Take a look at \ref LangSupportStatus (doc/api/LangSupportStatus.dox file) to see the current status/features of the programming languages currently supported by TDevelop.
TDevelop ships with KDevLang project template. It is a simple language support prototype that can be used when developing language support plugins with TDevelop.
To use it, start a New Project and select: <code>C++->TDevelop->TDevelop Language Support Plugin</code> in the application wizard.
You should look at <code>languages/ruby</code> for a simple language support
implementation. For a compilable language support, consult <code>languages/ada</code> or <code>languages/pascal</code> (they are not so complex as <code>languages/cpp</code>).
Pascal would be a good starting place, as it is the smaller of the two by far.
Language support can offer additional features:
\subsection sectionClassWizard Class wizard
- new class wizard: (See <code>ada, php, cpp</code> or <code>java</code>)
See <code>cpp</code> and <code>java</code> for examples.
\subsection sectionLanguageParser Language parser
In general, class stores can be filled with information without specialized
and complex language parsers (take a look at <code>languages/python</code> that have a very simple python parser) but your language support will surely benefit
from having such. There is a hand-written c/c++ parser (<code>lib/cppparser</code>) in TDevelop that might be used for ObjC or related C-based languages.
Other (not so complex as c++) languages can be parsed by ANTLR based parsers (library is in lib/antlr).
Consult www.antlr.org for a ANTLR documentation and look at <code>languages/java</code>, <code>languages/ada</code> and <code>languages/pascal</code> for an example of using such parsers.
The latest version of ANTLR (2.7.2) has support for Java, C, Pascal, Ada, C++, CIM, HTML, IDL, Verilog, VRML, OCL, ASN.1, and SQL. You can write an ANTLR parser for your own language, of course.
\subsection sectionClassStore Class store
If you write (or have) a language parser, your language support can have
"class store" (a database containing the information about scopes, classes
and methods - their names, names of source files, location in source files,
etc.). Class store libraries can be found at <code>lib/catalog</code> (Catalog) and <code>lib/interfaces</code> (CodeModel).
TDevelop provides class browsers that extract information from a <b>class store</b> and display it in a tree view and toolbar selectors of scopes, classes and methods.
\subsubsection sectionMemoryClassStore Memory class store
CodeModel is the memory class store. It is very efficient and thus it is recommended for using as a project class store. CodeModel libraries are located in <code>lib/interfaces/codemodel.h</code>. The class browser for a CodeModel based stores is <code>parts/classview</code>.
\subsubsection sectionPersistantClassStore Persistant class store
Catalog is the persistant class store for TDevelop. Persistant class store can be used as an information storage for code completion but it also can be used as a class store for the project. Take a look at
<code>languages/cpp</code> for an example of using catalog. Catalog is stored on disk in the database file (Berkeley db) If you use catalog with the project, your class browser will be <code>parts/classbrowser</code>.
\subsection sectionCodeCompletion Code completion
Class store enables you to write a code completion for the language. At the
moment (2003-06-25), code completion is available only to cpp so take a
look at it for an example.
\subsection sectionProblemReporter Problem reporter
If you have a language parser, you can implement <b>problem reporter</b>
functionality for your language. The problem reporter catches errors
reported by a parser and displays it in a problem reporter view.
<code>languages/java</code>, <code>languages/ada</code>, <code>languages/pascal</code> and <code>languages/cpp</code> have problem reporters.
<b>Application wizard</b> templates should be also written. Appwizard templates are simple to create - consult \ref howToAddApplicationTemplates (HowToAddApplicationTemplates.dox file)
and look at <code>languages/ruby/app_templates/rubyhello</code>, <code>languages/pascal/app_templates/pascalhello</code>, or <code>languages/ada/app_templates/adahello</code>.
Another thing to do is to create <b>file create templates</b>. They are prototypes for a source files of your language. These prototypes are placed in
<code>parts/filecreate/file-templates</code> dir or <code>languages/YOURLANGUAGE/file_templates</code> and have names equal to the extensions of language source files.
The description of the prototypes is placed in <code>parts/filecreate/template-info.xml</code>.
Consult FileCreatePart (parts/filecreate/README.dox file) and \ref howToAddFileTemplates for further information.
TDevelop has a support for <b>code abbreviations</b> so you can add some predefined abbreviations to your language support. Take <code>languages/cpp/cpptemplates</code> as an example.
Add them to <code>languages/YOURLANGUAGE/doc</code>. For an example see <code>languages/python/doc/python.toc</code> and <code>languages/python/doc/python.index</code>
In the end you need to edit the <code>languages/YOURLANGUAGE/doc/Makefile.am</code> file to include the .toc and/or .index file.
There is an ability to create compiler plugin for TDevelop. Compiler plugin provides the compiler configuration dialog which implements command line compiler options.
See also \ref howToAddPlugins (doc/api/HowToAddPlugins.dox file) for an information on how to create a generic TDevelop plugin and how to manage project and global configuration information.
indentation) you can improve QEditor included in TDevelop (<code>editors/qeditor</code>).
By creating QEditorIndenter and QSourceColorizer descendants you can provide the support for an automatic indentation and syntax highlighting that will be available for sure in TDevelop.
Build system plugin is an object that implements KDevBuildSystem interface. Build system plugins are located in <code>buildtools/generic/buildsystem</code>.
- see TrollProjectPart at <code>buildtools/qmake</code>
.
.
Also available:
- Script build tool
- <code>buildtools/script</code>
- (the generic build tool for all scripting languages).
.
- <code>buildtools/pascal</code> and
- <code>buildtools/ada</code>
- <code>buildtools/haskell</code>
.
(They are deprecated build tools that will be replaced with the generic build tool).
Choose your build tool and if the existing build tools doesn't fit
in, extend generic build tool via build system plugin. \ref howToAddGenericBuildTools page (doc/api/HowToAddGenericBuildTools.dox file) helps you to do it.
