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11 Votes

Add Synergy/DE Extension to VSCode.


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We have a lot of our developers and continuing development folks that use workbench for their everyday editor.  These people usually are working in our backend Synergy code exclusively, and are comfortable with Workbench from their years of experience with it.  These people don't get to creative with Workbench.  We don't compile with it, and most don't even setup projects in it.  Workbench, for us, is strictly a code editor.  

Recently some of us have been using VSCode for new UI development.  The thought we had is if we had a Synergy/DE Code Extension available with VSCode we could start the process of getting everyone moved off Workbench.  This would eliminate our need for the 40+ licenses we are using today.  VSCode is a free download, and very light weight.  Also, no licensing issues.  VSCode is becoming popular, and we feel Synergy needs to move into it.  This could be a huge thing for us going forward.  

8 Comments | Posted by Aaron Edmondson to Visual Studio Integration, Other on 2/28/2018, 3:38 PM
Marty Lewis

Everyone that voted on this idea (and future voters), I'd like your opinion: What is the minimum functionality in a VSCode extension that would be useful? I'm interested in exploring what you are looking for and figuring out what we are able to deliver. I do not think that a full blown implementation is something that we can deliver in the near future, but if you are looking for incremental VSCode support I am happy to work on it.

3/9/2018, 1:13 AM   0  
Aaron Edmondson
Incremental VSCode support is what I was expecting.  Speaking for the voters from Jack Henry my thoughts would be pretty simple to start.  Having syntax highlighting (keywords, variables, comments, etc.) is the big place to start.  Just having this ability would be a great starting spot.  Also, I think we would need to be able to use the file.associations settings file in VSCode to tie our source files to the SynergyDBL language.  Just having this base level stuff I think we could get started using it.

What would be great to see over time?  BEGIN-END matching would be helpful.  Maybe some simple intellisense\code completion on SynergyDBL routines.  Hover information on routines, and on possible syntax errors.  Highlighting all instances of a variable within a source file when selected.  Use the keyboard shortcuts for code beautification.  And on, and on, and on...

I don't think any of us expected any sort of full blown implementation right out of the box.  We understand it will take time.  But if we had the things I laid out in the first paragraph, I see us being able to start using it.  If you wanted to throw in extra bells and whistles I wouldn't try to stop you.
 

3/9/2018, 2:23 PM   2  
Brad Ryan
I would love to have syntax highlighting and begin-end matching to start.

10/11/2018, 4:22 PM   0  
Gary Hoffmann
I agree completely with Aaron's thoughts.

2/15/2019, 12:58 PM   0  
Kish Baley
Collapsible begin-end and collapsible using-endusing would be a big plus in both VSCode and VSPro.

2/15/2019, 1:24 PM   0  
Marty Lewis
I'm pleased to announce that our initial support for VS Code is live! We are developing this functionality as an open source project on GitHub and would welcome your contributions. If you would like to look more into the open source project, please take a look! https://github.com/Synergex/vscode-synergydbl

If you just want to try the extension, you can search for "Synergy" in the extension marketplace inside of VS Code, or download and install the VSIX from the GitHub releases page.

The scope of the extension is fairly limited right now, but I have been using the colorization locally for a while and it makes a huge difference when you need a quick edit. I am looking forward to seeing what everyone else comes up with.

10/8/2019, 12:26 AM   2  
Steve Ives
Marty, awesome start, thanks to you and you team, and also to our friends over at Jack Henry for getting this development effort sarted. I notice that begin and end are color coded differently, any idea why?

By the way, if there is anything specific that you feel I can work on to move this forward, name it.

10/8/2019, 4:31 AM   0  
Marty Lewis
@Steve, I asked Ryan to take a look at the begin/end colorization issue. He pushed a fix earlier today that looks good. The gallery should be updated with the fix.

We should get a wishlist or up-for-grabs list together for features. Maybe an easy first win would be hacking together some vscode commands for launching Synergy tools like Repository, MDU, etc.

10/8/2019, 10:53 PM   0  
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