I want to make a plugin for a language for the Intellij Idea IDE. The language has been developped using Eclipse Xtext and is open source. A plugin already exists for Eclipse.
My goal is to port this language to Intellij Idea. I want to be able to use Intellij to create source files, to have the specific syntax highlighting and to be able to compile and run programs written with this language.
Is there a simple way to generate the Intellij Idea plugin using the Xtext project?
If not is there an efficient solution to be able to have the specific syntax highlighting in Intellij? (an automatic way if possible, I would prefer not rewriting everything everytime the Xtext project is updated)
Short answer
Yes, with a bit of work.
Long Answer
Sadly, Xtext uses antlr in the background and IntelliJ use their own grammar kit based on Parsing Expression Grammars. As such, the parsing and editor code generated by XText, as you might have guessed, will not work.
In order to get your language working in IntelliJ you will need to:
Create grammar *.bnf file
Generate lexer *.flex file, possibly tweak it and then run JFlex generator
Implement helper classes to provide, among others, file recognition via file extension, syntax highlighting, color settings page, folding, etc.
The *.flex file is generated from the bnf. Luckily, most of the classes in step 3 follow a very similar structure so they can be easily generated (more on that later). So basically, if you manage to generate the *.bnf file, you are 80% there.
Although from different technologies, the syntax of bnf files is very similar to XText files. I recently migrated some antlr grammars to IntelliJ's bnf and I had to do very small changes. Thus, it should be possible to autogenerate the bnf files from your XText ones.
That brings me back to point 3. Using XTend, Epsilon's EGL, or similar, it would be easy to generate all the boiler plate classes. As part of the migration I mentioned before I also did this. I am in the process of making the code public, so I will post it here when done and add some details.
We use tslint and eslint, each of which has its own json file to govern the linting rules. I use PHPStorm and some other developers use VSCode but we use the same json file so our formatting is identical.
Is there an HTML version of this, like HTMLlint.json?
There are but they rarely have a ton of implemented features. The best out there and easy to use is this one but there is nobody contributing to it anymore https://github.com/htmllint/htmllint
Check out their wiki https://github.com/htmllint/htmllint/wiki/
I am creating a custom language plugin for IntelliJ.
I would like it to be possible for a file in the new language to contain fragments of text in other languages.
The specific languages I would like to support are HTML, JS, CSS, and SQL.
I would also like to support other custom languages (i.e. languages I would define the syntax for).
The main feature I want is syntax coloring, but if I can get stuff like "go to declaration" and refactoring out of the box then all the better.
My last requirement is that it would be possible to use my own code to tell IntelliJ which language a fragment contains; fragments containing different languages will not be distinguishable at the lexer / parser level.
In short, I would like to implement something similar to what PhpStorm does when it detects, say, SQL inside a string:
I looked at IntelliJ's source code and found the ILazyParseableElementType interface which seemed relevant, but I'm not sure if this is the way to go (and if so - how to use it in my code exactly...)
Any pointers would be highly appreciated...
The Intellij feature/terminology you are looking for is Language Injections.
Here is a github PR which implements a very similar feature for JFLex files.
In short you need to implement a LanguageInjector and add it to your plugin.xml as a <languageInjector implementation="YourImplClass">.
I currently use Programmer's Notepad with the Rebol syntax scheme. It's not bad--does any insightful person have another suggestion?
For my Windows programming work I use the Zeus editor, but I'm not sure if it does Rebol?
Another windows option is TextPad. It is commercial but it is quite a useful editor.
There are 2 Rebol syntax files available from the official site
http://www.textpad.com/add-ons/synn2t.html
I also wrote a TextPad syntax file generator uploaded it to rebol.org
http://www.rebol.org/view-script.r?script=textpad-syngen.r
It is probably quite easy to modify this script to support other editors.
vim.
Especially with the following binding in your _vimrc/.vimrc:
nnoremap <Leader>fr :w<CR>:silent ! %<CR>
In normal mode, Leaderfr saves your current file and executes it: (fr is a memo for 'fast-run')
:wEnter save current file
:silent execute without messages: ! open shell % paste current file name Enter
Leader is usually \ key, I have this mapped to spacebar. In case anyone is interested on how to do that, post a comment.
