Emacs VHDL Mode

Features

Release Notes 3.39

Download (last update: 2023-08-31)

Maintenance

Links

Update History

Features

• Syntax highlighting
• Indentation
• Template insertion (electrification)
• Insertion of file headers
• Insertion of user-specified models
• Port translation / testbench generation
• Structural composition
• Configuration generation
• Sensitivity list updating
• File browser
• Design hierarchy browser
• Source file compilation (syntax analysis)
• Makefile generation
• Code hiding
• Word/keyword completion
• Block commenting
• Code fixing/alignment/beautification
• Postscript printing
• VHDL'87/'93/'08/'19 and VHDL-AMS supported
• Comprehensive menu
• Fully customizable
• Works under GNU Emacs (recommended) and XEmacs
• Screenshot

Release Notes 3.39

Updates

Support for VHDL-2019:

• New keywords, types, functions, attributes
• Indentation fixes
• Usage: VHDL-1993 is still the default. For enabling VHDL-2019 support customize option `vhdl-standard'.

Style & template enhancements:

• Allow labels at end of constructs (option `vhdl-optional-labels-at-end')
• Customize comment display line (option `vhdl-comment-display-line-char')
• Enhanced comment wrapping (option `vhdl-auto-wrap-comments')
• Specify libraries to be included in testbench (options `vhdl-testbench-include-libraries', `vhdl-testbench-include-custom-library')

Miscellaneous:

• Enhanced compilation error parsing (distinguish errors, warnings, info)
• Emacs 28/29 compatibility

Remarks

• No major new features are planned for VHDL Mode. I'm rather focussing on bug fixes and small enhancements.
• Moving forward VHDL Mode is only tested on the latest GNU Emacs version (currently GNU Emacs 28/29). Therefore compatibility with older GNU Emacs versions as well as XEmacs are not guaranteed. In case of compatibility issues I recommend to stick with older versions or update Emacs.
• In case of loading errors in older Emacs versions I recommend to try to remove vhdl-mode.elc and directly load vhdl-mode.el instead.

See also release notes of previous releases.

Download

VHDL Mode 3.39 (tested on GNU Emacs 28/29):

vhdl-mode-3.39.3.tar.gz (2023-08-31, size 320KB)

vhdl-mode-3.39.3.zip (2023-08-31, size 322KB)

VHDL Mode 3.38 (tested on GNU Emacs 27):

vhdl-mode-3.38.4.tar.gz (2022-09-08, size 320KB)

vhdl-mode-3.38.4.zip (2022-09-08, size 322KB)

VHDL Mode 3.37 (tested on GNU Emacs 24):

vhdl-mode-3.37.2.tar.gz (2015-02-10, size 311KB)

vhdl-mode-3.37.2.zip (2015-02-10, size 313KB)

VHDL Mode 3.36 (tested on GNU Emacs 24):

vhdl-mode-3.36.1.tar.gz (2014-11-27, size 316KB)

vhdl-mode-3.36.1.zip (2014-11-27, size 318KB)

VHDL Mode 3.35 (tested on GNU Emacs 24):

vhdl-mode-3.35.1.tar.gz (2014-03-11, size 308KB)

vhdl-mode-3.35.1.zip (2014-03-11, size 310KB)

VHDL Mode 3.34 (tested on GNU Emacs 24):

vhdl-mode-3.34.2.tar.gz (2012-11-21, size 306KB)

vhdl-mode-3.34.2.zip (2012-11-21, size 308KB)

VHDL Mode 3.33 (GNU Emacs 20/21, XEmacs 20/21):

vhdl-mode-3.33.28.tar.gz (2010-07-27, size 324k)

vhdl-mode-3.33.28.zip (2010-07-27, size 329k)

VHDL Mode 3.32 (GNU Emacs 20/21, XEmacs 20/21):

vhdl-mode-3.32.21.tar.gz (2004-09-23, size 407k)

vhdl-mode-3.32.21.zip (2004-09-23, size 422k)

VHDL Mode 3.31 (GNU Emacs 20/21, XEmacs 20/21):

vhdl-mode-3.31.25.tar.gz (2001-11-21, size 382k)

vhdl-mode-3.31.25.zip (2001-11-21, size 398k)

VHDL Mode 3.30 (GNU Emacs 20, XEmacs 20/21):

vhdl-mode-3.30.tar.gz (1999-12-11, size 293k)

vhdl-mode-3.30.zip (1999-12-11, size 297k)

