IF Player extension for VS Code

(Writing in the “Interpreter” category even though it’s not really a new interpreter.)

I’ve written some time ago an extension for VS Code, named IF Player, that allows playing Glulx and Z-machine stories directly in a VS Code tab. Seach “IF Player” in the extensions panel of VS Code or click on the link below to install.

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=natrium729.if-player

Once installed, just open in VS Code an .ulx, .z(3|4|5|8), .gblorb or .zblorb file like you would open any other files and it’ll start playing. If the story is in the currently opened workspace, the tab will reload automatically when the story file changes (useful when compiling a new version of the story).

Move this tab to the second column and it’s like if you were in the Inform 7 IDE! :grin:

The extension simply embeds Quixe and ZVM in VS Code, so thanks to the contributors of both these interpreters!

The Inform 6 and 7 extensions for VS Code will be updated when I’ll have time so that they can be set to open the story automatically after compilation; for now, just open them manually, they’ll reload automatically as explained above.

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I just released a new version to add ink support (files ending in .ink.json).

So it’s now possible to author ink stories and test them without leaving VS Code. You will have to compile the story yourself with inklecate on the command line, though:

$ inklecate story.ink

It has not been extensively tested, so please report bugs if you find some.

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New version!

This time, support for Å-machine story files has been added.

I haven’t used the official JavaScript frontend and have written one from scratch to get a better integration with VS Code and remove the unnecessary bits. Since it’s mainly intended for testing, it has a bit less features (no transcript or saving for example) and might contain some bugs.

I’ll see what I’ll add/correct while using it and if there are any feedbacks. Consider it as some kind of beta right now.