Optimizing an IDE for an Evolving Language Ecosystem

2026-05-15

AI Summary

This work addresses the challenges of IDE development posed by the rapid evolution of smart contract languages such as Move by presenting a high-performance IDE support system built atop the Move compiler and adhering to the Language Server Protocol (LSP). Through deep integration with existing language toolchains and the application of incremental parsing and optimized semantic analysis techniques, the system efficiently delivers rich IDE features even as the language undergoes continuous iteration. Deployed successfully within the Sui platform’s Move ecosystem, it significantly enhances developer experience and yields a reusable, evolution-aware IDE construction strategy applicable to other emerging programming language ecosystems.

Abstract

This paper describes a strategy for developing a high performance and feature-rich IDE for an evolving smart contract language ecosystem. Our target is Move, a programming language for the Sui smart contracts platform. The strategy we chose to support the Move language ecosystem utilizes Language Server Protocol (LSP) and it is based on the already existing "core" language machinery, in particular the core language compiler. We discuss alternatives we considered, as well as the evolution of our infrastructure that was necessary to keep up with the growth of the language ecosystem, particularly with respect to optimizations (and their impact) that needed to be implemented to accommodate this growth. We conclude with lessons learned during the IDE support development process that we hope will be beneficial for others attempting to follow a similar path.

Problem

• IDE
• evolving language ecosystem
• smart contract language
• Move
• Language Server Protocol

Innovation

• Language Server Protocol
• IDE optimization
• evolving language ecosystem
• Move language
• compiler-based tooling