PennMUSH Softcode Tools is a Visual Studio Code extension that brings modern editing features to PennMUSH softcode. Whether you are maintaining a legacy database or building a brand-new MUSH from scratch, this extension turns VS Code into a fully-fledged PennMUSH IDE; complete with syntax highlighting, IntelliSense-style completions, inline diagnostics and a one-click code formatter.
| Screenshot | Description |
|---|---|
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Rich syntax highlighting for commands, attributes, flags, built-in functions and inline colour codes. |
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Context-aware completions for the top 15 PennMUSH functions and common softcode commands, driven by snippets so you can tab through parameters. |
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Signature Help that shows parameter hints for every builtin PennMUSH function as you type, including optional arguments and default values. |
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Live diagnostics for unterminated brackets, unknown functions/attributes and arity (argument-count) errors, with quick-fixes where applicable. |
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Prettify Softcode command (⇧⌘P → PennMUSH: Prettify Softcode) that wraps long attribute values at %R, keeps %B/%T inline when sensible, and neatly indents nested functions. |
| Dependency | Minimum Version | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Visual Studio Code | v1.99 or higher | Brings tree-sitter engines required for incremental parsing. |
| Node.js | v16 LTS (only for local builds) | Needed if you compile the extension from source. Users who install via the Marketplace do not require Node. |
No additional PennMUSH installation is needed—the extension is entirely self-contained.
| Setting | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
pennmush.enableDiagnostics |
Toggle real-time linting. | true |
pennmush.prettify.lineLength |
Maximum line length before the formatter inserts a %R. |
80 |
pennmush.completions.topFunctionCount |
Number of high-frequency functions exposed in completions. | 15 |
pennmush.diagnostics.unknownAttributeSeverity |
Severity of “unknown attribute” warnings (error, warning, info, hint). |
warning |
Settings are declared under contributes.configuration and are fully discoverable via VS Code’s GUI (File → Preferences → Settings → Extensions → PennMUSH).
- Nested functions with deeply imbalanced brackets may still yield false positives in the arity checker.
- Files larger than ~5 MB may experience sluggish formatting on lower-spec machines.
- The formatter does not currently respect user-defined wrapper strings other than
%R,%Band%T.
Please log bugs or suggestions on the GitHub issues page before raising duplicates.
Contributions are welcome—fork the repo, create a feature branch and open a pull request. The project is released under the MIT Licence; see LICENCE for details.
Happy softcoding, and may your @digs never return “That exit already exists” again!