microsoft / microsoft/vscode-cpptools

request to support sdcc mcs51 declarations (__sfr, __sbit, etc)

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Description

sdcc, which is quite popular open-source, free embedded compiler, uses special extensions for intel 8051 (aka mcs51) define special function registers and other similar things (like code, ram space, etc)
e.g.

__sfr __at (0xC0) P4   ;
__sbit __at (0xC0) P4_0 ;

extensions are discussed further in section 3.5.1 of sdcc user guide:
http://sdcc.sourceforge.net/doc/sdccman.pdf

We are using sdcc for a new platformio intel-mcs51 platform, (https://github.com/platformio/platform-intel_mcs51) and would love to be able to use the vscode cpptools intellisense here to peek at register definitions, etc.

I see this was previously discussed and rejected for keil C51 compiler at #1821, however I think this is quite different in that Keil is closed/proprietary/non-free (and has it's own ide) whereas sdcc is completely free and opensource, and sdcc+platformio+vscode+cpptools are getting really close to making full open-source ide stack

tagging a few stakeholders:
@ivankravets @spth @znhocn

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by reading section 3.5.1 of the SDCC user guide and the prior discussion in issue #1821. No source files or tests are named, so first locate the existing handling for compiler-specific declarations, then define completion as IntelliSense recognizing __sfr, __sbit, and related declarations well enough to inspect register definitions.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
c, vscode
Domain
compilers, devtools, embedded-iot
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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