OpenEdge ABL language definition

This is a TextMate grammar for the Progress OpenEdge ABL Language (formerly known as 4GL).

It's used in the OpenEdge ABL for Visual Studio Code extension.

Contributing

The main file is abl.tmLanguage.json so contributors should hand-modify this file.

Tests

Tests are run from the root folder
``
npm install
npm test
`

If you noticed a syntax highlight issue in the VSCode extension, please try to create a failing test case first, and then modify the grammar accordingly.

Debugging

Clone the https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-textmate repo locally (represented by /path/to/vscode-textmate).

Debug ABL statement(s) using the command below.

`
cd path/to/vscode-textmate
node out/tests/inspect.js /path/to/abl-tmlanguage/abl.tmLanguage.json /path/to/abl-tmlanguage/debug-in.txt > /path/to/abl-tmlanguage/debug-out.txt
`

The /path/to/abl-tmlanguage/debug-out.txt file contains the line-by-line resolution of the code using rules defined in the abl-tmlanguage.json file.

Notes

VSCode extension

You can test this grammar locally with the associated VSCode extension:
`
git clone git@github.com:chriscamicas/abl-tmlanguage.git
cd abl-tmlanguage
npm link
cd ..
git clone git@github.com:chriscamicas/vscode-abl.git
cd vscode-abl
npm link abl-tmlanguage
`
You can now run and debug the extension from the vscode-abl directory (with the Launch Extension task).
Every modification to the abl-tmlanguage project should be reflected in the vscode-abl directory immediately.

See npm link.

JSON vs plist

This project uses the JSON format over the plist one, mainly because I find it much more readable.

If you prefer the plist format, or the YAML one, there is an extension for VSCode that can convert them:
TextMate Languages.

Note: I plan on using the YAML syntax (even more compact and readable) but it needs a build step as VSCode does not handle YAML natively.

Tokenize

This project uses the vscode-textmate package to tokenize and test the grammar.

Keywords

Part of this grammar is generated from a keyword list file. See [index.js] for information on how to generate that file, as well as the others required for the generation.

When npm run build is executed, a file called grammar.json is created, which contains properties for keywords (all the keywords), abl-functions and handle-attributes (attributes and method calls on ABL handles). The contents of this file should be copied into the abl.tmLanguage.json file, replacing the existing contents.

Scopes

The ABL-specific scopes produced by the ABL grammar listed in the table below. The scope names are largely based on the naming conventions at https://macromates.com/manual/en/language_grammars#language_rules and https://www.sublimetext.com/docs/scope_naming.html .

