Setting Up Vale

Vale is a linter that highlights language issues such as grammar, terminology, and style issues.

Vale is available as a tool for Qt Creator and as a VS Code extension.

This page helps you set up Vale on VS Code or Qt Creator.

1. Install Vale

First, install Vale on your computer. The https://vale.sh/docs/vale-cli/installation/ page shows how to install Vale on various desktop platforms.

2. Download Microsoft Style Guide Rules and Configure Vale

We use the Microsoft Style Guide and a custom set of style rules relevant to Qt.

The Vale configuration and the style files are hosted in the qtqa.git repository. The qtqa.git repository is also part of the qt5.git repository as a git submodule. See Setting up Gerrit for more information.

The qtqa.git repository has the style rules that we use. Clone the qtqa.git repository and the relevant directory is at <code>qtqa/vale_linter_config</code>

Next, configure Vale by setting <code>VALE_CONFIG_PATH</code> to the directory of your .vale.ini. The .vale.ini file in the qtqa.git repository is at <code>qtqa/vale_linter_config/.vale.ini</code>

The following is an example of .vale.ini file.

#Vale config for QDoc sources: C++, QDoc, QML, snippet files
StylesPath = styles

MinAlertLevel = suggestion

Packages = Microsoft

Vocab = Qt


#Add file extensions here. 
[*.{cpp,qdoc,qml,qdocinc,js}]
#for HTML output
#[*.html]

#These are directories in the StylesPath. Turns on all rules in style
#BasedOnStyles = Microsoft, Qt, Vale

# Enable/disable each rule offered by the style
# Style.Rule = {YES, NO} to enable or disable a specific rule
Vale.Terms = YES
Vale.Avoid = YES
Microsoft.OxfordComma = YES
Microsoft.Passive = YES
Microsoft.Dashes = YES
Microsoft.Spacing = YES
Microsoft.Wordiness = YES
Microsoft.We = YES
Microsoft.OxfordComma = YES
Qt.Repetition = YES
Qt.Headings = YES
# Extends the built-in spell checker with additional filters
Qt.Spelling = YES

To test if Vale finds the configuration file is to run:

vale ls-config

Vale should output a processed configuration in JSON format. Check that the JSON output corresponds to the values in the <code>.vale.ini</code> file.

Configure Vale for VS Code

/extension

Configure Vale for Qt Creator

/outline tool