VHDL Mode 3.10 (GNU Emacs 19):

vhdl-mode-3.10.tar.gz (1997-10-03, size 79k), not supported anymore

VHDL'02 syntax as HyperText:

vhdl02_syntax.html (size 54k)

VHDL'93 syntax as HyperText:

vhdl93_syntax.html (size 51k)

VHDL'87 syntax as HyperText:

vhdl87_syntax.html (size 44k)

VHDL-AMS syntax as HyperText:

vhdlams_syntax.html (size 63k)

Maintenance

• submit bug reports, questions, and enhancement requests,
• subscribe to the `vhdl-mode-announce' mailing list for information about new VHDL Mode releases,

Links

Useful Packages

• Display line numbers: Linum

Update History

3.39.2 (2023-08-31)

• Enhancement: Enhance multi-line comment indentation.
• Bug fix: Minor bug fixes.

3.39.1 (2023-07-05)

• Enhancement: Add VHDL-2019 support (keywords & indentation). Customize with option `vhdl-standard'.
• Enhancement: Enhance compilation error parsing to distinguish between errors, warnings and info messages.
• Enhancement: Enhance compilation error parsing for ModelSim.
• Enhancement: Add compilation error parsing for Xilinx Vivado.
• Bug fix: Fix indentation for C-directives.
• Bug fix: Fix indentation for types in interface lists.
• Bug fix: Fix indentation for with-select statement.
• Bug fix: Fix indentation for conditional assignments.
• Bug fix: Fix indentation for if-generate statement.
• Bug fix: Fix indentation for postponed process.

3.38.4 (2022-09-08)

• Enhancement: Add option `vhdl-testbench-include-libraries' for libraries to be included in generated testbench.
• Enhancement: Add option `vhdl-testbench-include-custom-library' to include custom library clause in generated testbench.
• Enhancement: Support case-generate statement in template generation and indentation.

3.38.3 (2022-02-01)

• Enhancement: Support "elsif/else generate" (VHDL'08).
• Bug fix: Minor indentation bug fix.
• Bug fix: Indentation fixes for "package" and "protected type".
• Bug fix: Fix wrapping of too long comment lines.
• Enhancement:: Add option `vhdl-auto-wrap-comments' to turn automatic comment wrapping off.
• Enhancement: Add option `vhdl-optional-labels-at-end' to omit labels at end of constructs.

3.37 (2015-02-10)

• Enhancement: Add VHDL'08 support.
• Note: The setting for option `comment-padding' has been removed, so that the Emacs default value is now used. By default this causes "-- " to be inserted when commenting a region instead of "--". This fixes incorrect uncommenting of code regions that contain comment lines. The old behavior can be restored by customizing option `comment-padding' with "" (empty string).

3.36 (2014-11-27)

• Enhancement: Enhance regular expressions for compilation error parsing. Also change default value for 'vhdl-compile-use-local-error-regexp' to nil. The reason is to limit the impact on other commands and language compilers.
• Maintenance: Replace functions from deprecated assoc.el package.

3.35 (2014-03-11)

• Enhancement: Remove use of deprecated `assoc.el' package.
• Enhancement: Include tabify/untabify in beautification.
• Enhancement: Makefile generation: support compilers with no unit-to-file name mapping.
• Bug fix: Minor bug fixes.

3.34 (2012-11-21)

• Enhancement: Support compilation error parsing for new `compile.el' package in GNU Emacs 22/23/24.
• Enhancement: Improved code beautification. Force some keywords (like "begin") on a separate line to guarantee correct indentation. Variable `vhdl-beautify-options' allows to control individual beautification features when running beautification command.
• Enhancement: Improved sensitivity list updating.
• Enhancement: Port translation: Derive actual generic name from formal generic name.
• Bug fix: Minor bug fixes.

3.33.28 (2010-07-27)

• Note: In GNU Emacs 23 the default value for custom option 'comment-style' has changed from 'plain' to 'indent'. This causes different commenting behavior (comment/uncomment out region). To restore the old behavior the option has to be customized back to 'plain'.
• Enhancement: Add support for GHDL compiler. Make GHDL the default compiler.
• Enhancement: Add command 'vhdl-fix-clause-buffer' and menu entry "VHDL -> Fix -> Generic/Port Clause Buffer" to fix all clauses in buffer at once.
• Enhancement: Support direct instantiation in 'imenu'.
• Bug fix: Fix parsing of extended identifiers in port copying.
• Bug fix: Various indentation fixes.
• Bug fix: Minor bug fixes for highlighting and speedbar.

