Kate linter plugin

Just a quicky: I wrote a little plugin for KTextEditor which supplies you with basic error checking when you save documents. Currently only PHP (via php <span class="re5">-l</span>) and JavaScript (via JavaScript Lint) are supported.

Screenshots

• PHP error
• list of errors

Requirements

• usual tools for compiling C++, e.g. gcc.
• cmake
• Qt development packages, i.e. under Ubuntu: <span class="kw2">sudo</span> <span class="kw2">aptitude</span> <span class="kw2">install</span> libqt4-dev
• KDE 4.2 with development packages for kdelibs and kdebase, i.e. under Ubuntu: <span class="kw2">sudo</span> <span class="kw2">aptitude</span> <span class="kw2">install</span> kdebase-dev kdebase-workspace-dev kdelibs5-dev. Note: You’ll need the experimental KDE 4.2 packages activated as of now, see for example the Kubuntu news on KDE 4.2 RC1 for hints.
• proper setup of environment variables, read this techbase article for more information. the .bashrc linked there should be enough for most people
• For PHP support: a PHP executable which supports the -l switch for linting
• For JavaScript support: a JavaScript Lint executable, you could download and compile the sources for example.

Installing

Get the sources for the linter plugin from KDE SVN and compile it, using e.g. the functions supplied via the .bashrc mentioned above:

  

    

      # go to your development folder
    
  
  

    

      cs
    
  
  

    

      # checkout sources
    
  
  

    

      svn co svn://anonsvn.kde.org/home/kde/trunk/playground/devtools/kte_linter
    
  
  

    

      cd kte_linter
    
  
  

    

      # build base linter plugin
    
  
  

    

      cd linter
    
  
  

    

      cmakekde
    
  
  

    

      # build php linter plugin
    
  
  

    

      cd ../phplinter
    
  
  

    

      cmakekde
    
  
  

    

      # build javascript linter plugin
    
  
  

    

      cd ../jslinter
    
  
  

    

      cmakekde
    
  
  

    

      # update sycoca
    
  
  

    

      kbuildsycoca4
    
  
  

    

      # start editor and select the plugins - happy coding!
    
  
  

    

      kwrite
    
  

Todo

• Support for more languages

  If you know good linters drop me a note. But it would be even better if you could write your own linter plugin. It’s pretty easy, take a look at one of the existing plugins for a skeleton & documentation.

• Right now each plugin returns a hardcoded list of highlighting-modes which it supports for linting. This should be made configurable so that custom highlighting modes are supported

• make error messages more pretty

Happy coding!