Language Services

The purpose of a language service in Visual Studio is to provide language-specific support for editing source code in the integrated development environment (IDE). You implement a language service as part of a VSPackage.

This section discusses the structure and implementation of a Visual Studio language service.

For an end-to-end sample of a language project system that incorporates a language service, see the IronPython sample.

In This Section

• Language Services Essentials
  Provides important information about how to develop language services to integrate a programming language into Visual Studio.

• Developing a Language Service
  Provides links to topics that can help you create a language service.

• Providing a Syntax Coloring Service
  Provides information about supporting syntax highlighting in a language service.

• Native-Code Language Services with Babel
  Provides information about how to use the Babel Package to implement a language service in Visual Studio in native Visual C++, and lists the features that are supported with the Babel Package.

• Managed-Code Language Services with the MPF
  Provides information about how to use the managed package framework (MPF) to implement a full-featured language service in managed code.

• How to: Create a Language Service Using the Visual Studio Language Service Wizard
  Demonstrates how to create a Babel language service VSPackage by using the Language Service Wizard.

• Supporting Symbol-Browsing Tools
  Describes libraries and tools that enable you to browse tree views of symbols in the IDE.

• Language Service How-to Topics
  Lists walkthroughs that illustrate how to provide language-specific support in the IDE.

• Language Service Samples
  Lists samples that illustrate how to provide language-specific support in the IDE.

Related Sections

• Managed-Code Language Services with the MPF
  Provides information and links to topics about how to create a language service by using MPF.

• Using the Babel Package
  Provides information and links to topics about the Babel Package, a native C++ helper implementation framework that you can use to implement a language service.

• How to: Create a Language Service Using the Visual Studio Language Service Wizard
  Provides a step-by-step guide to using the Language Service Wizard to create a language service built on the Babel language framework.

• Editors
  Provides an overview of the editor that you can create or customize in Visual Studio, and discusses how to gain access to a variety of interfaces that you can implement to create a custom language service.

• Editor Design Decisions
  Discusses the importance of selecting the correct type of editor when you are extending the IDE with an editor, and lists the three design criteria for selecting the correct editor.

• Core Editor
  Lists the six components of the Visual Studio core editor, and explains the benefit of customizing it.

• Project Types
  Describes projects as the basic building blocks of the IDE, explains what you can control in the design-time IDE through projects, and defines project items.

• Opening and Saving Project Items
  Discusses the two commands that you can use to open files in projects, and explains how the file type determines how a file is opened.

• Figures Sample
  Shows an implementation of two different types of editors for the Figures language.

• Debugger and Language Overview
  Provides information about and a link to the Visual Studio Debugging SDK, which contains the information that is required to create and customize debugger components used to debug programs.

• Visual Studio Development Environment SDK
  Introduces the Visual Studio SDK and discusses how to build products that run in and extend the Visual Studio IDE.