NPL/Lua Language Service and debugger (attach to process)

This is NPL/Lua extension for visual studio 2010/2012/2013/2015

Install here or directly from visual studio: http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/7782dc20-924a-4726-8656-d876cdbb3417

Please note, there are extra install steps to complete the installation(either clean or upgrade should apply).

• Please also install latest visual studio redist dll, if you are installing to early versions of vs.
• install normally to visual studio
• run visual studio as Administrators, Select menu: Tools->Launch NPL debugger
• Click register button to complete installation
• restart visual studio (no administrators required), Tools->Launch NPL debugger, click Attach to debug any running process
• optional: disable the plugin, restart vs and then enable it again (i.e. refresh DEBUG engine dll cache).

Note1: if you can not attach

• make sure to click register button as administrators, and restarted vs.
• Disable the plugin, restart vs and then enable and restart vs again after registered the dll.(this will force visual studio to reload cached debug engine configurations)
• you are actually attaching to an ParaEngine/NPL process with commandline: debug="main". (Download app from https://github.com/LiXizhi/ParaCraftSDK)
• Make sure you have installed latest visual studio redist dll, if you are installing to early versions of vs.
• you need to wait until the cursor turns to normal cusror before click attach button (and click twice)

This is a NPL debug engine based on interprocess communication (IPC). The visusal studio code is based on the offical SampleEngineWorker from microsoft. Basically, - ProjectLauncher(C#) is a visual studio addon that launch a debugged process, - NPLEngine(C#) implement the main interfaces with visual studio shell. - NPLEngineWorker(C++/CLI) implements the low evel debug event system which in turn communicate with the NPL process vis IPC - IPCDebugger.lua (lua/NPL) implements the actual debug hook and debug event.

Support mixed HTML/NPL highlighting.

• LineScanner.cs: main line based scanner, with cached state for each line. Used for Syntax color and by the parser as well.
  • overwrite two virtual functions SetSource and ScanTokenAndProvideInfoAboutIt to provide text coloring, they are called for each line.
  • for HTML/NPL mixed mode, I have used different bits in the cached state for HTML/NPL and standard lua.
  • Configuration.cs contains all default and custom definitions for syntax coloring.

• all of them is handled by AuthoringScope ParseSource(ParseRequest request) in LanguageService.cs
• This function is called in the parser thread.
• more information please see help in visual studio.

Context Menu Implemetation is in LuaCommandFilter. It can also be activated by code-completion by SnippetDeclarationProvider. Vsix package can not install snippet files into desired folder. So all I can do it to instruct the user to do it manually. Right click to bring up the context menu, then click "insert snippets...", a dialog will guide you to register preinstalled code snippets. After that, goto menu::tools::code snippet manager(Ctrl+K+B), and make some modifications, such as removing unused folders to force vs to refresh its code snippet cache, and restart visual studio.

See NPLFormatHelper.cs and ReformatSpan function in LuaSource.cs

IntelliSense and code completion using XML files under ${SolutionDir}/Documentation. Users can add new XML files for their own application. See ${install path}/Documentation for examples. Filepath can be found in NPL output panel.

- AD7StackFrame::ParseText() is rewritten to support expression evaluation. 

C#/C++ code is mostly based on the Sample Debug Engine provided by microsoft. I only do the following modification.

• ProjectLauncher(C#) is modified to launch a process in the normal way.
• SampleEngineWorker(C++/CLI)'s WorkerAPI.cpp is modified to use IPC to translate event from IPCDebugger.lua, instead of using native C++ debug event.
  • I preserved all native C++ debugging code, and use IsDebuggingNPL() macro to do the switch.
  • DebuggedProcess.h is also modified, see the NPL region.
  • symbol engine is not supported. instead we simply make a map between unsigned int fake address to NPL script filename/line pairs.
  • step into/over/out is supported.
• ProjectLauncher(C#) is only modified slightly to add Step support(see AD7Engine.cs) and OnStepComplete event(AD7Events.cs)

