Homematic Lexer Plugin

Overview

Homematic Lexer Plugin is an external lexer for Homematic scripts for Notepad++. It uses the same lexing formats as the SDV 5.0 Script-Developer-CCU. This includes detection of unsued variables.

Background

While it is possible to use a User Defined Language (UDL), the unusual comment character ! and the contexts in which it is used as a negator make reliable lexing difficult.

When I first started writing CCU scripts, I used .c file extensions and a form of “double comments”: an exclamation mark combined with C-style comments, such as !//. However, this caused inconsistent keyword parsing.

As a result, I decided to implement a fully custom lexer. The color and style definitions are closely aligned with SDV 5.0.

Features

• It uses a similar color schema like SDV 5.0. It also parses variable definitions and tries to format them accordingly.
• Included all constant and fucntion names I can retrieve from the Homematich forum and documentation.
• Correct parsing of comments (! character) and cares about operators starting with ! to, like !=. Comments are allowed after a statement (ending ;), or directly after a closing or open brace ({, })
• The folding feature is taken from the LexCPP from the NotePad++ project.
• If a variable has the same name like a reserved name, it is formated as a variable, not as a define or constant.
• **A real sepcial feature is the detection of undefined variables, similar as in SDV. They are shown in red backround letters.

Used Code and References

This project is based on the Notepad++ plugin template.

Special thanks to Notepad++ plugin with crude external lexer, which provided a helpful starting point for external lexer development.

Documentation for lexer development is limited. Neither Scintilla nor Notepad++ provides comprehensive guidance for creating custom or external lexers.

The following files were copied from the Notepad++ source tree:

• Scintilla files
• Lexilla / lexlib files

For implementation details, it is recommended to study the built-in lexer sources, for example the C++ lexer. The code for folding blocks is taken from this file.

Build Notes

The plugin was developed using Visual Studio 2022. The HomematicNPPLexerPlugin.vcxproj file specifies:

<PlatformToolset>v145</PlatformToolset>

Installation

Copy the plugin DLL to:

plugins\HomematicNPPLexer\HomematicNPPLexer.dll

Copy the XML configuration file to:

plugins\Config\HomematicNPPLexer.xml

Installation Paths

64-bit installation

• %PROGRAMFILES%\Notepad++\plugins\HomematicNPPLexer\
• %PROGRAMFILES%\Notepad++\plugins\config\

32-bit installation

• %PROGRAMFILES(x86)%\Notepad++\plugins\HomematicNPPLexer\
• %PROGRAMFILES(x86)%\Notepad++\plugins\config\

Portable installation

• <portable Notepad++ directory>\plugins\HomematicNPPLexer\
• <portable Notepad++ directory>\plugins\config

Verification

After installation, HomematicNPPLexer should appear:

• In the Language menu
• At the bottom of Settings → Style Configuration