The previous parts were about installation, project setup, building, debugging and setting up a kit. This one is about setting up IntelliSense for Cross Development in Visual Studio Code which allows for browsing symbols or code completion:

Outline

The powerful IntelliSense in Visual Studio Code is probably *the* feature in Visual Studio Code. The Eclipse IDE has a similar feature with the ‘Indexer‘, but imho the one in Visual Studio Code is not only easier to setup but more powerful.

If you are unfamiliar what IntelliSense does, check out https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/intellisense

Setup

As everything else, the Indexer in Visual Studio Code is using a JSON configuration file. With the Microsoft C/C++ Extension there is a graphical (UI) configuration utility. Use <CTRL>+<P>:

In the following UI all the settings can be configured:

The settings are stored inside the .vscode/c_cpp_properties.json file inside the project. So instead using the wizard above simply create the file and copy-paste the template below:

{
    "configurations": [
         {
            "name": "CrossARM",
            "includePath": [
                "${workspaceFolder}/**"
            ],
            "defines": [
                "CPU_MK22FN512VLH12",
                "CPU_MK22FN512VLH12_cm4"
            ],
            "forcedInclude": ["${workspaceFolder}/src/IncludeMcuLibConfig.h"],
            "compilerPath": "C:/Program Files (x86)/GNU Arm Embedded Toolchain/10 2020-q4-major/bin/arm-none-eabi-gcc.exe",
            "cStandard": "c17",
            "cppStandard": "c++17",
            "intelliSenseMode": "gcc-arm"
        }
    ],
    "version": 4
}

• name: arbitrary name for the configuration
• includePath: list here all locations where IntelliSense shall search for header files. It automatically will use the ones located in the toolchain (compiler) installation. The ‘**’ notation means it will search recursively that folder
• defines: list all the extra defines which shall be considered.
• forcedInclude: if using the -include compiler option, make sure you list that file here
• compilerPath: path to the compiler executable.
• cStandard and cppStandard: the C and C++ standard to be used
• intelliSenseMode: mode to be used. ‘gcc-arm’ is considered legacy, but not sure what to use otherwise for ARM?

Usage

With this IntelliSense is able to find the correct header files and definitions with the toolchain used. You can verify this with the context menu on a standard library include (Context menu > Peek > Definition):

Code Completion and IntelliSense in general is triggered by <CTRL>+<SPACE>:

You can press <CTRL> and then use the mouse to jump to a location: press <CTRL>, move the mouse over it and click.

Another nice thing is the ‘sneak’ preview: keep <CTRL> pressed and move the mouse around to see a preview of that implementation:

Another tip is to use <TAB>: it will select a ‘best match’ from the list of proposals.

What makes it nice too is its awareness for Doxygen documentation in the sources:

Summary

Visual Studio Code comes with a powerful IntelliSense engine which is easily configured using a JSON file. IntelliSense and Code Completion makes coding so much easier: it is *the* reason why to use an IDE like Visual Studio Code.

Happy Completing 🙂

Links

• Visual Studio Code for C/C++ with ARM Cortex-M: Part 1
• Visual Studio Code for C/C++ with ARM Cortex-M: Part 2
• Visual Studio Code for C/C++ with ARM Cortex-M: Part 3
• Visual Studio Code for C/C++ with ARM Cortex-M: Part 4
• Visual Studio Code for C/C++ with ARM Cortex-M: Part 5
• Visual Studio Code for C/C++ with ARM Cortex-M: Part 6
• Visual Studio Code for C/C++ with ARM Cortex-M: Part 6 – FreeRTOS
• Visual Studio Code website: https://code.visualstudio.com/
• IntelliSense: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/intellisense
• Intellisense for Cross Development: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/cpp/configure-intellisense-crosscompilation
• Examples on GitHub: https://github.com/ErichStyger/mcuoneclipse/tree/master/Examples/VisualStudioCode