Installing the Dialog IDE Extension

With VS Code installed, adding Dialog IDE takes a minute. This chapter also covers what the Dialog toolchain needs on your particular platform, since that varies, and how to confirm the extension is working.

Install from the Extensions view

  1. Open the Extensions view with Cmd+Shift+X / Ctrl+Shift+X.

  2. Search for Dialog IDE. The entry you want is published by hlship; its marketplace identifier is hlship.dialog-ide.

  3. Click Install.

the Dialog IDE marketplace page inside VS Code’s Extensions view, Install button visible; if the unverified-publisher note shows, include it in the crop

During or after installing you may see a note that the publisher is not verified — the wording is along the lines of "hlship is not a verified publisher" or "This publisher has not verified ownership of a domain". This refers only to domain verification, a marketplace feature Dialog IDE has not set up. It is not a security warning and it does not affect how the extension works. Continue with the installation.

Other ways to install

If you prefer the command line, and set up the code command in the previous chapter:

code --install-extension hlship.dialog-ide

On a machine with no marketplace access, or to install a pre-release build, use a .vsix file: open the "…​" menu at the top of the Extensions view and choose Install from VSIX…​, or run code --install-extension dialog-ide-<version>.vsix.

What the Dialog toolchain needs on your platform

The extension does not interpret or compile Dialog itself. It runs external binaries: dgdebug to run a project, dialogc to build one, and — for a couple of features — aambundle and dfrotz. Whether you have to install those yourself depends on your platform.

Your platform What you need

Windows (x64), Apple Silicon Mac, Linux (x64)

Nothing extra. dgdebug, dialogc, and aambundle are bundled with the extension.

Intel Mac, Linux ARM, other platforms

Install the Dialog toolchain yourself, with dgdebug / dialogc on PATH (or set binDir in dialog.json). aambundle from AAmachine is needed only for Export Web Page.

Any platform, frotz / frotz-release engine

Additionally needs dfrotz (from frotz) on PATH / binDir — not bundled on any platform yet.

If your platform is not one of the bundled ones, or you want the extension to use a specific build of the toolchain, set a binDir in the project’s dialog.json pointing at the directory that contains the binaries. binDir overrides both the bundled toolchain and anything on your PATH. This is covered in the next chapter.

If you had dialog-language-support installed

If you previously installed the separate dialog-language-support extension, Dialog IDE notices at startup and offers to help you disable or uninstall it. Do so. Running both leads to inconsistent .dg highlighting and a duplicated "Compile to…​" entry in the editor’s context menu. Dialog IDE now bundles the same grammar, so you lose nothing by removing the older extension.

Confirm it is working

Open any .dg file. You should see syntax coloring, and pressing Cmd+Shift+O / Ctrl+Shift+O should list the file’s symbols. At the bottom-left of the window, a status-bar item reading Dialog Skein appears; when no session is running it shows a play icon and starts the default skein if you click it.

bottom-left status bar showing the idle 'Dialog Skein' item

If highlighting works but the Dialog IDE: commands fail when you run them, the cause is almost always a missing toolchain — check the table above, and see Troubleshooting and Known Limitations.

What’s next

Starting a New Project — scaffold a new project.