| Scope Name | Used for/by |
| ------------- | ------------- |
|comment.block.source.abl | Everything between / and / |
|comment.line.double-slash.abl | Everything in a // comment, incl. slashes |
|comment.preprocessor.analyze-suspend.abl | &analyze-suspend, &analyze-resume |
|constant.character.escape.abl | ~ and the next char |
|constant.language.abl | today, now, true, false, yes, no, ? (unknown value) |
|constant.language.source.abl | 99/99/9999 (or similar) when used as a format clause |
|constant.numeric.source.abl | 0x00-0xFF, 0-9, scientific notation |
|entity.name.function.abl | Method call, property call, method name, property name, handle attributes, handle methods, event names |
|entity.name.function.preprocessor.abl | Preprocessor names, including built-ins like opsys and process-architecture |
|entity.name.include.abl | Include file names |
|entity.name.label.abl | Block label names |
|entity.name.package.abl | Package names for using |
|entity.name.procedure.abl | Internal and external procedure names |
|entity.name.tag.abl | Annotation names |
|entity.name.type.abl | Class/interface/enum names |
|entity.name.type.generic.abl | Generic type names |
|entity.other.attribute-name.abl | Annotation attribute names |
|keyword.control.directive.conditional.abl | &if , &else, &elsif &end |
|keyword.control.directive.define.abl | &scoped-define, &global-define, &undefine |
|keyword.operator.source.abl | contains, begins, matches, eq, le, lt, ge, gt, ne, <=, <>, >=, =, +, -, /, <, >, , +=, -=, /=, =, ?: |
|keyword.other.abl | Any ABL keyword (incl those covered by other scopes like support.function.abl and entity.name.function.abl) |
|punctuation.definition.bracket.square.begin.abl | [ used for array arguments |
|punctuation.definition.bracket.square.end.abl | ] used for array arguments |
|punctuation.definition.generic.begin.abl | < used for generic type arguments |
|punctuation.definition.generic.end.abl | > used for generic type arguments |
|punctuation.definition.preprocessor.abl | Leading & of referenced preprocessor and directives |
|punctuation.definition.string.begin.abl | Start of a quoted string |
|punctuation.definition.string.end.abl | End of a quoted string |
|punctuation.section.abl | { and } |
|punctuation.separator.comma.abl | , |
|punctuation.separator.continuation | ~ at the end of a line (preprocessor) |
|punctuation.separator.period.abl | . |
|punctuation.separator.colon.abl | : |
|punctuation.terminator.abl | . and : |
|storage.data.database.abl | Statically-defined database names, e.g.in the create alias statement |
|storage.data.dataset.abl | Statically-defined dataset names, data-relation names |
|storage.data.table.abl | (Temp-)Table names, field names, index names |
|storage.other.opsys-device.abl | Files and other operating system devices |
|storage.type.abl | Primitive datatypes |
|storage.type.function.abl | defined keyword and preprocessor directives like &message |
|string.quoted.double.abl | String in " quotes |
|string.quoted.single.abl | String in ' quotes |
|support.function.abl | opsys, proversion, ABL functions (eg base64-encode) |
|support.other.abl | Translation attributes :L, :R, :T, :C, :U |
|support.other.argument.abl | & arguments in includes |
|variable.language.abl | ABL system handles (eg session or this-object) |
|variable.other.abl | Variable names |
|variable.parameter.abl | Parameter names in method, function, procedure definition |

There are also a number of 'meta' scopes that usually cover multiple other scopes.
| Scope Name | Used for/by |
| ------------- | ------------- |
|meta.argument.abl | Unnamed arguments like {1} |
|meta.array.literal.abl | Literal values in an array |
|meta.block.abl | A block statement like do, repeat and finally |
|meta.brace.round.js | ( and ) |
|meta.declaration.annotation.abl | An annotation from the @ to the . |
|meta.define.abl | An entire define statement |
|meta.define.class.abl | A class definition, from the class keyword to its closing : |
|meta.define.enum.abl | An enum definition, from the enum keyword to its closing : |
|meta.define.function.abl | A user-defined function definition, from the function keyword to its closing : |
|meta.define.interface.abl | An interface definition, from the interface keyword to its closing : |
|meta.define.method.abl | A method, constructor or destructor definition, from the methodkeyword to the ending : or . Includes parameter definitions, if any. |
|meta.define.parameter.abl | An individual parameter definition |
|meta.define.stream.abl | A stream definition |
|meta.define-type.implements.abl | The type names that a type implements and/or inherits |
|meta.function.arguments.abl | Captures what's between ( and ) when calling a function, excluding the braces |
|meta.function-call.abl | The name of an ABL function, including get-class, type-of and cast |
|meta.function.parameters | Parameter definitions |
|meta.generic.abl | Generic type names |
|meta.include.abl | Include file references, from { to } |
|meta.include.argument.abl | Include argument references like &arg and &arg= |
|meta.preprocessor.abl | Preprocessor definitions, functions and usage |
|meta.procedure.abl | An internal procedure definition, from the procedure keyword to its closing : or . |
|meta.statements.abl | All ABL statements |
|meta.using.abl | A using definition |

Checking scopes

The standard VS Code install includes a command (available via F1 or SHIFT-CTRL-P) named Developer: Inspect Editor Tokens and Scopes . This will pop a tooltip showing the scopes at the cursor location. It contains a group called _textmate scopes_ , which shows the current scope. The topmost scope should be in the table above.

License

MIT