3.33.27 (2008-11-27)

• Enhancement: Special syntax highlighting (option `vhdl-highlight-special-words') now allows to highlight words inside comments ("In comments" switch in option `vhdl-special-syntax-alist').
• Bug fix: Fix comment filling in Emacs 22.
• Bug fix: Minor bug fixes in sensitivity list updating.

3.33.26 (2008-08-07)

• Enhancement: TAB now indents region if a region is active (selected). Compatible with new standard behavior in Emacs 23 (not in XEmacs).
• Bug fix: Fix indentation of clock templates in testbench insertion.
• Bug fix: Improve highlighting of component instantiations.
• Bug fix: Fix error "Variable binding depth exceeds max-specpdl-size" in Emacs 21.

3.33.25 (2008-06-04)

• Enhancement: Add / update support for VHDL-AMS packages.
  • Include templates for package use clause insertion.
  • Add highlighting / word expansion for standardized constant and types.
• Enhancement: Update reserved words for math packages.
• Enhancement: Highlighting / case-fixing for standardized constants.
• Bug fix: Fix indentation for lines with '^L' (formfeed) character.
• Bug fix: Minor bug fixes.

3.33.24 (2008-05-08)

• Enhancement: Add "authorfull" keyword to VHDL header template (inserts author full name without login name, email address).
• Enhancement: New option to also add array indices and record fields in sensitivity list instead of just the signal names (option `vhdl-array-index-record-field-in-sensitivity-list').
• Bug fix: Use correct initialization values for "integer" and "real" types in pasting ports as testbench.
• Bug fix: Fix handling of "terminal" type (VHDL-AMS) in pasting ports.
• Bug fix: Minor bug fixes.

3.33.23 (2008-04-01)

• Compatibility: Change some key bindings for Emacs compatibility (i.e. not use `C-c [a-zA-Z]' bindings in a major mode, reserved as user bindings). Most importantly the key binding for `vhdl-comment-uncomment-region' changed from `C-c c' to `C-c C-c'. Other changed bindings are listed in the integrated release notes (Menu "VHDL" -> "Documentation" -> "Release Notes").

3.33.22 (2007-12-21)

• Bug fix: Fix sensitivity list updating for record fields.
• Enhancement: Add missing keywords "hwrite", "owrite", "hread", "oread".
• Bug fix: Minor bug fixes.

3.33.21 (2007-08-07)

• Bug fix: Fix template for "variable" keyword inside labeled process.

3.33.20 (2007-07-27)

• Bug fix: Small bug fixes in code alignment and case fixing.
• Distribution: Removed out-of-date patches of speedbar and hideshow packages.

3.33.19 (2007-06-22)

• Bug fix: Also consider "==" VHDL-AMS assignment operator in indentation.
• Bug fix: Correctly adjust case of keywords after "end".

3.33.18 (2007-05-15)

• Bug fix: Minor bug fixes, enhancements.

3.33.17 (2006-12-12)

• Bug fix: Handle extended identifiers in code beautification.

3.33.16 (2006-09-19)

• Bug fix: Fix indentation of comments at beginning of line.
• Bug fix: Not align keywords inside comments.

3.33.15 (2006-09-15)

• Enhancement: Indent comment lines like following (instead of preceding) code line. Gives nicer indentation when comments belong to the code that follows. Old behavior can be restored using option `vhdl-indent-comment-like-next-code-line'.

3.33.14 (2006-08-21)

• Bug fix: Fix error message regexp for Modelsim.

3.33.13 (2006-08-16)

• Enhancement: Customize Makefile default targets (new option `vhdl-makefile-default-targets').
• Enhancement: Add support for "ADVance MS" compiler.
• Bug fix: Minor bug fixes.

3.33.12 (2006-05-23)

• Bug fix: Fix indentation bug for simultaneous if/case-statements.
• Enhancement: Enhance code alignment.

3.33.11 (2006-05-15)

• Bug fix: Fix indentation bug for argument lists.
• Bug fix: Fix code alignment/beautifying bugs.

3.33.10 (2006-05-11)

• Enhancement: Use relative instead of absolute path for files when compiling (`vhdl-compile').
• Bug fix: Fix indentation bug.

