Visual Studio Code Extension currently available and future plans for SciTE?

[genius257]

Hi @argumentum,

In what context did you get this error? I've only seen it appear, when opening the yml file manually.

The warnings are caused by missing repository secrets access, making the local checking warn about this, when not really relevant. There is an issue on the vscode GitHub actions extension about this from 2023: https://github.com/github/vscode-github-actions/issues/222

But i guess it should be omitted from the the released/packaged files, that might solve the issue.

[argumentum]

14 minutes ago, genius257 said:

In what context did you get this error?

made a copy: "SampleControls - Copy.au3" and added ">AutoIt: Trace: add..". It does add a line with "@@ (20) :(48:22) _Example()" but DClicking does nothing in VSCode.

But my main complain is that when I click-click "@@ (20) :(04:20) _Example()", it does not jump to the line number.
The ">AutoIt: Trace: .." is there but ... maybe am not using it the way it should be ?, ..no clue.

[genius257]

22 minutes ago, argumentum said:

made a copy: "SampleControls - Copy.au3" and added ">AutoIt: Trace: add..". It does add a line with "@@ (20) :(48:22) _Example()" but DClicking does nothing in VSCode.

  So I'm assuming that you are using Damien.autoit, because my extension does not have the trace add functionality.

On 2/5/2025 at 4:03 PM, genius257 said:

Look at your current selected language mode:
If it says "AutoIt" then it's Damien.autoit, if it says "AutoIt3" then it's my extension running.

As for double clicking in vscode, i suspect you want to use ctrl+click or right click and choose "Go to Definition" (you can also use F12 to goto definition if your caret is on a function call or variable)

Edited February 11 by genius257

[argumentum]

Am using both. Why, how, ..even added a "genius257.autoit3-debug". What am I doing ?, ..just F5 ( to run ) and clicking around. I tend to learn that way 

..20 minutes later..

ok, I see that Damian has ">AutoIt: command" and if I remove it that's not there.
I'll play around a bit more

[IronFine]

Good morning,

I would love to contribute to either of the extensions.

As I mentioned, I have been using VSCode with the Damian/Loganch extension for quite some time, and having the "Problems" tab really speeds up development.

What do I love about the genius257 extension? IntelliSense is context-aware. So, if I am typing a variable, it lists everything that is valid in the current context.

Combining the best features of both extensions would be amazing!

[ValentinM]

10 hours ago, donnyh13 said:

Specifically, for one, I have a tool that scans a script for func declarations and lists each func name in a specific spot at the top

Ctrl+Shift+O ?

[donnyh13]

4 hours ago, ValentinM said:

Ctrl+Shift+O ?

Thanks, I'll take a look at that. VSCode is quite new to me still.

[BinaryBrother]

On 2/4/2025 at 7:38 AM, seadoggie01 said:

But I also use AutoIt for fairly simple things now like making a GUI wrapper for a command line program written in C#.

That's interesting, I choose the opposite approach. I use C# for some of my GUIs and AutoIt does works the backend.

 

On 2/5/2025 at 5:43 AM, Jos said:

How does that exactly work in VSCode as I assume(d) only one can be active and perform the lexing/syntaxcolor and monitor the shortcuts to run/compile?

You can run multiple PHP extensions, but they conflict. The code completion and suggestions double up. At least that's my experience from a few months back.

 

[WildByDesign]

There is only one feature that I really miss in SciTE4AutoIt3 and that is the Ctrl+Shift+Z dynamic includes feature where it scans your whole script file and adds any missing include files to your script. If that could somehow be added to the VSCode extensions that would be very useful.

[BinaryBrother]

When you type #include, the shadow suggestions usually predict the include you need. Not quite as easy as a hotkey, but still pretty nifty.

Fixing with Co-Pilot also adds necessary includes.

https://app.screencast.com/rHFLFV43SGj2v

Since I just had to use it, now I'm wondering about the GUI Builder. But it's pretty much its-own program.

The LUA that you're talking about, with the CTRL+Shift+Z is one of the things that Jos is worried about porting, methinks.

Edited February 13 by BinaryBrother

[Jos]

6 hours ago, BinaryBrother said:

The LUA that you're talking about, with the CTRL+Shift+Z is one of the things that Jos is worried about porting, methinks.

But you could still use the initial version I made with AutoIt3Wrapper, which is implemented in AutoIt3Wrapper and still there:

I am not fully up-to-speed on the best way to add own stuff to VSCode but this works fine for me:

// filepath: vscode-userdata:/c%3A/Users/.../AppData/Roaming/Code/User/tasks.json
{
    "version": "2.0.0",
    "tasks": [
         {
              "label": "Add AutoIt Includes",
              "type": "shell",
              "command": "${config:autoit.aiPath}\\Autoit3.exe",
              "args": [
                    "${config:autoit.aiPath}\\SciTE\\AutoIt3Wrapper\\AutoIt3Wrapper.au3",
                    "/addincludes",
                    "/in",
                    "${file}"
              ],
              "group": {
                    "kind": "build",
                    "isDefault": true
              },
              "problemMatcher": [],
              "detail": "Add missing includes to the AutoIt script"
         }
    ]
}

 

// keybindings.json
[{
    "key": "ctrl+shift+z",
    "command": "workbench.action.tasks.runTask",
    "args": "Add AutoIt Includes",
    "when": "editorTextFocus && editorLangId == 'autoit'"
}]

 

Edited February 13 by Jos

[Jos]

I have to check that old /addincludes option as it seems to be adding an #include <> even when it is already there. ....stay tuned.

