Formatting Configuration

As a user, you have full control over the configuration and style of the code that gets formatted.

Pro Tip

We curated the default formatting rules for IDL to help present a fresh, modern feel to our beloved language.

If you are like us, and have been using IDL for a long time, we challenge you to try it out and see how your code can look with our default and modern styles.

Settings

Pro Tip

All of these settings can be accessed from within the extension.

Navigate to the IDL sidebar as select "Open Extension Settings" to find them.

Here's a JSON view of all settings for formatting code in the extension:

{
  "autoFix": true,
  "autoDoc": false,
  "styleAndFormat": true,
  "tabWidth": 2,
  "style": {
    "quotes": "single",
    "methods": "dot",
    "keywords": "lower",
    "properties": "camel",
    "control": "lower",
    "numbers": "lower",
    "hex": "lower",
    "octal": "lower",
    "binary": "lower",
    "routines": "match",
    "routineMethods": "camel",
    "systemVariables": "lower",
    "structureNames": "pascal",
    "localVariables": "match"
  }
}

You can manage settings for formatting code directly from the VSCode Settings UI. All of the "style" options also allow you to specify "none" to turn that off.

Setting	Description	Example
autoFix	If there is a problem we can fix, when you save/format a file, fix them
autoDoc	When we format/save a file, add or update documentation for routines
styleAndFormat	When we format/save a file, do we apply our styles and format?
tabWidth	Number of spaces per level of indentation, default is 2
style.quotes	Single or double quotes for strings. Also applies to numbers made using strings	'this', "that"
style.methods	Arrow (->) or dot (.) when invoking class methods	obj->method, obj.method
style.keywords	Upper or lower case for keywords	myfunc(kw1 = 5, /kw2)
style.properties	Upper, lower, pascal, camel, or match case for properties	!null = var.prop
style.control	Upper or lower case control statements	for, begin, pro
style.numbers	Accents for numbers to specify type, upper or lower case	5l, 42ull
style.hex	Upper or lower case for hex numbers	0xaef
style.octal	Upper or lower case for octal numbers	0o0123
style.binary	Upper or lower case for binary numbers	0b010101
style.routines	Pascal, camel, match, or no formatting for functions and procedures?	ENVIRaster() or myPro
style.routineMethods	Pascal, camel, match, or no formatting for procedure and function methods?	obj.myMethod() vs obj.fooBar
style.systemVariables	Upper or lower case	!NULL, !x, !y
style.structureNames	Pascal, camel, match, or no formatting for structure names	a = {MyStruct, inherits StyleMeToo}
style.localVariables	Do we match the case/style of the first instance of a variable?

Task Formatting

We re-use some of the style parameters for task file formatting as there is some overlap in concepts.

Below you will find which properties are used and how they control the formatting in tasks.

Setting	Description	Example
style.keywords	Upper or lower case for value of "keyword"	"keyword": "keyword_name"
style.keywords	Upper or lower case for the value of "name"	"name": "my_parameter"
style.control	Upper or lower case for the value of "direction" and "required"	"direction": "input"

Here's some context for why we chose those style options:

• The "keyword" tag in parameter task schemas maps directly to keywords in your code
• The "name" tag in parameter task schemas maps directly to a property when accessing the task in code
• The "direction" and "require" tags control the behavior of the parameter