3.33.9 (2006-04-12)

• Enhancement: Add support for "Aldec" simulator.
• Enhancement: Update to VHDL'02 standard (add 'protected' keyword, but indentation not supported yet).
• Bug fix: Minor bug fixes.

3.33.8 (2005-12-20)

• Bug fix: Undo comment filling fix for XEmacs (broke beautification).

3.33.7 (2005-12-09)

• Enhancement: Better support for extended identifiers.
• Enhancement: Add compilation support for Xilinx compiler.
• Bug fix: Comment filling in XEmacs.
• Bug fix: Fix VHDL-AMS "case...use" and "if...use" constructs.
• Bug fix: Minor bug fixes.

3.33.5 (2005-06-22)

• Bug fix: Incompatibility issue with XEmacs, minor fixes.

3.33.4 (2005-05-17)

• Bug fix: Identify signals read as index in multi-dimensional arrays in sensitivity list updating.

3.33.3 (2005-02-25)

• Enhancement: Set default project (at startup) within "Project" menu.
• Enhancement: Handle extended identifiers for generics in port copying.
• Enhancement: Query for target in "Make" command, use last target as default.
• Enhancement: Minor enhancements and bug fixes.

3.33.2 (2004-10-01)

• Enhancement: Handle c-preprocessor directives (fontification, indentation, etc.).

3.33.1 (2004-09-30)

• New release: Configuration declaration generation.

3.32.21 (2004-09-23)

• Bug fix: Fix infinite loop bug in code beautification.
• Bug fix: Correctly identify signals used as array index as read signals in sensitivity list updating.

3.32.20 (2004-02-16)

• Enhancement: Separate customization of entity and architecture file names for testbenches (new options 'vhdl-testbench-entity-file-name' and 'vhdl-testbench-architecture-file-name').
• Documentation: Add note that package and testbench files can be placed in separate directories (see options 'vhdl-package-file-name', 'vhdl-testbench-entity-file-name' and 'vhdl-testbench-architecture-file-name').
• Bug fix: Improve indentation of "record" type declaration.
• Bug fix: Whitespace fixing in comments (beautification).

3.32.19 (2003-12-18)

• Bug fix: Beautify inserts too many spaces after comma/string.

3.32.18 (2003-11-17)

• Bug fix: Define alias for missing 'member-ignore-case' function in XEmacs.

3.32.17 (2003-09-17)

• Enhancement: Add Makefile generation information for Cadence NC.
• Bug fix: Ignore different case of signals read in a process for sensitivity list updating.

3.32.16 (2003-09-08)

• Bug fix: Case change on identifiers in port translation.

3.32.15 (2003-08-04)

• Bug fix: Some signals were not correctly detected as being read.

3.32.14 (2003-04-21)

• Bug fix: Include aliases, not include formal parameters in sensitivity lists.

3.32.13 (2003-03-12)

• Bug fix: Beautification of character literals (e.g. ':').

3.32.12 (2003-02-28)

• Bug fix: Indentation of comment line with string inside.

3.32.11 (2002-11-12)

• Enhancement: Allow changing case when deriving file names from VHDL unit names (option `vhdl-file-name-case').

3.32.10 (2002-10-27)

• Bug fix: Indentation after comment lines in XEmacs 21.4+ (works around buggy `forward-comment' built-in function in XEmacs 21.4).
• Minor enhancements.

3.32.9 beta (2002-07-01)

• New feature: Subprogram translation.
• New feature: Code filling.
• New feature: Code statistics.
• Enhancement: Hierarchy scanning finds component instantiations with no generic/port maps (VHDL'93 syntax only using keywords "component", "entity" or "configuration").
• Enhancement: Case-insensitive wiring (structural composition).
• Enhancement: Better error handling and messaging.
• Enhancement: Support for "Speedwave" compiler.
• Fixes and minor enhancements.

3.32.8 beta (2002-03-15)

• Bug fix: Commenting region in Emacs 20.
• Enhancement: `global-font-lock-mode' controls automatic buffer highlighting (GNU Emacs).
• New feature: "Port -> Reverse Direction" to reverse direction of ports for copying (useful in testbenches).

3.32.7 beta (2001-12-12)

• Fixes and minor enhancements.

3.31.25, 3.32.6 beta (2001-11-21)

• Emacs 21 related bug fixes.