Has anyone found a way to use a Dart Language module with BBEdit?

[Alfredo]

I do about 50% of my work under the Flutter umbrella. There are two "official" IDEs for Flutter: VS Code and Android Studio. I prefer Android Studio for compiling/linking/installing on all platforms (Android, iOS, macOS, Windows, Linux, Web/PWA).

However (and this is a big "however") I use BBEdit for all of my editing and I have configured both Android Studio and BBEdit to refresh file contents upon detecting any change. Perfect world (for me).

Flutter supports hot reload and hot restart, so it's really impressive to see that when I save a changed source file with BBEdit, I can immediately do a hot reload or hot restart with Android Studio and I can immediately see the results of my changes on whatever platform I happen to be debugging.

Magic.

I wish there were a language module for Dart (the language that Flutter uses) that I could use with BBEdit. 

For now, I switch the language mapping for a given source file between Java and JavaScript, to highlight different structural aspects in the source file and to navigate to different things using the Function Navigator. This is reasonably ok but not ideal.

Has anyone found a way to use a Dart Language module with BBEdit?

Thanks.

Alfredo

[Maarten Sneep]

Hi,

There are three methods to support a language on BBEdit: codeless language modules, specifically coded language modules and the language server protocol. The last one is probably your best bet.

Dart is not mentioned on https://www.barebones.com/support/bbedit/lsp-notes.html or in the language module library (https://www.barebones.com/support/bbedit/plugin_library.html). But if you find the LSP module that VS Code uses, then you should be able to configure BBEdit to use the same.

Kind regards,

Maarten

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[Fabio Ferrero]

I use Flutter too, happy to help to make BBEdit even better with this language!

[Alfredo]

Hartelijk dank, Maarten.

Sono contento di vedere un altro utente Flutter, Fabio.

The international friendly race is on, with at least two teams: Italy and Guatemala!  

I'll research the route that Maarten suggested.

A challenge, as Rich observed in another thread, is Micro$oft, which controls VS Code.

We'll see . . . 

Thanks to everyone.

Alfredo

[Alfredo]

This is a good starting point but it would be even better if it provided some examples for C or Java or JavaScript:

https://www.barebones.com/support/bbedit/plugin_library.html

I immediately admit my total ignorance of the majority of languages mentioned in this list.

Any clues regarding some (any) examples for the function pattern along the lines of  C or Java or JavaScript?

<key>Function Pattern</key>

Thanks,

Alfredo

[Alfredo]

My motivation is to be able to use BBEdit's Function Navigator on Dart files.

[Darren Duncan]

For my part, I've already similarly created a few very simple BBEdit codeless
language modules for some documentation formats that didn't already have them,
namely Wikitext and Perl POD. Simply being able to quickly navigate to section
headings is extremely helpful for moving around files. -- Darren Duncan

[Alfredo]

That's the idea, Darren.

Unfortunately, given my (very) limited regex knowledge and (lack of) regex skills, coming up with the appropriate magic incantations for this is not quite within my horizon:

`<key>Function Pattern</key>`

I'll appreciate any guidance in this regard.

I have a pretty good set of Dart keywords for this:

`<key>BBLMKeywordList</key>`

And I stole the comments section from the C# that BBEdit provides:

```

        <key>Comment Pattern</key>
        <string><![CDATA[
    (?x:
                (?> // .* $ ) |
                (?> /\* (?s:.*?) (?: \*/ | \z ) )
)
        ]]></string>

```

A Dart source file looks reasonably acceptable, but still no BBEdit Function Navigator yet (as expected).

Poquito a poquito . . . 

Alfredo

[Rich Siegel]

On 18 Jun 2024, at 13:37, Alfredo wrote:

> That's the idea, Darren.
>
> Unfortunately, given my (very) limited regex knowledge and (lack of) regex
> skills, coming up with the appropriate magic incantations for this is not
> quite within my horizon:

Have you considered asking ChatGPT? :-)

It says:

(?<leading_whitespace>^\s*)(?<function_signature>(?:\w+\s+)?\w+\s+(?<function_name>\w+)\s*\([^)]*\)\s*{(?:(?!{).)*})(?<function_body>[\s\S]*?)

(NB: you will need to change the names of the capture groups to correspond to the requirements stated in the CLM documentation; and caveat lector: I have not tried this to see if it even works.)

R.

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--
Rich Siegel Bare Bones Software, Inc.
<sie...@barebones.com> <https://www.barebones.com/>

Someday I'll look back on all this and laugh... until they sedate me.

[Alfredo]

Excellent suggestion, Rich.

I'm playing around with various of our mutual robot friend's proposals.

One of them looks promising:

<key>Function Pattern</key>
<string>\b(?:void|[\w<>\[\]]+)\s+(\w+)\s*\([^)]*\)\s*(?=\{|\=>)</string>

But the syntax checker complains about the "<" in

[\w<>\[\]]

Unencoded entity found; “<” needs to be encoded as “&lt;”

Fair enough. If I change the pattern to this:

<key>Function Pattern</key>
<string>\b(?:void|[\w&lt;>\[\]]+)\s+(\w+)\s*\([^)]*\)\s*(?=\{|\=>)</string>

the syntax checker doesn't complain but BBEdit's Function Navigator doesn't navigate functions (after a BBEdit restart, of course).

Patience, patience, . . . 

Any brave soul interested in sculpting the expression that Rich shared?

Thanks.

Alfredo

[Darren Duncan]

A key trick to deal with the entity encoding issues is use a CDATA block, like this:

<key>Function Pattern</key>
<string><![CDATA[(?xs:
...
)]]></string>

Where you replace the ... with the pattern you wanted, which can also be spread
across multiple lines for readability.

