Code Editors Outside Eggplant Script Editor

Since we have limited licenses I'm cautious to open our Eggplant Functional app just for manual code editing. I use Emacs and Atom for text editing and they both have great support for language syntax. SenseTalk has been around a while and initially I was going to try to create a SenseTalk mode for Emacs. Since SenseTalk is derived from HyperTalk I looked for Emacs modes for that in case that could get me started, but even there I hit a wall. Since OpenStep was associated with HyperSense, and GNUstep is a GNU version of OpenStep, I dug in there as well in case there was HyperTalk syntax code but clearly I'd gone too far down the rabbit hole at that point :-)

But then I read in one of the older TestPlan forums that because SenseTalk is a context-sensitive language syntax coloring is actually too difficult. The way Eggplant achieves their syntax coloring is by calling the SenseTalk compiler directly. Is this limitation still true?

Naturally I'd be able to fix mistakes in my code once I fire up Eggplant and load my manually written scripts, but a SenseTalk-friendly editor for use outside Eggplant would sure be great! I looked at the binaries to see if there was a way to open the Script Editor as a stand-alone but it didn't appear to be an option.
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In comments on Epic’s UserWeb (Epic is our AUT), I decided I will start using Notepad++ for scripting and take a recommendation from Dave Hester to start a SenseTalk syntax plugin project. Might be a while, but if anyone has thoughts on that specifically I could use some guidance :slight_smile:

The way Eggplant achieves their syntax coloring is by calling the SenseTalk compiler directly. Is this limitation still true?

Yes. This is the main reason that you can't fully replicate the formatting features of the Eggplant IDE in another tool. That said, just selecting something like Objective-C produces some semblance of the native editor's formatting.


Matt, thanks! I wouldn’t have thought of Objective-C. I also want to get autocomplete in there for SenseTalk words but that is easier, of course, in terms of building a custom dictionary.

I went through the whole list of available language styles in N++ one by one. I would have thought ActionScript would actually be a better choice, since that is a derivation of HyperTalk which is related to SenseTalk. While it’s not much different than claiming the code is Objective-C in N++, I’ll actually go with ActionScript so I can maybe use that as a template for later modifications.


I was just searching for something like this and came across this post. @chrisbryant , were you able to get it to work for you? If so, how difficult was it?

You know, since I wrote that I’ve moved to Mac OS and use Eggplant exclusively for my editing now. Sorry I don’t have a “wow” update for you I think it’s still a good configuration option to pursue, however, for those who live in other environments usually and like to hand-edit outside Eggplant before refining in the app.