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

[WildByDesign]

It seems that the extension sets autoit.aiPath by default as C:\\Program Files (x86)\\AutoIt3\\AutoIt3.exe (AutoIt-VSCode/package.json at bb6a8f6f5ce9fed0bf070059bb6458a6e47e7030 · loganch/AutoIt-VSCode) and that seems to be the problem.

If I change the settings.json file to "autoit.aiPath": "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\AutoIt3\\" it literally fixes everything. The built-in extension combos of F7, Ctrl+F7, etc. all still work properly with that change. I have to test it a bit more but so far so good. If it checks out good, we'll have to suggest it to the developer of the extension.

[SOLVE-SMART]

3 minutes ago, WildByDesign said:

If it checks out good, we'll have to suggest it to the developer of the extension.

Thanks, I think the pull request regarding this would be easy. But it could be the case that there are more functions involved which can be analyzed by debugging. Maybe I can check it too (tomorrow). Next step, as you already mentioned, calling @LoganCH for this. But unfortunately he did not give us any sign for weeks, no matter on which channel (here on the forum or on GitHub). I hope he's doing well 🤔 .

Best regards
Sven

[WildByDesign]

I will test more tonight. Another thought would be having him split that variable into two different variables. One with just path and the other with path and binary. But I don’t think that will be necessary.

[WildByDesign]

7 hours ago, WildByDesign said:

If I change the settings.json file to "autoit.aiPath": "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\AutoIt3\\" it literally fixes everything. The built-in extension combos of F7, Ctrl+F7, etc. all still work properly with that change. I have to test it a bit more but so far so good. If it checks out good, we'll have to suggest it to the developer of the extension.

I've spent a few hours testing various options within the extension and everything has worked well on my end with this one small change. It also fixed the issues with Jos' tasks.

Further, the extension seems to append the various AutoIt binaries to "autoit.aiPath", here: AutoIt-VSCode/src/ai_config.js at bb6a8f6f5ce9fed0bf070059bb6458a6e47e7030 · loganch/AutoIt-VSCode

[Jos]

Ideally, the variable "autoit.wrapperPath" is populated with the correct path, but that seems to be empty by default.
 

[WildByDesign]

It doesn't seem to populate any of the fields. It sets AutoIt path by default value and everything else is relative to that path.

For "autoit.wrapperPath", it takes AutoIt path and adds:

wrapperPath: { dir: 'SciTE\\AutoIt3Wrapper\\', file: 'AutoIt3Wrapper.au3' },

That translates to: "C:\Program Files (x86)\AutoIt3\SciTE\AutoIt3Wrapper\AutoIt3Wrapper.au3"

[Jos]

Just for the heck of it: I've modified my forked repo extension code to include these standard shortcuts/tasks :

• Tidy   (Ctrl+t)
• Au3Stripper (Ctrl+Shift+x)
• AddIncludes (Ctrl+Shift+m)

.. and think this works nicer than defining the tasks.json. 

Also added a fix to be able to cope with the -1 returncode from Tidy. 

Edited March 1 by Jos

[Jos]

I had one "annoyance" while using VSC where Ctrl+/ does what in SciTE is accomplished with Ctrl+Q, but in SciTE the :~ is added at the start of the line and in VSCode it is added indented in front of the code with one space. Then when tidy is ran, the comment is moved to the left as Tidy assumes that SciTE requires it to be at the start of the line.
Is there any reason why VSCode works different, or do people like it better that way? 
I can change Tidy in a way that when ran by Scite, it does the current behavior and when run by other editors it will Indent the comments with the normal code.

Edited March 8 by Jos

[genius257]

49 minutes ago, Jos said:

Is there any reason why VSCode works different, or do people like it better that way? 

Generally respecting the indentation when commenting or un-commentating a line seems like the best approach in my opinion. Doing it like in SciTE, gives issues, when you want to indent a section containing an out-commented line of code, where with vscode the identation is no issue and un-commentating the line later, does not produce the same possible problems.

[Jos]

18 hours ago, genius257 said:

Generally respecting the indentation when commenting or un-commentating a line seems like the best approach in my opinion. Doing it like in SciTE, gives issues, when you want to indent a section containing an out-commented line of code, where with vscode the identation is no issue and un-commentating the line later, does not produce the same possible problems.

