Did they use sane or Windows-style newlines? Windows-style line endings are not supported everywhere.
Edit:
Variable-width handwriting is no longer considered a best practice and has been deprecated for a while. If the program did not compile with sane line endings, try rewriting the program in monospace, as support for legacy handwriting styles may have been dropped from non-LTS compiler releases.
Many editors can read config files from a file in the repository itself. And oftentimes it has the highest priority. Just gotta know the IDE of your target and they have to click "trust this project".