❇️ Add Matlab support #82

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1. Sereinme

   added

   enhancementNew feature or requestNew feature or request

   language

   on Feb 8, 2025
2. austincondiff

   added this to CodeEdit Projecton Feb 8, 2025
3. github-project-automation

   moved this to 🆕 New in CodeEdit Projecton Feb 8, 2025
4. kkilchrist commented on Dec 30, 2025

   

   kkilchrist

   on Dec 30, 2025

   Last edited by kkilchrist

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   @Sereinme -- just wanted to share an update on MATLAB support. I had started to work on this, but ended up using regex to solve my limited issue. But wanted to share what I learned / fixed. I do NOT plan to revisit this to integrate, but this might help you.

   SPM Resolution Fix

   The tree-sitter-matlab package had an SPM resolution bug that prevented it from being added as a dependency. I filed an issue and PR upstream:

   • Issue: SPM package resolution fails due to dynamic FileManager check in Package.swift acristoffers/tree-sitter-matlab#144
   • Fix: fix: SPM compatibility for Package.swift acristoffers/tree-sitter-matlab#145
   • My fork has the fix here if you want to reference it -- https://github.com/kkilchrist/tree-sitter-matlab/tree/main

   So the SPM blocker is now resolved!

   .m Extension Conflict

   However, there's a significant challenge: both MATLAB and Objective-C use the .m extension. This will require content-based heuristics to disambiguate between them.

   Here's a scoring approach we sketched out:

   Objective-C Indicators

   Definitive (50 points each):

   • #import / #include preprocessor directives
   • @interface, @implementation, @protocol, @end

   Strong (10-20 points):

   • @property, @synthesize, @dynamic (20)
   • Method declarations: - ( or + ( (20)
   • Nested brackets [[...]] for message sending (15)
   • @selector, @autoreleasepool, @synchronized, @try, @catch (15)
   • String literals @"..." (10)
   • Literals @YES, @NO, @[], @{} (10)
   • Block syntax ^{ or ^( (10)
   • C-style comments // (5)

   MATLAB Indicators

   Definitive (50 points):

   • function result = name(args) at line start
   • classdef ClassName at line start

   Strong (3-15 points):

   • % comments (8)
   • Keywords: elseif, parfor, spmd, persistent, global, arguments (15)
   • Anonymous functions @(args) (15)
   • Element-wise operators .*, ./, .^, .' (10)
   • Function handles @functionName (8)
   • Matrix syntax [1 2; 3 4] (8)
   • Logical NOT ~= or ~ (5)
   • end keyword (5)
   • Range syntax 1:10 (3)
   • Cell arrays {a, b} (3)

   Tie-breaker: If both scores are 0, default to Objective-C (more common on macOS).

   This would require extending the language detection logic in CodeLanguage+DetectLanguage.swift to handle this case, similar to how the codebase already handles shebang and modeline detection.