No issue, so we would want Tidy to respect that when not ran from SciTE.  I have uploaded a Beta version that checks how the program is shelled and will Indent linecomments when not ran from SciTE.

[donnyh13]

Another benefit would be for folding. Since VSCode relies on indentation to determine foldable areas/ and start/stop fold positions. Though I haven't checked if unindented comments stop folding?

Edit: Yes it can.

Edited March 9 by donnyh13

[argumentum]

The new Au3Check.dat is missing data ( Maps, SetExitCode, etc. ) Fixed

Edited March 9 by argumentum

[Jos]

1 hour ago, argumentum said:

The new Au3Check.dat is missing data ( Maps, SetExitCode, etc. )

Thanks...   fixed in Beta downloads, but is really not needed to download as the installer only updates au3check.exe to support the mixed encoding, but will use the available au3check.dat.

Edited March 9 by Jos

[argumentum]

30 minutes ago, Jos said:

...but is really not needed to download as...

I update SciTE w/newer beta files with this script so otherwise it brakes my automation 😅

[genius257]

6 hours ago, donnyh13 said:

Another benefit would be for folding. Since VSCode relies on indentation to determine foldable areas/ and start/stop fold positions.

By default, yes. An extension can provide specific folding information. The LSP specification also allows this if it registers the foldingRange capability and a provider.
Try this in JS/TS:
 

if(1){
// a
if(1){
// b
// c
// d
// e
}
}

 

[donnyh13]

Thanks.

On 3/9/2025 at 4:59 PM, genius257 said:

An extension can provide specific folding information

While this is true in generality, even with my indentation settings set to Auto, which is supposed to use the extension's folding settings first, then indent if necessary, indentation seems to still override it. Try this: It folds to the comment in both your, and Logan's extension.

Func FunctionName()

    Local $iError = 0
;~  Local $aError[5]

    If Not 1 = 1 Then Return False
EndFunc

 

Edited March 11 by donnyh13

[genius257]

12 hours ago, donnyh13 said:

While this is true in generality, even with my indentation settings set to Auto, which is supposed to use the extension's folding settings first, then indent if necessary, indentation seems to still override it. Try this: It folds to the comment in both your, and Logan's extension.

I have not checked Logan's extension, but in mine i have not yet implemented any folding information provider 😉

[donnyh13]

Ah I see. Sorry, still catching on to stuff in VSCode

[LoganCH]

My apologies for just now getting into the thread, but I thought I had notifications for mentions sent to email, since I only really hit the forums when doing research while developing something or updating the changes for the VSCode extension. @Sven-Seyfert sent me an email that let me know that I was missing stuff, so I'm going through the thread to see what I can add.

[LoganCH]

On 2/10/2025 at 10:19 AM, Jos said:

I am not in any rush here as I have already published a new Beta for SciTE4AutoIt3 containing all stuff I mentioned here.
After a short period in which people can comment on that Beta, I will release it and then go into hiding for a month. 😅

The reason for starting a discussion here is to see whether there is anything I could do in the current packages used by the extensions in VSCode, and was curious about people's opinions what the "best" extension is to use.  

Couple of things I have been wondering since using VSCode & the Damien version for the AutoIt3 extension are:

• Is there a reason not having shortcuts for Tidy / Au3Stripper?
• $VARIABLES & @MACROs aren't shown with a different color. Any reason for that or did I miss something?
• Is there any logic in the extension to fix some of the auto indent quirks, or is everybody just livening with it? (I know all about them having messed with the LUA code for that and still not have it perfect)

Jos

• Is there a reason not having shortcuts for Tidy / Au3Stripper?
  • Ctrl+T would interfere with VSCode's object search and I couldn't think of a better one. I didn't see Au3Stripper in the Tools menu for SciTe and I never have used it so I honestly missed/forgot that one.
• $VARIABLES & @MACROs aren't shown with a different color. Any reason for that or did I miss something?

  • This is based on the VSCode theme's choice of color for variables (variable.other) vs macros (constant.other) from the tmLanguage tags

• Is there any logic in the extension to fix some of the auto indent quirks, or is everybody just livening with it? (I know all about them having messed with the LUA code for that and still not have it perfect)
  • Do you mean the way that code blocks like If...EndIf indent, or the way that VSCode indents default to 2 spaces vs AutoIt standard being a tab and how that messes with Tidy?