[Jos]

1 hour ago, Jos said:

I have to check that old /addincludes option as it seems to be adding an #include <> even when it is already there. ....stay tuned.

Uploaded an updated beta installer v25.205.1420.2 which contains an updated AutoIt3Wrapper v25.205.1420.1, where /addincludes parameter works again correctly.
I stripped out a little too much when removing the previously required "filename with special characters" support. 

[WildByDesign]

8 hours ago, BinaryBrother said:

When you type #include, the shadow suggestions usually predict the include you need. Not quite as easy as a hotkey, but still pretty nifty.

Fixing with Co-Pilot also adds necessary includes.

https://app.screencast.com/rHFLFV43SGj2v

Thank you. I wasn't aware of that shadow suggestions feature in VSCode for predicting the include needed. The video that you attached was helpful as well. However, for whatever reason, I was not able to get it to work with either extension. I had a new .au3 file with a simple MsgBox lines and tried adding #include and pressing space after like in your video, but it never predicted the include. Possibly I need to enable shadow suggestions somewhere?

Either way, now that Jos has posted a way with Au3Wrapper, I will likely prefer that method. I like how the one extension utilizes Au3Wrapper already for the binary compilation with the manifest, etc.

2 minutes ago, Jos said:

Uploaded an updated beta installer v25.205.1420.2 which contains an updated AutoIt3Wrapper v25.205.1420.1, where /addincludes parameter works again correctly.
I stripped out a little too much when removing the previously required "filename with special characters" support. 

Thank you so much for this. I was completely unaware of the /addincludes functionality in Au3Wrapper as I am still quite new to AutoIt. I appreciate the quick fix as well. I think that this will be helpful for newer users for sure.

[WildByDesign]

2 hours ago, Jos said:

I am not fully up-to-speed on the best way to add own stuff to VSCode but this works fine for me:

I just wanted to confirm that this is working perfectly for me. Although I did have to modify the path to AutoIt.exe and Au3Wrapper.au3 slightly. But everything works great in the end as well as the keybindings. Thank you sincerely for this. This completes my full transition over to VSCode.

[Jos]

8 minutes ago, WildByDesign said:

I think that this will be helpful for newer users for sure.

Ideally, the popup shown when typing a known UDF, would contain the option to add the #include line at the top. .... or even better the #include would be added when missing on save, like au3check run
I am still getting my head around all options and how things work. eg:
What is the purpose of adding the extra directories in autoit.includePaths?:

"autoit.includePaths": [
    "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\AutoIt3\\Include_prive\\",
  ]

They are not shown in and autocomplete suggestion...   need to study more i guess.  

[WildByDesign]

2 minutes ago, Jos said:

What is the purpose of adding the extra directories in autoit.includePaths?:

This just made me wonder something. I was actually thinking yesterday about how it would pick up includes that are separate from the AutoIt installation. For example, @ScriptDir & "\includes". I wonder if this includePaths settings can be used to accommodate that?

[ValentinM]

3 hours ago, WildByDesign said:

I wasn't aware of that shadow suggestions feature in VSCode for predicting the include needed. The video that you attached was helpful as well. However, for whatever reason, I was not able to get it to work with either extension. I had a new .au3 file with a simple MsgBox lines and tried adding #include and pressing space after like in your video, but it never predicted the include. Possibly I need to enable shadow suggestions somewhere?

FYI, this feature doesn't come from VSCode itself but from GitHub Copilot, which is an AI helper using GPT-4 that predicts code based on your files (I can't remember if it sticks to the current file or more, but it was originally supposed to only read the current one). It not only predicts the right includes but is also excellent at making loops, filling arrays, etc. However, it can be quite bad at other tasks.

It learns from your code and can read your comments, so you can implicitly give it directives. For example:

So keep in mind that it could mess with the includes as well. But I use it daily, and it helps me more than it hurts my brain 😀

In the past, you had to be a student, teacher, or pay for access to Copilot, but I can see on their website that it has become free. To use it, you have to install this extension and probably sign in or sign up for a GitHub account.

EDIT : Autocompletion is made by pressing TAB.

Edited February 13 by ValentinM

[WildByDesign]

6 hours ago, ValentinM said:

FYI, this feature doesn't come from VSCode itself but from GitHub Copilot, which is an AI helper using GPT-4 that predicts code based on your files (I can't remember if it sticks to the current file or more, but it was originally supposed to only read the current one). It not only predicts the right includes but is also excellent at making loops, filling arrays, etc. However, it can be quite bad at other tasks.

Thank you for clarifying that the feature you were mentioning relies on GitHub Copilot. I'm not a huge fan of AI yet so I think I will stick to the VSCode integration with Au3Wrapper which is working very well for my use case.

[WildByDesign]

On 2/5/2025 at 10:03 AM, genius257 said:

Look at your current selected language mode:
If it says "AutoIt" then it's Damien.autoit, if it says "AutoIt3" then it's my extension running.

The interesting thing about this is that we can switch back and forth between these two extensions (if both are installed) by simply switching between "AutoIt3" and "AutoIt" on this same status bar menu.

So for example, you can be using @genius257 extension "AutoIt3" for coding in general, then switch to "AutoIt" briefly to run a Ctrl+F7 to compile a binary and other options that need integration to Au3Wrapper and such. Then simply switch back to "AutoIt3.