The latest articles on DEV Community by Ashton Chew (@ashtonckj). https://dev.to/ashtonckj https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F4160958%2F5434e485-3dbc-4778-b455-25e0aa748ff3.jpg https://dev.to/ashtonckj en Ashton Chew Mon, 12 Oct 2026 12:40:48 +0000 https://dev.to/ashtonckj/bringing-better-classic-asp-support-to-vs-code-in-2026-4faj https://dev.to/ashtonckj/bringing-better-classic-asp-support-to-vs-code-in-2026-4faj <p><a href="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Foqx6i1rp0luq7jciqm4t.gif" class="article-body-image-wrapper"><img src="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Foqx6i1rp0luq7jciqm4t.gif" alt=" " width="560" height="490"></a></p> <h1> Bringing Better Classic ASP Support to VS Code in 2026 </h1> <p>Classic ASP may be old, but legacy applications still need to be maintained. When working with these applications, the editor should help with more than syntax highlighting.</p> <p>I started building Classic ASP Language Support because I wanted a more complete development experience in VS Code. What began as an extension for a legacy language has grown into a project covering formatting, IntelliSense, navigation, diagnostics and several other language features.</p> <p>In this article, I'll explain the problems I wanted to solve, some of the challenges of supporting VBScript alongside HTML and JavaScript, and what I've learned from building and maintaining the extension.</p> <h2> Why Classic ASP is difficult to support </h2> <p>A single <code>.asp</code> file can contain several different languages. The editor has to understand where server-side VBScript begins and ends, how it interacts with HTML, and how embedded JavaScript, CSS and SQL should be handled.</p> <p>Simply highlighting keywords is not enough when you also want useful completion, navigation and diagnostics.</p> <h2> Building a better development experience </h2> <p>I'll walk through some of the features I've implemented, including:</p> <ul> <li>Formatting mixed-language ASP files.</li> <li>IntelliSense and context-aware completions.</li> <li>Navigating definitions across <code>#include</code> files.</li> <li>Renaming symbols and finding references.</li> <li>Detecting common VBScript and markup mistakes.</li> </ul> <h2> The challenges behind the features </h2> <p>The interesting part isn't just adding commands to an editor. It's making different language features cooperate without interfering with each other, while keeping the extension responsive on large files.</p> <p>I'll share examples of the edge cases I've encountered and the lessons I've learned from improving the implementation.</p> <h2> What's next </h2> <p>Classic ASP is a legacy technology, but that doesn't mean maintaining it should be unnecessarily difficult.</p> <p>I'm continuing to improve the extension and would welcome feedback from developers who work with real Classic ASP applications.</p> <p><strong>Try it:</strong> <a href="https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ashtonckj.classic-asp-language-support" rel="noopener noreferrer">Classic ASP Language Support on the VS Code Marketplace</a></p> <p><strong>Source code:</strong> <a href="https://github.com/ashtonckj/Classic-ASP-Language-Support" rel="noopener noreferrer">GitHub repository</a></p> vscode asp typescript extensions