Wierd output of helptext command

[Krzysztof-Cieslak]

Right now helptext command returns (example from tests) something like:

{
  "Kind": "helptext",
  "Data": {
    "funky": "val funky : x:int -> int"
  }
}

I'm not sure if format of returned JSON is right - I would suggest something like

{
  "Kind": "helptext",
  "Data": {
    "Name": "funky"
    "Text": "val funky : x:int -> int"
  }
}

I think such solution would be more consistent with results of others commands and would make it easier to parse result back in clients ( at least from F# in Atom point of view, no idea about rest editors and how "breaking" is that change).

[7sharp9]

Possibly the right solution would be to start using the symbol API which can then supply the independent parts of the help text and indeed other API calls that use tips etc. I think there reason for this format is the textual output from the DataTipText parts of FSC which is just simple strings.

[Krzysztof-Cieslak]

I don't think I'm competent enough to give any opinions on which FSC API should be used. What bothers me right now is just serialization format which is inconsistent with other responses

[rneatherway]

Dave is correct, this is an artifact of the preformatted tips. I'm
definitely open to using more of the FSharpSymbol API and returning more
strongly typed data rather than just a string.
On 30 Jun 2015 15:40, "Dave Thomas" notifications@github.com wrote:

Possibly the right solution would be to start using the symbol API which
can then supply the independent parts of the help text and indeed other API
calls that use tips etc. I think there reason for this format is the
textual output from the DataTipText parts of FSC which is just simple
strings.

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#35 (comment)
.

[rneatherway]

At the moment, we just call this method to convert the FSharpToolTipElement to a string: https://github.com/fsharp/FsAutoComplete/blob/master/FSharp.AutoComplete/TipFormatter.fs#L52

@7sharp9: are you suggesting to just serialize the F# type, or use something different from FSharpSymbol? Could you show me the place in the XS addin where you use that?

[7sharp9]

Im suggesting returning the name, signature and helptext which is either the textual form of xmldoc in the case of local xmldoc references or the sigId/file for non local refs. Im a bit busy finishing something off but If you leave it with me I can take a look later in the week.

[rneatherway]

That would be great, thanks.