Changing TextEditor.options issues

[SamVerschueren]

We are working on the EditorConfig plugin and we have issues regarding TextEditor.options.

Users don't have to specify values for let's say indent_style. Let's take the following .editorconfig

root = true

[*]
indent_style = tab

[{package.json,*.yml}]
indent_style = space
indent_size = 2

And my VSCode settings file looks like this

{
    "editor.insertSpaces": "auto",
    "editor.tabSize": "auto"
}

If I open package.json, the style should be set to space and the indent size to 2. If I open index.js, it should set the style to tab and take the global setting (which is auto) so it should be calculated by VS Code itself. At the moment this is not possible. Because you have to overwrite the entire object which prevents auto-calculating the indent size.

@alexandrudima I think you are in charge for something like this :)?

[SamVerschueren]

These are my findings. Please let me know if I'm wrong :).

So internally VS Code has some decision check wether it should recalculate the settings for a file in the text editor. Based on some debugging, it looks like the decision looks like this.

• Is the options object still referring to the initial options object?
  -> YES: No plugin changed the settings so recalculate them based on the user settings
  -> NO: Do nothing as someone altered the object

Because when I only change one value textEditor.options.insertSpaces = true, it still takes my global VS Code settings because (in my opinion) the options object is still referring to the initial options object and thus is not changed.

This is how this issue can be resolved. Values passed in as undefined should be calculated by VS Code (based upon the user settings).

textEditor.options = {
    insertSpaces: true,
    tabSize: undefined
};

// OR

textEditor.options = {
    insertSpaces: true
};

If my global tabSize settings is set to auto, VS Code will determine the tab size for me based on the current file being opened. Same goes for insertSpaces.

[jednano]

@SamVerschueren you can get the right GitHub code coloring for .editorconfig files by using the ini file type, see?

root = true

[*]
indent_style = tab

[{package.json,*.yml}]
indent_style = space
indent_size = 2

[SamVerschueren]

@jedmao Thanks :)

[SamVerschueren]

@alexandrudima This issue is thoroughly discussed here editorconfig/editorconfig-vscode#3

[SamVerschueren]

@alexandrudima It looks like I found a solution in editorconfig/editorconfig-vscode#5.

It looks like the TextEditorOptions interface is defined like

interface TextEditorOptions {
    tabSize: number,
    insertSpaces: boolean
}

Which makes it not possible to provide auto as value for either one of the properties. But actually, it is perfectly valid to provide auto as VS Code will then auto calculate the value for that property. So I guess a solution for this would be to update that interface.

[jednano]

For the record, you're referring to these lines.

Would Microsoft be willing to update this interface or is there a good reason they don't use union types for these settings?

[SamVerschueren]

Did a PR #2935

I guess they will accept it as I don't see any reason to not allow strings.

[alexdima]

Thank you for the PR! 👍

I went a bit further to try to clarify things:

export interface TextEditorOptions {

        /**
         * The size in spaces a tab takes. This is used for two purposes:
         *  - the rendering width of a tab character;
         *  - the number of spaces to insert when [insertSpaces](#TextEditorOptions.insertSpaces) is true.
         * When getting a text editor's options, this property will always be a number (resolved).
         * When setting a text editor's options, this property is optional and it can be a number or `"auto"`.
         */
        tabSize?: number | string;

        /**
         * When pressing Tab insert [n](#TextEditorOptions.tabSize) spaces.
         * When getting a text editor's options, this property will always be a boolean (resolved).
         * When setting a text editor's options, this property is optional and it can be a boolean or `"auto"`.
         */
        insertSpaces?: boolean | string;
    }