mIRC Language Extension for Visual Studio

A comprehensive language extension for mIRC scripting in Visual Studio 2026+, featuring advanced syntax highlighting, IntelliSense, bracket pair colorization, and optional code snippets.

✨ Features

🎨 Syntax Highlighting

• VS Code Dark Modern Theme - Professional color scheme matching modern IDEs
• Smart Comment Detection - Both line (;) and block (/* */) comments
• 300+ Built-in Identifiers - Distinct coloring for mIRC native functions
• Context-Aware - Comments, strings, and identifiers handled correctly

🌈 Bracket Pair Colorization

• Rainbow Brackets - 6-level color cycling for nested braces, brackets, and parentheses
• Mismatched Detection - Unmatched or incorrect braces highlighted in red
• Real-time Feedback - Instant visual indication of syntax errors

🔍 Brace Matching

• Smart Highlighting - Click next to any brace to see its matching pair
• Comment-Aware - Ignores braces inside comments and strings
• All Bracket Types - Works with { }, [ ], and ( )

💡 IntelliSense & Code Completion

• 735+ Completions - Keywords, commands, events, identifiers, and operators always available
• Filtered Suggestions - Category icons for easy navigation (Keywords, Commands, Events, Identifiers, Operators)
• Rich Tooltips - Descriptions sourced from the mIRC help file and mhelp
• Instant Insertion - Type and press Tab or Enter
• Ctrl+Space Trigger - Manual completion anywhere

📝 Code Snippets (optional — disabled by default)

• 735 Snippets - Full coverage of commands, events, identifiers, and operators
• Tab Completion - Type shortcut and press Tab
• Editable Placeholders - Tab through parameters
• See Enabling Snippets below

📸 Screenshots

Syntax Highlighting

Bracket Pair Colorization

Brace Matching

Mismatched Braces

IntelliSense Completion

🚀 Installation

From VSIX Package

1. Download the latest .vsix file from Releases
2. Double-click the .vsix file
3. Follow the Visual Studio Extension Installer prompts
4. Restart Visual Studio

From Source

1. Clone this repository
2. Open mIRCLanguageExtension.slnx in Visual Studio 2026+
3. Build the solution (Ctrl+Shift+B)
4. Press F5 to launch experimental instance
5. Install from bin\Debug\ or bin\Release\ folder

🔌 Enabling Snippets

Snippets are disabled by default. When enabled they add 735 snippet templates to the VS snippet picker (Ctrl+K, Ctrl+X) on top of the existing IntelliSense completions.

⚠️ Note: Enabling snippets is noisy. The snippet picker will show all 735 entries and the IntelliSense dropdown will also include them alongside the standard completions, resulting in a lot of duplicate entries. This is best used for testing or exploration rather than day-to-day scripting.

Step 1 — Enable snippet loading in code

In mIRCCompletionProvider.cs, the snippet loading is guarded by a conditional compilation symbol. To enable it, add ENABLE_SNIPPETS to your project's compilation symbols:

Option A — Project Properties (per configuration):

1. Right-click the project → Properties
2. Select the Build tab
3. In Conditional compilation symbols, add ENABLE_SNIPPETS
4. Rebuild

Option B — Edit .csproj directly (all configurations):

<PropertyGroup>
  <!-- Remove comment to enable snippets in all configurations -->
  <!-- <DefineConstants>$(DefineConstants);ENABLE_SNIPPETS</DefineConstants> -->
</PropertyGroup>

Remove the comment tags around the <DefineConstants> line and rebuild.

Step 2 — Enable the snippet picker in Visual Studio

The snippet picker registration is commented out in mirc.pkgdef by default. To enable it, open mirc.pkgdef and uncomment the CodeExpansions section:

; ── Uncomment to enable snippet picker ──────────────────────────────────────
;[$RootKey$\Languages\CodeExpansions\mIRC]
;@="mIRC Script"
;"DisplayName"="mIRC Script"
;"IndexPath"="$PackageFolder$\Snippets\SnippetsIndex.xml"
;"Package"="{F5B8C2A3-7D4E-4B9A-8C1F-2E6D7A9B3C4E}"
;"LangStringId"="mIRC"
;"ShowRoots"=dword:00000000
;
;[$RootKey$\Languages\CodeExpansions\mIRC\ForceCreateDirs]
;"mIRC"="$MyDocuments$\Visual Studio 2026\Code Snippets\mIRC\My mIRC Snippets"
;
;[$RootKey$\Languages\CodeExpansions\mIRC\Paths]
;"mIRC"="$PackageFolder$\Snippets"

Select those lines and use Edit → Advanced → Uncomment Selection (Ctrl+K, Ctrl+U), then rebuild and redeploy.

