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 some time. 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".