qlang for VS Code

Support for the qlang language in VS Code (files ending in .q).

• Syntax highlighting: keywords, types, numbers (0xFF_FF, 0b0101, 1_000), strings with {interpolation}, the three comment forms (--, --( … --), --" … --").
• Language server (qlang lsp, started by the extension): the real qlang compiler answers.
  • Errors as you type, underlined in the editor and listed in the Problems panel; errors inside imported modules are shown in those files.
  • Tooltips: hover a name to see its type (names: array<string>), a function or method signature, and the documentation comment (--" … --") written right above its declaration; it works in imported files too. Built-in methods (len, push, split…) are explained too.
  • Completion: after a ., the fields and methods of the value's type (only the public ones, all of them on self), the variants and static functions after Type., and the contents of a module after module.; the fields of a struct literal. Elsewhere: variables in scope, the names of the file (including imports), built-in functions, keywords and types.
  • Parameter hints: typing ( or , in a call shows the signature with the current parameter.
  • Go to definition, find all references and rename (variables, parameters, functions, methods, types, fields and variants, across the whole project), outline and workspace symbols.
• Run: the ▶ button in the editor title bar (or the command qlang: Run File) saves the file and runs it in a terminal, where read() works with your keyboard.
• Snippets: fun, if, ifelse, for, foreach, fori, formap, while, match, struct, impl, trait, enum, import, readint… (type the prefix and press Tab).
• Comment toggling, bracket matching, auto-closing quotes and brackets, and automatic indentation around then … end, do … end and fun … end.

Requirements

The extension calls the qlang program. Install it (and update it) with the installer of the repository, which also installs this extension:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/quenti77/qlang/main/install.sh | sh -s -- --vscode

On Windows there is no prebuilt program yet: install Rust and run cargo install --git https://github.com/quenti77/qlang qlang-cli (the extension itself, qlang.vsix, is on the Releases page: code --install-extension qlang.vsix). From a checkout: cargo install --path crates/qlang-cli.

If qlang is not in your PATH, set qlang.path in the settings to its full path.

qlang.path is only read from your user settings (machine scope), never from a project's .vscode/settings.json, and it is listed as a restricted setting for untrusted workspaces: a downloaded project cannot choose which program the extension runs.

The language server needs a qlang that has the lsp command (the extension and the program are released together: update both). Unsaved text of the open files is used, imports are relative to the folder opened in VS Code, and the previous answer is kept while the code does not compile far enough. Run qlang: Restart Language Server after installing a new qlang.

Settings

Install the extension

cd editors/vscode
npm install
npm run package                            # creates qlang-0.4.0.vsix
code --install-extension qlang-0.4.0.vsix  # add --profile <name> to choose a profile

To try it without installing: open editors/vscode in VS Code and press F5.

Development

npm test      # grammar, helpers, extension logic (against a fake VS Code) and the real compiler

Layout: syntaxes/ the TextMate grammar, language-configuration.json comments, brackets and indentation, snippets/, lib.js pure helpers (imports, request, diagnostics), extension.js the VS Code part. Import paths are resolved like the compiler does: relative to the importing file, and they may go up (../lib/x.q), so the editor and the terminal agree.