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> Does vscode use vim syntax and script files to try and match that or something? Vs code supports language server protocol [1] and also includes support for s

> Does vscode use vim syntax and script files to try and match that or something? Vs code supports language server protocol [1] and also includes support for syntax highlighting [2] If I recall correctly, vim supports syntax highlighting through less-than-elegant regex searches. [1] https://code.visualstudio.com/api/language-extensions/language-server-extension-guide https://code.visualstudio.com/api/language-extensions/langua... [2] https://code.visualstudio.com/api/language-extensions/syntax-highlight-guide https://code.visualstudio.com/api/language-extensions/syntax...

harry8 4y ago
Microsoft have made choices for vscode. Maybe even good ones? What %ge of languages supported by vim are actually supported by microsoft - or "the microsoft community?"
- WorldMaker 4y ago
  It's a very high percentage for syntax highlighting itself (which is most of Vim's focus) if you include the deep extension library. The primary tokenizer VS Code uses for syntax highlighting is based on the TextMate Grammar format [1], which is a pretty wide industry standard of sorts today. A lot of grammars have already been expressed in TextMate Grammar format at least somewhere. The TextMate Grammar format is conceptually very similar to vim's: it mostly keys off of simple regular expressions to define token boundaries. The biggest difference is that TextMate Grammars are expressed as declarative JSON files and vim syntax grammars are expressed in vimscript. The vast majority of vim syntax grammars are very easily convertible to TextMate, though vimscript is Turing complete and there are some strange ones out there. Today VS Code also allows for Language Server processes to entirely delegate syntax highlighting as well, if you do need a very custom turing-complete tokenizer. (More accurately, it is included so that Language Servers can share the tokenizer work they are already doing as part of their parsing and processing efforts rather than duplicate that effort in a TextMate Grammar.) Wrapping a TextMate Grammar in a VS Code extension is one of the easiest types of extension to build for VS Code, it's just the grammar JSON file and a couple lines added to an appropriate package.json file added to a ZIP file that then ostensibly resembles an npm package. Deeper projects such as Language Servers start to get complicated quickly, but also are where a lot of power that VS Code has that vim is starting to import the other direction: many neovim users rely on Language Servers ostensibly built for VS Code first for an increasing number of language features. [1] https://code.visualstudio.com/api/language-extensions/syntax-highlight-guide https://code.visualstudio.com/api/language-extensions/syntax...
ar_lan 4y ago
Neovim (different, sure) supports treesitter so syntax highlighting is no longer “less-than-elegant”.
alwillis 4y ago
Neovim uses the same Language Server Protocol servers as vs code; LSP support is built in. Treesitter, also built-in to Neovim, provides semantic syntax highlighting, just like an IDE. And Vim can use LSP using a plug-in like Coc.
saurik 4y ago
The (clearly a bit facetious) question was not "is it possible to implement syntax and script files" but "is VSCode able to read vim's syntax and script files", as the ability to do something isn't equivalent to something already having been done.

harry8 4y ago

Microsoft have made choices for vscode. Maybe even good ones? What %ge of languages supported by vim are actually supported by microsoft - or "the microsoft community?"

WorldMaker 4y ago
It's a very high percentage for syntax highlighting itself (which is most of Vim's focus) if you include the deep extension library. The primary tokenizer VS Code uses for syntax highlighting is based on the TextMate Grammar format [1], which is a pretty wide industry standard of sorts today. A lot of grammars have already been expressed in TextMate Grammar format at least somewhere. The TextMate Grammar format is conceptually very similar to vim's: it mostly keys off of simple regular expressions to define token boundaries. The biggest difference is that TextMate Grammars are expressed as declarative JSON files and vim syntax grammars are expressed in vimscript. The vast majority of vim syntax grammars are very easily convertible to TextMate, though vimscript is Turing complete and there are some strange ones out there. Today VS Code also allows for Language Server processes to entirely delegate syntax highlighting as well, if you do need a very custom turing-complete tokenizer. (More accurately, it is included so that Language Servers can share the tokenizer work they are already doing as part of their parsing and processing efforts rather than duplicate that effort in a TextMate Grammar.) Wrapping a TextMate Grammar in a VS Code extension is one of the easiest types of extension to build for VS Code, it's just the grammar JSON file and a couple lines added to an appropriate package.json file added to a ZIP file that then ostensibly resembles an npm package. Deeper projects such as Language Servers start to get complicated quickly, but also are where a lot of power that VS Code has that vim is starting to import the other direction: many neovim users rely on Language Servers ostensibly built for VS Code first for an increasing number of language features. [1] https://code.visualstudio.com/api/language-extensions/syntax-highlight-guide https://code.visualstudio.com/api/language-extensions/syntax...

ar_lan 4y ago

Neovim (different, sure) supports treesitter so syntax highlighting is no longer “less-than-elegant”.

alwillis 4y ago

Neovim uses the same Language Server Protocol servers as vs code; LSP support is built in. Treesitter, also built-in to Neovim, provides semantic syntax highlighting, just like an IDE. And Vim can use LSP using a plug-in like Coc.

saurik 4y ago

The (clearly a bit facetious) question was not "is it possible to implement syntax and script files" but "is VSCode able to read vim's syntax and script files", as the ability to do something isn't equivalent to something already having been done.