What do you think of 'Brackets' as an editor + How to use luacheck code linter

[drunken_munki]

Been trying a few editors out, I usually use notepad++.

What caught my eye was the 'luacheck' linting tool: https://github.com/mpeterv/luacheck

Here I already tried out the tool manually which can create a report of your code issues... but then the section on integration with editors caught my other eye. So I tried sublime... hated it, and couldn't get the linter to work either.

Then I tried Brackets which is available on all systems it seems: http://brackets.io/

From here I installed it, ran it and went to File -> 'Extension Manager'. Then I searched for 'luacheck' and installed the interface for it.

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I also had to download luacheck from the github page, actually I got the one-off windows x86_64 binary and put it somewhere on my system. This needs to be reachable in the PATH, so I linked it in the system settings:
https://github.com/mpeterv/luacheck/rel ... acheck.exe


Now when I opened my working directory in Brackets I can see the source tree on the left, I open a file and it auto-lints the file. Neat.

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To configure luacheck properly, I create '.luacheckrc' which is written in basic Lua syntax and normally placed into the root directory of your code. However, to get this to work properly with Brackets I created a symbolic link (or just copy it) to:
"%LOCALAPPDATA%\Luacheck\.luacheckrc"

On other systems I beleive this file should be copied to:
"~/Library/Application Support/Luacheck/.luacheckrc" on OS X/macOS, and "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/luacheck/.luacheckrc" or "~/.config/luacheck/.luacheckrc" on a linux type OS.


My '.luacheckrc' consists of the following settings, to give you an idea of how to set it up:

Code: Select all

-- Create symbolic link of this file into this directory: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Luacheck\.luacheckrc

-- Include 'love' into the global pool (read/write)
std = {
  globals = {"love"}
}

-- Include all source sub-dirs or file paths relative to the root dir:
include_files = {
                  "./game/",
                  "./monkey_box/",
                  "main.lua"
                } 

-- Message codes to filter out:
-- https://luacheck.readthedocs.io/en/stable/warnings.html
-- 611 A line consists of nothing but white space
-- 612 A line contains trailing white space
-- 614 Trailing white space in a comment
-- 631 line is too long
-- 311 value assigned to variable x is unused
-- 113 accessing undefined variable x 
-- 111 setting non-standard global variable x
-- 411 variable x was previously defined on line
-- 542 empty if branch
-- 422 shadowing definition of argument
-- 421 shadowing definition of variable
ignore = {"611", "612", "614", "631", "311", "113", "111", "411", "542", "422", "421"}

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So I spent about a day of coding time to tidy up my code and really really enjoyed using this linter, I think I cleaned up over 2000 warnings and found three bugs in the process, heh.

I realised that some features are lacking in Brackets such as a more sensible search/replace tool, but I think there are a lot of plugins being made or available.

So have you tried this, what do you think?

[D0NM]

hi!
1) Brackets is a nice editor.
2) I think your howto will be handy. Because some time ago I browsed all "lua-ish" brackets plugins, got no instant results and dropped them all.

[MissDanish]

damn, it looks way better than the skins for atom (what I use). But I am guessing it's probably not possible to have a button that can execute your game easily in Brackets?

[drunken_munki]

I'm going to check how to create a run command today, and also possibly how to use the git integration; will report back soon.



OK running a love project is easy
File -> Extension Manager -> Search for "Run LÖVE" and install it.

Restart the editor and you can use ctrl-shift-l or click the edit menu -> "Run with LÖVE". I have my love folder reachable in the system PATH.


Styler themes are pretty easy too
Find something you like: http://brackets-themes.github.io/ or a custom skin search in google maybe.
Search the name in the extensions manager or browse for something: File -> Extension Manager -> Themes tab and install.
Then go to View -> Themes and pick an installed skin from drop-down list.


Override shortcuts
I like to use ctrl+q to toggle a comment, in Brackets this defaults to closing the application (ouch). It was easy enough to add a keybind in Debug -> Open User Key Map.

I add an override in the following format:

Code: Select all

{
    "documentation": "https://github.com/adobe/brackets/wiki/User-Key-Bindings",
    "overrides": {
        "Ctrl-Q": "edit.lineComment"
    }
}

A list of shortcuts is here: https://github.com/adobe/brackets/wiki/ ... -Shortcuts and a list of commands is here: https://github.com/adobe/brackets/blob/ ... ommands.js


Same word highlighting
This is something I just have to have, which is off by default. Here we can edit the Brackets configuration: Debug -> Open Preferences File.

Then in the "brackets.json" file add the line:

Code: Select all

"highlightMatches": true

Make sure the comma in the previous line is added as well.

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Now when I highlight a word it underlines similar words.

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Tab space to 2 characters
Change tab/spacing by clicking the tab/space text in the bottom right of the editor proper, and change the value and press return (I'm used to spacing of 2, and not 4).


Now I pretty much have a working set-up, will try it out for a week or so.

[drunken_munki]

This isn't going well for me.

Brackets has a distinct lack of support for languages like Lua that use words as brackets such as 'if then end' and 'function end'.

This means there is no proper support for code folding and also no support for a function list without going into making a plug-in for it.

Therefore for me it's too hard to use for a large project, however the linting is useful to keep it around as a second editor for tidying up code.