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.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	true, false, yes, no, ? (unknown value)
constant.language.abl	99/99/9999 (or similar) when used as a format clause
constant.numeric.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, &elseif, &end
keyword.control.directive.define.abl	&scoped-define, &global-define, &undefine
keyword.operator.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.accessor.abl	: when used for method, property and attribute access. :: when used to reference buffer field names or dataset buffer names
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	Starting " or ' of a quoted string
punctuation.definition.string.end.abl	Closing " or ' of a quoted string
punctuation.section.abl	{ and }
punctuation.separator.comma.abl	,
punctuation.separator.continuation.abl	~ at the end of a line (preprocessor)
punctuation.separator.period.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). Includes functions like today that have no or optional parameters. Note that transaction in a for each statement will be scoped this way
support.other.abl	Translation attributes :L, :R, :T, :C, :U
support.other.argument.abl	&<name|number> 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.abl	( 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.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