CodinGame extension for VSCode

This extension gathers some tools I use to develop more easily bots for CodinGame. The priorities of this extension are to satisfy my current needs while being simple. As a result, the extension is not very flexible or customizable.

You can read more about this extension and how to use it in this article on my blog.

Keep in mind that this extension is the first I write. Also, I never programmed in TypeScript before. Thus, there might be silly things I do here that make you want to pull your hair.

If you have any feature or improvement suggestions or want to participate in the development, let me know!

1. Features

1.1. Create a New C++ Bot Project

Create a new C++ bot project from a starter folder. The starter folder is expected to respect these rules:

• have a CMakeLists.txt at its root to build the project. This CMakeLists.txt must honor the following variables
  • REPOSITORY_ROOT, path of the root CodinGame folder, containing all bots and tools,
  • INCLUDE_DIR, path to the main C++ include folder where you can place common headers and external library headers,
  • LIB_DIR, path to the main C++ libraries folder where you can place external libraries.
• the build places the source code of the different bot versions in a package folder. Remember that the CodinGame platform requires the bots to fit in a single file. The current bot version is in package/bot.cpp,
• the CMakeLists.txt must ensure the file PreviousBotVersions.cmake exists and include it
• define codinGame.gameId and codinGame.isMulti settings.

I provide a working example of starter C++ CodinGame project in another repository.

1.2. Configure Project Build

Configure the build a bot, choosing its build type among Dev, Release, and Debug. Once the configuration is done, you can press CTRL+SHIFT+B to build the project, if you used my starter C++ CodinGame project. You will also have symbol indexing, allowing you to navigate to symbols definitions or declarations, open headers, rename variables, find references, and so on.

1.3 Open Bot Project

Open a bot project store in a folder inside the root directory of your CodinGame projects. The command is case insensitive, so if you have a bot project named MyBot, you can simply request the project for mybot.

1.4. Save Current Bot Version

Save the current version of the bot, i.e. the file package/bot.cpp, in a new file in the package folder. The new file is added the PreviousBotVersions.cmake in order to be compiled.

1.5. Get CodinGamer Id

Get your CodinGamer Id from the email and password associated to your CodinGame account. You may need this information for other tools.

1.6. Send Bot Code

Send a version of your bot code to CodinGame. Note that this feature is actually requesting the platform to play a match with your sent bot, in order to save the source code online. Thus, it can take 10s to 30s.

TODO: Check if the bot was correctly compiled on the platform.

2. Requirements

For this extension to behave as expected, you need to have the following tools installed:

• C/C++ VS Code extension,
• cmake to generate a build configuration for your projects,
• ninja to build your projects; this generator is fast and provides compile_commands.json which is used by IntelliSense,
• compdb to extend the compile_commands.json file with headers, in order to improve the indexing done by IntelliSense
• clang to perform the indexing done by IntelliSense.

The starter C++ project I provide also requires python to execute a script that merge multiple source files into one file. It also contains a .editorconfig that could be recognized by the EditorConfig for VS Code extension.

3. Extension Settings

This extension contributes the following settings:

• codinGame.rootPath: set it to the root directory of your CodinGame projects.
• codinGame.includePath: set it to the folder path containing common headers you use in your bots and tools. If not defined, it will be codinGame.rootPath/tools/include.
• codinGame.libPath: set it to the folder path containing common libraries you use in your tools. If not defined, it will be codinGame.rootPath/tools/lib.
• codinGame.starterPath: set it to the folder path containing an initial configuration for a bot. If not defined, it will be codingGame.rootPath/tools/starter
• codinGame.cmakeExtra: extra arguments that are passed to CMake when configuring the build
• codinGame.cCompilerPath: path to the C compiler to use to compile bots. If not defined, CMake will decide itself.
• codinGame.cppCompilerPath: path to the C++ compiler to use to compile bots. If not defined, CMake will decide itself.
• codinGame.gamerPassword: set it to the password associated to your CodinGame account. I am not very proud of storing this information in settings, but I do not want to bother too much about this detail
• codinGame.gamerEmail: set it to the email address associated to your CodinGame account
• codinGame.gameId: set it in your project .vscode/settings.json file to the game Id of your bot
• codinGame.isMulti: set it to true in your project .vscode/settings.json file if your bot is for a multiplayer game.

4. Known Issues

5. Release Notes

[1.0.2] - 2021-03-06

Added

• Global setting for CPPCompilerPath
• Global setting for CCompilerPath
• Global setting for cmakeExtra

Fixed

• Wait for the new project folder to be fully copied before opening it
• Path manipulation on Windows
• Images in the extension README

[1.0.1] - 2021-02-23

Added

• Command to open bot project

Changed

• save current bot command now uses PreviousBotVersions.cmake file

[1.0.0] - 2021-02-16

Added

• Command to create a bot project from a starter project
• Command to configure a bot build system
• Command to save current bot code as a named version
• Command to get CodinGamer Id from an account email + password
• Command to send a bot to CodinGame
• Global settings for rootPath, includePath, libPath, and starterPath that are used to create and configure a bot
• Global settings for gamerPassword and gamerEmail to connect to a CodinGame account
• Project settings for gameId and isMulti that are used to send a bot to CodinGame