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wisp

Editor tooling

wisp ships a language server and editor integrations for VSCode and Vim. Syntax highlighting works on its own. The language server is optional and adds diagnostics, formatting, document symbols, hover, and completion.

The language server: wisp-lsp

Section titled “The language server: wisp-lsp”

wisp-lsp is a separate binary that speaks the Language Server Protocol over stdio. It reuses the compiler’s own lexer, parser, checker, and formatter, so it never drifts from the language.

Build it the same way as the compiler:

Terminal window
go build -o wisp-lsp ./cmd/wisp-lsp
# or for a static binary:
CGO_ENABLED=0 go build -o wisp-lsp ./cmd/wisp-lsp

Put it on your PATH. Editors launch it with no arguments.

It implements:

  • Diagnostics, pushed on open and change. A lex or parse error yields one diagnostic; otherwise the checker’s errors and warnings are reported.
  • Formatting, returning a single whole-document edit, or no edit on a parse error.
  • Document symbols for functions and structs.
  • Hover, reporting the kind and type or signature of the symbol under the cursor. This includes namespaced core-module members (string.trim, array.map, …), which show the signature when one is statically known, and the namespace qualifier itself (string in string.trim), which reports the module sense rather than the type sense.
  • Completion of keywords, types, builtins, reserved constants, and the functions, structs, and variables declared in the document. Typing a core namespace followed by . (a registered completion trigger character) offers that namespace’s members.
  • Go-to-definition for variables and functions.
  • Find-references and rename for variables and functions, scope-aware so two variables with the same name in different scopes are not confused.
  • Signature help while typing a call to one of your functions.
  • A quick-fix code action that applies a “did you mean” suggestion.

VSCode

Section titled “VSCode”

The extension under editors/vscode/ is one package that provides both highlighting and the language server. See its README for the full install steps. In short:

  1. Build wisp-lsp and put it on your PATH.
  2. From editors/vscode/, run npm install and then npx @vscode/vsce package, and install the resulting .vsix with code --install-extension.

Two settings control the server:

  • wisp.lsp.enable (default true): run the language server.
  • wisp.lsp.path (default wisp-lsp): the server executable, found on PATH or given as an absolute path.

If the server is missing or disabled, highlighting still works.

Vim and Neovim

Section titled “Vim and Neovim”

The files under editors/vim/ provide highlighting and filetype detection. Put syntax/wisp.vim and ftdetect/wisp.vim on your runtimepath, or point a plugin manager at the editors/vim directory. See its README for wiring wisp-lsp through the Neovim built-in LSP, nvim-lspconfig, or coc.nvim.

Keeping highlighting in sync

Section titled “Keeping highlighting in sync”

The keyword, type, builtin, and constant sets in both editor grammars are checked against the compiler’s own tables by a test in internal/editors. A name added to the language cannot silently fall out of the highlighters. This also covers the namespace-qualifier surface: a call like string.trim(x) highlights string as a namespace and trim as a builtin in both grammars, and the set of core namespaces (types.CoreNamespaces()) is drift-guarded the same way, so a namespace added to the compiler’s core-module catalog cannot silently fall out of either highlighter.