Editor

Ḍād files are plain UTF-8 text, so any editor can open them. For the best experience use Visual Studio Code with the Ḍād extension. It runs on macOS, Windows and Linux.

The VS Code extension

• Highlighting for keywords, strings with {…} interpolation, «…» strings, Arabic and Latin numbers, comments, and Ḍād code blocks in Markdown.
• Errors as you type. The same Arabic messages as dad check, with the exact word underlined and listed in the Problems panel.
• Run the current file with the ▶ button in the editor title. The output appears in the terminal panel.
• Keyword help. Hover a keyword to see what it means in English.
• Completion and snippets for keywords, built-ins, functions, types, enums, loops and matching. Snippets answer to Arabic and English prefixes, so دالة and func both work.

Install it

The extension needs the dad program, version 0.1.4 or newer. Install Ḍād first.

1. In VS Code, open the Extensions view (Ctrl+Shift+X, or ⌘+Shift+X on a Mac).
2. Search for Ḍād (or mtwalli.dad-lang) and click Install.

Open it on the Marketplace

Or from a terminal:

code --install-extension mtwalli.dad-lang

VS Code updates the extension automatically.

Installing without the Marketplace

Each release also has the extension as dad-lang.vsix. Download it, then in the Extensions view open the … menu, choose Install from VSIX… and pick the file.

Use it

Open any .dad file, or a folder that contains some.

To	Do this
Run the file	Click ▶ in the editor title, or press Ctrl+Shift+Enter (⌘+Shift+Enter on a Mac)
Run a file from the sidebar	Right-click it and choose Run Ḍād File
See all problems	Open the Problems panel (Ctrl+Shift+M)
Insert a snippet	Type دالة, لكل, طابق, func, for, match… and press Tab
Check which dad is used	Run Ḍād: Show Installed Version from the Command Palette

Settings

Setting	Default	What it does
dad.path	empty	Path to dad. Empty means find it on your PATH or in ~/.dad/bin.
dad.checkOnType	true	Check for errors as you type. Off means on open and save only.
dad.saveBeforeRun	true	Save the file before running it.

If VS Code says it can't find dad, run which dad (macOS and Linux) or where dad (Windows) in a terminal and put the result in dad.path.

Right-to-left text in code editors

No mainstream code editor has a true right-to-left mode. VS Code lays out each line with the Unicode bidirectional algorithm: Arabic words and sentences read correctly, but every line starts at the left edge. Ḍād is designed to read well this way:

• Brackets and comparison signs are mirrored characters, so أ < ب reads correctly from the right.
• Hidden direction characters, which could make code look different from what it does, are highlighted by the editor and rejected by Ḍād outside strings.
• Arabic punctuation (، ؛ ؟) works everywhere its Latin form does.

Other editors

Any editor works with the dad command in a terminal:

dad check file.dad    # errors and warnings
dad run file.dad      # run it

Editors that read TextMate grammars, such as the JetBrains IDEs through their TextMate Bundles support, can use dad.tmLanguage.json for highlighting. Other tools can use dad check --json <file>, or - to read the source from standard input, to get problems in a machine-readable form. A language server for all editors is planned (see the roadmap).