Disabling snippets again

1. Comment the <DefineConstants> line back out in .csproj (or remove ENABLE_SNIPPETS from Project Properties)
2. Comment the CodeExpansions block back out in mirc.pkgdef
3. Rebuild and redeploy
4. Run Extensions → Extension Development → Reset Experimental Instance to clear the registry entries from the previous deployment

📋 Syntax Elements

Color Scheme (VS Code Dark Modern)

Element	Color	Example
Keywords	Pink #C586C0	if, while, alias
Variables	Light Blue #9CDCFE	%myvar, %count
User Identifiers	Yellow #DCDCAA	$myfunc, $custom
Built-in Identifiers	Teal #4EC9B0	$me, $chan, $nick
Comments	Green #6A9955	; comment, /* block */
Strings	Orange #CE9178	"text", 'string'
Mismatched Braces	Red #FF5555	Unbalanced {, }

Bracket Pair Colors

Level	Color	Hex
1	Gold	#FFD700
2	Pink	#FF82FF
3	Cyan	#00FFFF
4	Light Green	#96FF96
5	Orange	#FFB450
6	Sky Blue	#87CEFA

Colors cycle after level 6 for deeper nesting.

📦 Snippets (when enabled)

Snippets are stored in the Snippets\ folder and cover all mIRC commands, events, identifiers, and operators. They are only active when ENABLE_SNIPPETS is defined and the CodeExpansions block in mirc.pkgdef is uncommented — see Enabling Snippets.

Usage: Type snippet shortcut and press Tab, or use Ctrl+K, Ctrl+X to browse.

⌨️ Keyboard Shortcuts

Action	Shortcut
Trigger IntelliSense	Ctrl+Space
Insert Snippet (when enabled)	Ctrl+K, Ctrl+X
Next Placeholder	Tab
Previous Placeholder	Shift+Tab
Exit Snippet Mode	Esc

🎨 Customization

Change Colors

1. Go to Tools → Options → Environment → Fonts and Colors
2. Find items starting with "mIRC"
3. Customize foreground/background colors
4. Apply changes

Available items:

• mIRC Keyword
• mIRC Variable
• mIRC Identifier
• mIRC Built-in Identifier
• mIRC Comment
• mIRC String
• mIRC Brace
• mIRC Bracket Pair Level 1-6
• mIRC Mismatched Bracket
• mIRC Brace Matching

Add Custom Snippets

1. Add new <CodeSnippet> entries to the relevant .snippet file in the Snippets\ folder
2. Follow the existing XML format
3. Rebuild and redeploy with snippets enabled

🔧 Technical Details

File Extensions

• .mrc - mIRC script files
• .mirc - Alternative mIRC extension

Content Type

• Content Type: mirc
• Base Definition: text

Components

• Syntax Classifier - Token-based highlighting
• Comment Tagger - Multi-line block comment support
• Bracket Colorization Tagger - Rainbow brackets with mismatch detection
• Brace Matching Tagger - Highlight matching pairs
• Completion Provider - IntelliSense with 735+ completions (always active)
• Snippet System - 735 code templates (optional, disabled by default)

🐛 Known Issues

• Block comments spanning very large files (1000+ lines) may have slight performance impact
• IntelliSense may not trigger inside comments (by design)
• Enabling snippets produces duplicate entries in the IntelliSense dropdown alongside the standard completions

📝 Changelog

Version 1.0.0

• Initial release
• Syntax highlighting for all mIRC elements
• 300+ built-in identifier recognition
• C-style block comments (/* */)
• Rainbow bracket pair colorization
• Mismatched brace detection
• Brace matching
• 735 IntelliSense completions with descriptions
• 735 optional code snippets (disabled by default)
• VS Code Dark Modern theme colors

Development Setup

1. Clone the repository
2. Open in Visual Studio 2026+
3. Install Visual Studio SDK if not already installed
4. Build and run (F5) to launch experimental instance

Adding Features

• New Keywords: Edit keywords array in mIRCClassifier.cs
• New Identifiers: Add to builtinIdentifiers HashSet in mIRCClassifier.cs
• New Snippets: Add entries to the appropriate file in Snippets\
• IntelliSense Items: Edit the hardcoded arrays in mIRCCompletionProvider.cs

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

🙏 Credits

• mIRC Icon: Sleek XP Software by deleket (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)
• Inspiration: vscode-mirc by lol2k
• Help File: mhelp by RealKindOne
• Development: Created with assistance from Claude (Anthropic AI) for syntax highlighting architecture, bracket pair colorization, theme integration, IntelliSense, and snippet generation

🔗 Links

• mIRC Official Website
• mhelp - Unofficial mIRC Help

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Made with ❤️ for the mIRC scripting community

Supporting Visual Studio 2026 and newer