Using extendscript on Apple Silicon device

[Simon Lind�n]

I have not used indesign scipt much lately but have now started a project where I need it. Last I used it I could simply edit a script by right clicking it in InDesign and select edit script. That brought me to a debugger which I could use. After changing computer to a M1 Mac things are different and nothing seems to work. I have Visual Studio Code with the ExtendScript Debugger but I can't get it to work. I get this error message when I try to debug:

Couldn't find a debug adapter descriptor for debug type 'extendscript-debug' (extension might have failed to activate)

I have created a launch.json file but I don't know what to put in it and cant find the info anywhere. Also this extension says it won't work with Apple Silicon devices. There's another extendscript extension that I also tried but I have the same issue as before.

Any advice? I'm looking for the simplest solution possible. If there is something more straightforward than Visual Studio I'd gladly try that. I'm not a programmer so I'm not using most of its features. I just need an interface to edit scripts and do simple debugging.

[Simon Lind�n · Accepted solution]

Found an advice elsewhere to install the intel version of Visual Studio instead which I did. I can now debug as I wanted. I can't do the quick right click>edit script from InDesign though since that won't open Visual Studio anymore. Not sure why but I'm not wasting time on it. I wanted the simplest solution to get to work so I'm content with this.

[m1b]

If you want VSCode to open when you select edit, you have to set the file extension's associated app:

In the Finder do Get Info on any .js or .jsx file and choose Open With, select VSCode and change for all (sorry I don't have my computer in front of me so my wording might be wrong but you will understand I think).

- Mark

[@AG]

try this you can able to debug

[Justin Taylor-Hyper Brew]

We actually just posted a new blog going over this process including setting up VSCode and Node.js correctly for Apple Silicon Macs:

Setup ExtendScript Dev for Apple Silicon Macs