Improve syntax highlighting and formatting in WXME files

[emielvandeveire]

When opening a Racket file that contains block comments, the syntax highlighting and formatting in VS Code breaks for the entire file. This is particularly noticeable when opening files that were previously edited in DrRacket.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Open a .rkt file in DrRacket
2. Add a block comment anywhere in the file and save the file.
3. Reopen the file in VS Code

Expected Behavior

The extension should recognize block comments. Text inside should be styled as a comment, and highlighting should resume normally immediately after the closing delimiter.

Actual Behavior

The block comment appears to break the parser. All code loses its formatting, and the file is not editable anymore.

Screenshots

Without block comments (Correct):

With block comments (Broken):

Environment

• Racket version: 9.0
• Editor: VS Code
• OS: macOS Tahoe 26.3

[Theboy-Manu]

I’m having the same issue. Block comments work correctly in DrRacket, but when opening the file in VS Code it breaks and behaves strangely. I don’t see any solution for this yet.

[jryans]

Hmm, when I try to test a block comment in a #lang racket file, it appears to work correctly. The highlighting of other items seems to be unaffected, as expected.

The block comment example @emielvandeveire presented above is a WXME-format file using its custom reader. @emielvandeveire, what happens if you try a block in a #lang racket file instead?

[emielvandeveire]

This is what happens when I insert a block comment in a #lang racket file.
On the left side: DrRacket, on the right side: VSCode with magic-racket.
As you can see, before the block comment, the file shows up correctly in VSCode.
However, after inserting a block comment in DrRacket and saving the file, the file is converted to a WXME-format, and the entire formatting breaks in VSCode:

Screen.Recording.2026-03-11.at.10.08.40.mov

[jryans]

Aha, thanks for the video, I now understand there was some terminology confusion here...!

When I think of "block comments", I am thinking of multi-line comments that start and end with some matched character sequence. In Racket, block comments are wrapped in #| and |#. You add these just by typing in any editor, including VS Code. If you do so, the highlighting should be correct, and that's what I confirmed in my testing above.

The DrRacket feature shown in your video is a "comment box", which is quite different from a block comment. This comment box is (AFAIK) one of several DrRacket visual features that it implements using a special file format when you save (WXME). Magic Racket does not currently understand files in WXME format, and that is the cause of the confused highlighting you are experiencing.

A further aspect that may have caused confusion here is that it appears DrRacket auto-adds a block comment to the top of all WXME files when saving them, as seen in your screenshot. But that is not the cause of the highlight problem: it's the WXME format itself.

I will recast this issue into an enhancement request for WXME support, as that's what is needed to resolve the highlighting issue.

[emielvandeveire]

Oh I see, that clears up the confusion. I was indeed talking about comment boxes instead of block comments.
I really hope this enhancement could be added to magic racket, that would be a game changer for me!