Add an option to prevent side panel from opening

[rgarrigue]

I've this kind of messages that keep popping up the side panel

I guess it's a linter or whatever having small issues. There are multiples culprit, here it's "YAML Support", but I saw other ones. My issue is, I don't give a damn, and it's taking space, and popping up again and again if I close it. So far I could only stick it to the bottom and reduce it to the smallest size before closing... but now and then I like to open an integrated terminal, which lives in the same panel. Then the focus keep being stolen by those same messages.

So I'ld like a VS way to get rid of those. Asking plugin by plugin will never work, even if I knew where to report about those.

[sbatten]

request makes sense but really extensions should not aggressively show the channel. a setting would help the user now but any extensions behaving responsibly may not be able to reliably convey info.

[shankara-n]

Issue seems to be closed now but I can't find any setting to disable the output window from showing up

[StringEpsilon]

I would really like to know why this was closed as "out of scope". The reasoning provided by @sbatten seems incomplete to me. If extension authors should not re-open the panel anyway, why not give the users more control over the panels. What exactly is at risk of breaking, and why is a badly designed extension breaking more important than the overall user experience?

The only reason I use the Panel is the terminal. I sometimes look at the "Output" Panel for triaging an issue I am having but every single time an extension has opened the output panel it was to the immediate detriment of my experience while providing absolutely no positive value in return. To the point that whenever the Output panel opens itself I immediately dismiss it again without looking at the contents - because it is never relevant or informative.

Also worth noting that all the extensions I have had this displeasure with are authored by Microsoft.

[JRodez]

"out-of-scope" they said...
So I'm going CLion if this kind of annoyance is OK for Microsoft.

[gjsjohnmurray]

@sandy081 please reopen this.

[jstm88]

@sandy081 please reopen this.

I opened #203478 with an extremely thorough explanation on why the issue is still relevant. @sandy081 closed it too, and appears to also be the one closing many of the others.

@sandy081 Do you have some sort of a vendetta against this specific feature? You've been closing these as duplicates even though it's very clear that the issue is not resolved. Users are trying to make their voice heard and you're almost single-handedly shutting down the discussions.

[jstm88]

The first time this issue was reported (that I can find) was #33262 from August 2017. Over 6 years ago.

The fact that one was (incorrectly) closed has been used as a justification to close every other ticket addressing the problem, even though it has still not been resolved.

[jstm88]

So I guess that's it then?

Multiple people point out a major issue, write up detailed reports, and suggest good solutions, and one person can just come along and just shut down the report because of a failure to understand the issue?

And then that person just ignores all requests to reopen the ticket for multiple days, despite closing it instantly and without any sort of review?

You know, I really thought VS Code was better than that. But now the Microsoft-ness is coming through loud and clear.

[gjsjohnmurray]

Is #199946 going to mitigate this by allowing Output to be detached into its own window?

[jstm88]

@gjsjohnmurray No. That just shifts the problem elsewhere, and making an entire window pop up constantly would be even worse.

The issue is plugins being able to force the output panel to open. Many of them abuse (or misuse) the API to dump output constantly that is not useful. It's been said that the fault is with those plugins (and that's technically true) but in that way it's just like pop-up windows on the internet. We added pop-up blockers because they were so annoying. VS Code effectively needs the same thing for its own "pop-up output window" nuisance.

The argument has been made that "the output is important so we must allow it" - to which I say who are you to decide what the user wants? That's an insult to the users, who generally do, in fact, know better than Microsoft how they want their editor configured.

[gjsjohnmurray]

allowing Output to be detached into its own window?

Actually I misinterpreted what the referenced change does. It merely opens a static live copy of the output channel's contents. The ability to detach the entire Output view into its own window isn't with us yet.

[jstm88]

Still calling on @sandy081 (who closed this and then just completely abandoned us) to reopen one of these tickets.

The issue still exists.
It happens dozens of times per day.
It is not possible to fix it any other way.

[gjsjohnmurray]

It is not possible to fix it any other way.

@jstm88 which of your installed extension is/are causing this? Have you raised issues with the extension author(s)? Or considered not using the extension(s)?

Somewhat ironic that your frequent comments on multiple issues are starting to feel to me like the kind of unwanted "spam" you're apparently getting from extensions you choose to install.

[jstm88]

@gjsjohnmurray There are multiple extensions that do this. One of the most common (and the worst offender on my setup) is Microsoft's own C extension.

The argument that we shouldn't do anything is flawed, and it's frustrating that a very small number of developers are using it as a weapon against users to shut down discussion.

I completely understand that, yes, this is technically the extensions' fault. However, with thousands of extensions and who knows how many of them misusing the API, it is absolutely hopeless to get everyone to fix every extension.