Inside CDATA you don't need to use XML/HTML entities like &lt;, you just write
your less-thans normally etc.

-- Darren Duncan

[Ulrich Kapp]

Hi Alfredo,

I just entered this discussion and have the following question:

Did you already try to use the Dart language server (https://github.com/serverpod/lsp_server) with BBEdit?

Maybe this will help your needs.

Ulrich

[Alfredo]

This did the trick. Thanks, Darren.

I have attached a plist file that (at least for my needs) works perfectly.

I chose the <key>Function Pattern</key> contents among several that good-old ChatGPT suggested. Excellent tip, Rich.

I'll appreciate any suggestions for improvement.

So far, so good.

Alfredo

[Alfredo]

That language server is a bit above my pay scale.

Does anyone have a clue regarding how to extract (from the Dart language server that Ulrich mentioned) the relevant info for a BBEdit Codeless Language Module?

Thanks,

Alfredo

[Alfredo]

Hmmm... Along the way between my iCloud Drive and this BBEdit Google Group, somebody somehow seems to have changed the file. Here it goes as a zip file.

I also had a copy/paste bug in a comment for keywords that reflected the original c# template that I stole from BBEdit's sample: c# keywords ==>> Dart keywords

Oh, well . . . 

Alfredo

[Rich Siegel]

On 20 Jun 2024, at 13:41, Alfredo wrote:

> That language server is a bit above my pay scale.
>
> Does anyone have a clue regarding how to extract (from the Dart language
> server that Ulrich mentioned) the relevant info for a BBEdit Codeless
> Language Module?

This seems to old some clues: <https://github.com/dart-lang/sdk/blob/master/pkg/analysis_server/tool/lsp_spec/README.md>

Thus, a suitable key in the language module might look like:

<key>BBLMLanguageServerInfo</key>
<dict>
<key>ServerCommand</key>
<string>dart</string>

<key>ServerArguments</key>
<array>
<string>language-server</string>
<string>--client-id com.barebones.bbedit</string>
<string>--client-version 15</string>
</array>
</dict>

(You should test and verify, of course.)

R.

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[Alfredo]

Nice, Rich.

This works great. Now, of course, "one more thing".

How can I nudge BBEdit to display these "NOTE:" pieces of info on the Function Navigator?

ListTile( // NOTE: Report Log

I attach my slimmed-down version. I'll see if it makes through the maze unscathed.

Thanks.

Alfredo

[Rich Siegel]

On 20 Jun 2024, at 20:04, Alfredo wrote:

> Nice, Rich.
>
> This works great. Now, of course, "one more thing".
>
> How can I nudge BBEdit to display these "NOTE:" pieces of info on the
> Function Navigator?
>
> ListTile( // NOTE: Report Log

Codeless languages modules don't support this; sorry.

R.

> To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/bbedit/3e937a7b-1458-4598-b495-43fef43f7a74n%40googlegroups.com.

[Alfredo]

Good to know, Rich.

I can always change the file's language to JavaScript to navigate my notes.

The way BBEdit handles (most of) the Dart language elements is sufficiently good for my needs.

I pass the baton now to Fabio, in case he's interested in modifying the Dart.plist file.

Given that the plain file gets modified by some overly enthusiast member of the communications chain, I enclose it as a ZIP file. Please ignore previous versions of this file that you may have downloaded.

Enjoy,

Alfredo

[Alfredo]

Hmmm. . . 

The next (obvious) question then becomes: 

Which language modules support the inclusion of "commented notes" (or whatever the proper technical name happens to be) in BBEdit's Function Navigator?

Is that even possible for mere mortals?

Any hints on how to start exploring that topic?

Thanks.

Alfredo

[Rich Siegel]

On 22 Jun 2024, at 15:11, Alfredo wrote:

> Hmmm. . .
>
> The next (obvious) question then becomes:
>
> Which language modules support the inclusion of "commented notes" (or
> whatever the proper technical name happens to be) in BBEdit's Function
> Navigator?
>
> Is that even possible for mere mortals?

Callout generation is handled during function scanning; it depends on the implementation but most of BBEdit's built-in languages support them.

> Any hints on how to start exploring that topic?

<https://github.com/siegel/LanguageModuleSDK>.

R.

> To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/bbedit/0fd5adf9-969d-41db-b9b7-4b82be2824e5n%40googlegroups.com.

[Alfredo]

Excellent, Rich.

Thanks very much.

Alfredo

[Alfredo]

I browsed through the (terse ;-) compiled plug-in examples for Python, Setext and TeX.

While trying to find some (any!) kind of clue, I searched for "keywords" in Rich's entire LanguageModuleSDK and I noticed that Examples/PythonMachO/Info.plist is the only file that has "<key>Keywords</key>" with some of the usual suspects for Python. No other file has "<key>Keywords</key>". 

Any idea how to specify a language's keywords? (I probably need stronger reading glasses and the answer is probably staring at me, but I fail to see it.)

Even better: Any suggestions for finding some (any!) example of a compiled plug-in example for a C-family language such as JavaScript (which supports the all-important "// NOTE:" feature) ?

Thanks,

Alfredo

[Gil Dawson]

Hi--

The following snippet does what I expect in both Firefox and Safari...

...However, BBEdit gets the following errors...

...when I click Markup -> Check -> Document Syntax ^⌘Y

I wonder whether why?

Maybe my html file's preamble...

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"

"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<head>

<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />

...might have something to do with this?

--Gil

[Gil Dawson]

I found it!

From W3Schools...

In HTML 5, the declaration is simple:

<!DOCTYPE html>

That seems to clear the problems below (and introduce others), but what can you expect from a 15-year-old html file?

--Gil