Visual Studio Code for Leadwerks
I have been using Visual Studio Code for a couple of years now and it is my defacto text editor next to Notepadd++. I mainly use it however to write Lua scripts.
- Opensource
- Lightweight
- Cross platform
- Completely adjustable hotkeys (or automatically map from Visual Studio: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ms-vscode.vs-keybindings)
- Fully customisable theming (with standard themes included)
- Supports all major languages. Lua is supported via an extension: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=trixnz.vscode-lua
- Build in GIT source control
- Has a huge amount of extensions: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/extension-gallery
- Supports creating custom extensions: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/extensions/overview
- Supports creating custom debuggers (on top of the ones that already exist).
Leadwerks extension
Personally I would love to see it if Visual Studio Code would be the default code editor for Leadwerks (either with 4.x or 5.x). So I got started on working on a custom Leadwerks extension. You can download it here: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=aggror.Leadwerks
Todo list:
- Done: Leadwerks extension has a dependency on the Lua extension. So this Lua extension is automatically installed when you install the Leadwerks extension.
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Done: Snippets. Every time you create a new script in the Leadwerks editor, you get a couple of default scripts like Function Script:Start(), UpdateWorld(), PostRender(context). Using a very simple snippet, these kind of functions can be inserted with ease.
- prop[type] : Creates Leadwerk editor properties
- print: Shortcut for System:Print("")
- lescripts: Inserts all entity script functions (commented)
- class: Creates a basic class objects with example functions
- start: Start function of an entity script
- updateworld: UpdateWorld function of an entity script
- updatephysics: UpdatesPhysics function of an entity script
- collision: Collision function of an entity script with all parameters
- PostRender: PostRender function of an entity script with the context parameter
- function: Creates a function for either a custom object or for the specific script
- if
- for
- pair
- ipar
- For instance: just type 'col' followed by 1 tab and you get:
-
function Script:Collision(entity0,entity1,position,normal,speed) end
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Partially done: Supporting intellisense (sort of) with Leadwerks entities.
- Lua is a typeless language (not a strong typed language), which makes intellisense not really possible.
- VS code is smart enough to recognise some functions that are available in your script, but it is not as complete as when you would work with C# or C++.
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Done: Generate snippets for the entire Leadwerks API.
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Snippets are created per object and a second one without the object. For instance
- Entity:SetPosition()
- SetPosition()
- TODO: Classes with parents, would require matching functions. For instance: a pivot is an entity and thus requires Pivot:SetPosition()
-
Snippets are created per object and a second one without the object. For instance
- Done: parameters into placeholder slots.
- If I can extend the intellisense so that it recognises Leadwerks entities, perhaps we could see correct variables and functions of those entities.
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TODO: Loading in the API documentation in a split screen.
- The API documentation is written in an XML format which I can retrieve in VS code. I can display it in a splitscreen.
- I would have to play with the styling a bit but in general this should work really fast
- API documentation can be cached if in online mode. Documentation could also be periodically fetched. Moving the API documentation to Github would help improve this process. (newer file versions etc)
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Debugging
- Josh stated that he is getting someone to make this for him. So fingers crossed.
- The biggest issue at the moment is the lack of debugging support. Visual studio has debugging options of course, but it can't communicate with the Leadwerks editor.
- If you have an error in your script while running from the editor, the default Lua editor is opened.
- 10
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