• In visual studio, we can launch or attach to a ParaEngine process to debug it.
• Adding/Removing Breakpoints anytime, anywhere.
• step into/out of functions, step over lines
• Mouse over a local or global variable to see its value dumped.
• Shift+F9 to bring up the expression window, we can type nested NPL table name like "A.B.C", "main_state" or we can exec a string in the current context like "i=1", "log('hello world')", 'i=i+1; return i'. if the expression has a return value, it will be shown in the window.
• Adding watches is also supported.
• Currently, we only support debugging one NPL state (usually the main state). To start the debugging, simply call IPCDebugger.StartDebugEngine(); in the NPL state to be debugged. alternatively, we can start it automatically when loading IPCDebugger.lua, provided the command line parameter "debug" is the current NPL state name, such as "main". The queue name can be specified by "debugqueue", which defaults to "NPLDebug"
• Note: there is no performance penalties when starting a debug engine, it only starts a timer to receive from IPC queue. The IPCdebugger only starts the debug hook whenever visual studio attaches or launched the process. Use Lib:

NPL.load("(gl)script/ide/Debugger/IPCDebugger.lua");
-- start debug engine in the calling NPL state manually.
IPCDebugger.StartDebugEngine();
-- start the debug engine automatically in the "main" state(thread), by loading "IPCDebugger.lua" file and launch with the command line debug="main"
"ParaEngineClient.exe" debug="main" bootstrapper="whateverfile"

One need to start the experimental instance of visual studio. "D:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe" /RootSuffix Exp

To install pre-requisite packages

• In NuGet console, run Install-Package VSSDK.Shell.12

• Run as administrators in order to register C++ dll successfully.
• Attach process with mixed Native C++/NPL debugging will fail to detach, because the NPL handler thread are paused when the debug engine send the detach message causing the IDE to hang. Avoid using mixed mode debugging, use only NPL debug engine to debug. Select menu Tools->Attach to Process->Select...-->Only check NPL debug engine. Another solution is to use the Project launcher to attach to process. Note: need to press attach twice.
• Process2.Attach2("NPLDebugEngineV2") will cause the main thread to hang at delayhlp.cpp, which is pretty strange, press the attach button twice will solve the problem. This has something to do with DELAYLOAD of dlls
• IMPORTANT: One needs to wait a while until cursor is turned to normal cursor before clicking the attach button, otherwise attach will not work. In case of error, try disable and reenable the plugin

• open NPLEngine.rgs, add new registry entry for new visual studio version.
• increase the version number in source.extension.vsixmanifest file
• optional: modify CheckRegisterDebugEngine() in Connect.cs to allow auto registration.
• modify NPLEngineWorker's include and lib to point to latest visual studio DIA SDK path.

- TODO: Stack view, please use NPL Code Wiki's HTTP debugger
- TODO: show a hierarchy of table sub objects in expression evaluation result. 

2016.7.13 - fixed function name with underscore - added set breakpoint to NPL http debugger via context menu.

2016.7.1 - support Documentation in each project's folder. - support npl file extension. - support NPL.load F12 to goto file

2016.4.3 - NPL code snippets added: One still needs to manually copy snippets

2016.3.29 - NPL debugger: support stack view

2016.3.28 - NPL language service: added goto definition for opened files and xml configuration files

2016.3.24 - NPL language service: fixed hex number display, added highlighting for functions and self identifier. - NPL language service: quick info added

2016.3.20 - NPL language service: HTML/page mixed mode highlighting added. - NPL language service: fixed idle parsing and outlining support for NPL code. - NPL language service: function navigation window implemented. - NPL language service: parsing errors will be highlighted in code.

2015.12.11 - fixed having to press the Attach button twice by sending the OnLoadComplete event when receiving "Attached" event from NPL process.

2015.11.14 - fixed debug engine dll registration - changed dll name and guid. - added a register button for manual registration in case multiple instances are registered. - fixed dll load error for a wrong version of Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Interop.12.0

2014.2.5 - ported to visual studio 2013

2010.5.15 - Attach process in vs 2010 is supported in addition to launch process. - stepping into/over/out are fully supported. - IPCDebugger.lua's debug_hook function is optimized to run much faster.