remove support for 'startSessionCommand' contribution

[weinand]

With the introduction of the resolveDebugConfiguration method on type DebugConfigurationProvider in the debug API, it is no longer necessary to contribute a startSessionCommand on the debuggers contribution point. Therefore we are deprecating the startSessionCommand in this milestone and plan to drop it in October 2017.

[isidorn]

ping @roblourens since we have now removed support for the startSessionCommand so it would be great if chrome adopts this change and starts using DebugConfigurationProviders. There are great examples in the Mock Debug in Node Debug

[DonJayamanne]

The startSessionCommand command provided the ability to debug even without having to open a workspace.
I have now adopted the DebugCOnfigurationProvider and registered it, and when testing debugging of a simple python file (in the python extension) I don't get what I expect.

The resolveDebugConfigration method is invoked and the provideDebugConfigurations is not.
Also, the debugConfiguration object passed into the resolveDebugCOnfiguration method is an empty object.

Is the solution for me to check if it's an empty object and then inject the other properties that would be required by my debugger?

Or am I missing something in my workflow/implementation?

[weinand]

@DonJayamanne yes, checking for the empty object is a correct approach. It has not changed from the now obsolete startSessionCommand approach.

provideDebugConfigurations is only called if a new launch.json needs to be created (which is not the case when you just want to debug a python file from the editor with F5). This behaviour has not changed with the introduction of the DebugCOnfigurationProvider.

See what we do in node-debug: https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode-node-debug/blob/ae3618de23acc4ce6e81a5d65e56ed76f9ef69da/src/node/extension/configurationProvider.ts#L34

[isidorn]

fyi @daviwil @rkeithhill @delmyers @gregg-miskelly @MSLaguana @DanTup @devoncarew @WebFreak001 @andysterland @hbenl @lukaszunity @svaarala @ramya-rao-a @vadimcn @felixfbecker @MSLaguana @rebornix

We have removed quite some depricated debug commands since they now have nice debug API alternatives. This is documented in our release notes and here are the issues covering that.