That's why we absolutely need an option to prevent focus-stealing on the Output window. There is no other way to fix this problem. I outline in my ticket how this could be done as a per-extension setting, which would allow the user to have control over which of these extensions are allowed to interrupt workflow. A global option would just be easier to implement.

[JonKrone]

Could you please provide more details on which extensions you have encountered this problem with? I am aware of this being an issue with the C++ extension (as noted in microsoft/vscode-cpptools#7234). Are there other extensions experiencing the same issue?

To add on to StringEpsilon's list, the Salesforce CLI Integration also focuses the Output channel when you use its various right-click menu menu actions in the file explorer such as Deploy This Source to Org which pushes that file to your Salesforce Org. It does this even for simple success messages.

I appreciate that the extension's UX is largely the responsibility of the extension authors, but as I am effectively forced to use this extension to work in that ecosystem I also want to have control of behavior that's so impactful to my experience of using VSCode itself. I'd love a setting for this.

[benibenj]

Thanks for all your input! I think combining this with the Do not Disturb mode would make sense and so would not require adding a separate setting. It would also allow disabling the behaviour just for a specific set of extensions.

[gjsjohnmurray]

@benibenj I can see some sense in combining this with Do Not Disturb, but I don't think everyone who's interested in this issue (Panel appearing suddenly because extension forces its output channel to display) will want to set Do Not Disturb (i.e. suppress all non-error notifications) for an extension as the only way of suppressing Panel-popup.

Related - the only doc references I've been able to find for Do Not Disturb are in release notes:

• https://code.visualstudio.com/updates/v1_69#_do-not-disturb-mode
• https://code.visualstudio.com/updates/v1_86#_allow-disabling-notifications-per-extension

Perhaps its also time this feature got into the regular doc.

[StringEpsilon]

I would agree. Ideally I would just set a setting once and never ever be bothered again by any extension. But having a way of dealing with individual bad extensions would definitely a huge wine.

That is, if setting the extension to do not disturb does not get rid of all toast notifications. While I don't like those either, they are not nearly as disruptive and more often than not actually informative. Having less information because I don't want to get ripped out of my terminal is not quite optimal.

[nonoash]

I'm facing a problem where this option would solve it.
When using code runner extension and having the output opened in a new window (instead of a tab in vscode panel) whenever i run a script it will automatically open the output tab on top of my output window.
Which gives me 2 mirrored outputs and kind of ruins the purpose and goal of opening output as external window

edit: i've opened an issue on extensions repo too:
formulahendry/vscode-code-runner#1177

[gjsjohnmurray]

@benibenj any more thoughts on this? I'm willing improve my PR if it's deemed to need changes, e.g. greater configurability.

[benibenj]

We are not 100% sure yet how this should work. We are currently thinking it could behave the same way notification does. This would mean:

• enable/disable per extension
• not having a setting for this but storing in storage
• have a UI action to see the toggles
• block the reveal on the API level

Currently we are thinking not to have a global toggle but just per extension (no action like do not disturb for notifications)

Let me know if you have any thoughts about this approach. I still need to discuss this with @bpasero. Let me get back to you next week. Please ping me if I forget.

Edit:
Will take one more week to get back, due to limit availability this week, apologies.

[StringEpsilon]

@benibenj

enable/disable per extension

See #105270 (comment)

not having a setting for this but storing in storage
have a UI action to see the toggles
block the reveal on the API level

I'd much prefer a general solution that keeps my desired bottom panel afixed than one where I have to chase down every offending extension and check how I can disable the behavior. For instance sometimes I have to disable the extra terminal and the opening of the Debug Panel for debugging because they obstruct my workflow. I know how to do that, but it is a little annoying. If I could tell VS Code just to keep the most important panel for more than half of my work in place and in focus, that would be better than having half a dozen individual ways to keep it where I want it.

At the very least, I'd prefer If I don't have to remember to check every single extension I install and make sure to add it to the "no output panel" list.

[benibenj]

Ok, lets start off with a single setting for the ouput channel, similar to what is suggested in the PR #205225;

[gjsjohnmurray]

The new workbench.view.showQuietly setting is now available in today's Insiders.

[benibenj]

Verification steps: #205225 (comment)

[alexr00]

Verified, but that status bar indicator is very subtle.

[jstm88]

Verified, but that status bar indicator is very subtle.

When I see “but…” and “…very subtle” together, that tells me it’s done right. 😁

The editor’s job is to get out of my way so I can code. The amount of bloat (especially with the AI fad) is insane, so everything we can do to hide/remove the cruft is a major win.