IMPLEMENTS(), and 3-part
Class.Interface.Method implementations
- CLASS type names: F12 and Find All References work on type names in parameter and variable declarations
- Cross-file navigation requires solution
- Learn more about Navigation →
🔧 Build Integration
Generate applications directly from VS Code.
- Right-click to build from Solution View
- Multiple build configurations (Debug/Release) — active config auto-detected from
.sln.cache
- Projects sorted by build order (dependency-first) in Solution View
- Live build output
- Learn more about Building →
🎯 Real-time Diagnostics
Catch errors as you type.
- Unterminated structures — including window sub-structures (
WINDOW, SHEET, TAB, OLE, MENU, etc.)
- Missing RETURN statements
- FILE validation (DRIVER, RECORD)
- Missing INCLUDE — warns when a variable's class type is defined in an
.inc not included in the file; code action inserts the INCLUDE automatically
- Missing DefineConstants — warns when a class's required
Link()/DLL() constants are absent from the .cwproj; code action adds them with a QuickPick for static vs DLL mode
- Learn more about Diagnostics →
Productivity features to write code faster.
📦 Installation
Requirements
- Visual Studio Code (latest version)
- Clarion (for build features)
Quick Install
- Open VS Code
- Press
Ctrl+Shift+X
- Search for "Clarion Extensions"
- Click Install
Detailed installation instructions →
🎓 Learning Resources
For New Users
Feature Documentation
Reference
🆕 What's New
Latest: v0.9.6 (2026-04-23) — Missing Include Diagnostics & Bug Fixes
🩺 Missing INCLUDE & DefineConstants Diagnostics
Variables declared with a user-defined class type now show a Warning squiggle when the type's .inc file isn't included. A code action (Ctrl+.) inserts the INCLUDE,ONCE statement — optionally in the current file or the MEMBER parent. A companion Information diagnostic fires when the include is present but required Link()/DLL() project constants are missing from the .cwproj, with a QuickPick code action to add them. The include verifier walks the full transitive include chain (any depth, cycle-safe) to avoid false positives from transitively-included types.
🧙 New Solution Wizard
Create a minimal Clarion solution (.sln, .cwproj, .clw) from the Solution View + button or Clarion: New Solution in the command palette. Clarion version and configuration are auto-detected.
🐛 Key Bug Fixes
token:function equate identifiers no longer reset inCodeSection, preventing false-positive BREAK used outside LOOP diagnostics- Blank-label
ITEMIZE blocks (e.g. in XMLType.inc) no longer cause false-positive missing-include warnings
- Settings no longer write redundant legacy individual keys alongside the
solutions array
See full changelog →
Recent: v0.9.5 (2026-04-21) — Hover Expansion & Build Integration
📚 310 Built-ins, 158 Attributes
Hover documentation now covers 310 Clarion built-in functions and 158 window/report attributes. Overload narrowing: hovering OPEN(Window) shows only the WINDOW-relevant signatures. Context-aware hover for HIDE, DISABLE, and TYPE — shows attribute or statement usage depending on whether you're inside a WINDOW/REPORT structure.
🏗️ Build Integration Improvements
- Projects sorted by dependency order in Solution View
- Active build config auto-detected from
.sln.cache on open
- Fixed MSBuild property quoting and per-project log files
🐛 Key Bug Fixes
- SDI startup fix: hover and Go To Definition now work on first open without needing to reopen the solution
LIKE(TypeName) dot-access chains resolve correctly (e.g. SELF.OrigWin.Maximized)- Equate hover shows correct type (no longer shows
UNKNOWN)
See full changelog →
Recent: v0.9.4 (2026-04-19) — PROP/EVENT Docs, CodeLens & Editor Power-Ups
📚 PROP: / PROPPRINT: Hover Documentation
Hover over any runtime property equate (PROP:Enabled, PROP:Color, PROPPRINT:Device, …) to see an instant description, read-only badge, and usage example. Covers 336 PROP: entries and 25 PROPPRINT: printer properties.
⚡ EVENT: Hover & Autocomplete
Type EVENT: for a full autocomplete list of all 63 EVENT: equates. Hovering shows category and description.
🔢 CodeLens — Inline Reference Counts
A N references lens above every procedure and CLASS declaration. Dead code is immediately visible. Click to open the References panel.
📐 Expand / Shrink Selection (Shift+Alt+→ / Shift+Alt+←)
Progressively widen selection through Clarion's scope hierarchy.
🔗 Flatten Continuation Lines (Ctrl+.)
Joins |-continued lines, trims whitespace, and collapses adjacent string literals.
See full changelog →
Recent: v0.9.2 (2026-04-18) — Navigation & Bug Fixes
🔗 Multi-Level Chain Navigation
variable.property.method chains now resolve all the way through. Hover, F12, and Ctrl+F12 on thisStartup.Settings.PutGlobalSetting(...) correctly walk the type chain.
🐛 Key Bug Fixes
PREFIX:Name reference variables now resolve correctly- Hover, F12, and Ctrl+F12 suppressed inside string literals
- Colon-stripping fallback removed from hover and F12
See full changelog →
Recent: v0.8.8 (2026-04-12)
✏️ Rename Symbol (F2)
Rename any user-defined symbol across the entire workspace — scope-aware, protects read-only .inc files.
🔆 Document Highlight
Click a symbol to highlight all its occurrences in the current file.
🔍 Workspace Symbol Search (Ctrl+T)
Search for any procedure, class, or label across all files in the solution.
See full changelog →
💬 Support & Feedback
📄 License
MIT License
🙏 Acknowledgments
Special thanks to:
- fushnisoft - Original Clarion syntax highlighting
- The Clarion community for feedback and testing
