VS Code Clarion Extension 1.0.10 – testers wanted for the new solution and project pages

The next release of the VS Code Clarion extension, 1.0.10, changes how you work with solutions and projects more than any release so far. Before it goes to the Marketplace I'd be very grateful if anyone who uses the extension, and has a little time, could try the pre-release on their own solutions and tell me what breaks.

Download: v1.0.10-pre.1 on GitHub. Download the .vsix, then in VS Code use Extensions › … › Install from VSIX…. Close and reopen VS Code afterwards. A window reload is not enough, because this version adds new menus.

Please keep a backup (or a clean source control state) of your .sln and .cwproj files while you try it. These features write to them, and they have had very little real-world use so far.

What's new to try

Solution Properties. Click the solution in the Solution View, or the gear on its title bar. One page shows:

  • the Clarion installation, compiler version, configuration and startup project;
  • each project's type, references and export file, and where the project lives;
  • the build log, run and file graph settings.

You can also add a project from here, either a new one (EXE or DLL, optionally in a sub-folder) or an existing .cwproj.

Solution Properties

Project Properties. Click a project, or open a .cwproj. It shows the project's options as the Clarion IDE's pages do: Application, Compiling, Debug, Build Events and Sources, per configuration. Each value is marked as applying to all configurations or to just one.

Project Properties

The Solution View shows a project as the IDE does. Each project has its File Drivers, Libraries, Objects and Resource Files, Projects to include and Referenced Projects, then its sources. Right-click a folder to Add, or an entry to Remove. Clicking a folder opens the project's Sources tab.

Solution View folders and the Sources tab

Also:

  • New Solution is one page: folder, installation, compiler, configuration and name. It can build a solution from a folder that already holds sources, with one project per PROGRAM.
  • Open Solution asks its questions on one page when it needs to.
  • Refresh Solution now re-reads a .sln or .cwproj that was changed outside VS Code.
  • The old Actions pane is gone. Its buttons are on the Solution View's title bar and on Solution Properties.
  • Plus a good number of fixes to hover, the Outline and diagnostics. See the changelog.

What I'd most like to hear about

  • Your real solutions, especially multi-DLL ones, and anything unusual about them: custom redirection, projects in sub-folders, legacy .prj includes.
  • Anything the pages show wrongly, or any change they make to a .sln or .cwproj that the Clarion IDE doesn't like.
  • Whether New Solution makes sensible projects from a folder of existing sources.

Reporting problems

Please open an issue on GitHub: github.com/msarson/Clarion-Extension/issues. Include your Clarion version and, if you can, the Clarion Language Server and Clarion output. Small sanitised .sln and .cwproj files that show the problem help enormously. Replies here are welcome too.

Thank you to everyone who has been reporting issues. Several of these features came straight from those reports.

Mark