Shipping a VS Code extension backed by a .NET Tool based analyzer
Friday, November 13
– PST
Erik Ejlskov Jensen
VS Code speaks TypeScript, but my T-SQL analysis rules are C# on top of DacFx. So how do you light up 140+ .NET analyzer rules as the developer types — no build step, nothing to manually install? In this talk I'll show how I built the T-SQL Analyzer VS Code extension as a thin TypeScript front-end (with no previous TypeScript experience) over a long-lived .NET back-end: a persistent analyzer process, a simple stdin/stdout JSON protocol, and distribution as a NuGet tool run via dnx (so users just need the .NET 11 SDK). I'll share the real lessons learned — so you can put a friendly editor experience on top of any .NET library you already own. Takeaways • Architect an editor extension as a thin UI over a reusable .NET engine • Design a minimal, robust stdin/stdout JSON protocol • Run and supervise a long-lived .NET server (spawn, crash recovery, shutdown) • Distribute via NuGet + dnx for zero-install users • Turn analysis results into live diagnostics with good error UX