Programmer’s Notepad better than Crimson Editor with Code Folding and Great Project Management
http://www.pnotepad.org/
It's opensource so you can even modify it in C++
For Windows, there is Crimson Editor or E with the REBOL bundle.
For Mac, there is TextMate.
Emacs, I believe has a REBOL syntax too.
Sublime Text is a really nice Windows editor (commercial, but reasonably priced) that supports TextMate configurations (well, at least for syntax and snippets) so if you manage to get a REBOL bundle from somewhere, you can use it with this.
SciTE also has REBOL syntax coloring support because the Scintilla editor component it's based on includes this.
Notepad++ should also support REBOL syntax coloring, being Scintilla based, but as it is currently distributed, the support is not compiled in. If you're so inclined, you could probably compile it yourself and add the support back in. It might be worth it because Notepad++ is quite a good editor too.
I can't include proper links because I don't have enough rep, but this should do:
www.sublimetext.com
www.scintilla.org/SciTE.html
www.scintilla.org/index.html
notepad-plus-plus.org
http://rebol.wik.is/index.php?title=Notepad%2b%2b
which is a REBOL plugin for Notepad++
I use JEdit which not only has REBOL syntax highlighting but also auto-indenting. It has most of the features you'd expect from a text editor (e.g. block selection, configurable keyboard shortcuts).
There are versions for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux so if you choose to work cross-platform you won't need to learn a new editor. The web page is Jedit.org1
I use UltraEdit.
with its advanced project, syntax highlighting, macro, command-line control and total keyboard shortcut configuration, per language and project, you can program the editor to do just about all of what you need at a single click of the mouse, or keyboard.
my setup starts rebol on any file, and assigns a launch "default project script " to a shortcut, so wherever I am in the files, I still launch the project's relevant script. change project, it will run that new project's scripts. another key for unit tests, another key for "find in all opened files, etc, etc..
also, the actual text-exiting, when combined with a few macros which create functions, objects, and more using the clipboard and "currently highlighted" text makes it much faster than any Visual IDE including MSVC.
ultra edit itself has thousands of other advanced features, and they all work... really they do.
I've tried other editors and they always fall short when I start to push them.
yeah, you have to buy it... but its cheap (like one or two hours of your life salary ;-)
so considering you might use it for several months or years... its a cheap investment.
also, ultra edit is now released on linux and the mac port is just around the corner.
I use EditPlus for several years, it is not free but not expensive. It has Rebol syntax highlighting file (downloadable from its web site).
It is especially useful & very fast if you work with huge files (over 100 mb) or with lots of files (say 300 files.), find & replace takes a second.
For syntax highlighting and a simple autocomplete, you can use http://komodoide.com/komodo-edit/.
It's free and open source with several nice features, including folder browsing while editing, which I personally find very useful.
There is also a bunch of other languages supported in case you want to take a closer look and give this editor a chance.
In one sentence I have manage to create 16 possible variations on how I present information. Does it matter as long as the context is clear? Do any common mistakes irritate you?
regarding Perl: How should I capitalize Perl?
TIFF stands for Tagged Image File Format, whereas the extension of files using that format is often ".tif".
That is for the purpose of compatibility with 8.3 filenames, I believe.
I generally like the Perl way of capitalizing when used as a proper noun, but lowercasing when referring to the command itself (assuming the command is lowercase to begin with).
Well, Perl and TIFF have already been answered, so I'll add the last two
the Apache Foundation writes "Apache Ant".
Rational ClearCase (or sometimes "IBM Rational ClearCase") is written as such at its web site.
Even though Perl was originally an acronym for Practical Extration and Report Language, it is written Perl.
These things dont 'bother' me as much as they provide insights into the level of knowledge of the speaker/author. You see, we work in a industry that requires precision, so precision in language does matter as it affects the understanding of the consumer.
The one that really seems to bother me is when people fully upper case JAVA as though it was an acronym.