Allow individual status bar messages to clip instead of hide

[sandy081]

• Create a status bar item with a message
• If the message does not fit then the entry is hidden. Instead the message should be clipped.

Background: Supporting a feature to show current error in the status - #20183

[bpasero]

I thought about that but I wasn't sure how the impact is for extensions. E.g. if a message is always clipped something like "Delete File Without Confirmation" might become "Delete File..." which hint at a confirmation. Is that clever?

[sandy081]

Yeah.. does not makes sense for actions, but allowing statuses to be clipped is a valid scenario. Also, I do not think we hide buttons instead clip labels at other places right?

[bpasero]

Maybe behind an option for the status bar entry.

[sandy081]

@bpasero I am looking into this and looks like nothing can be done unless the status bar items do not wrap. Currently status bar item wrap and overflow items are wrapped underneath. Is wrapping necessary ?

[bpasero]

I think the wrapping is just there out of historic reasons because we used to have a float CSS rule in the status bar until I adopted flex layout. The rationale I had was that the most left and most right status entries are always accessible and everything in between wraps out. E.g. this ensures the notification icon is always accessible and never pushed out of view.

[sandy081]

I do not think wrapping is helping in this case. If a status bar entry is too long it is hiding the notification icon

[sandy081]

Verify that left items in the status bar are not wrapped where as items on the right gets wrapped while resizing the window.

[jrieken]

Screen cheese 🧀. Also I think this isn't an ideal solution... I see how it fulfils the needs of showing diagnostic messages but now as my cursor moves I see a very nervously flashing status bar ⬇️

I have also concerns about extensions because their status bar entries are affected by this behavioural change, e.g by us giving a clear priority to left-aligned items. I think we can do better here, eg using some flex rules to shrink items, like very long messages, or by hiding items with lower priority.

[sandy081]

Can you please let me know how I can reproduce the screen cheese?
Not sure how we can avoid flashing because the message will disappear when cursor is moved.

Yes the current fix changes to hide right items first, before, we were hiding left items first. Not sure if there is a fixed priority here.

@bpasero Let me know what do you think is the best way you suggest to go forward here.

[jrieken]

Can you please let me know how I can reproduce the screen cheese?

With a long error message and some window resizing.

[bpasero]

I think the screen cheese needs to be fixed, e.g. no status entry should appear partially in the status bar. I find the behaviour otherwise OK when I play around with it. After all the error message is pushing out the elements to the right, I do not see how we can change that unless we maybe introduce some max-width for it?

[jrieken]

I do not see how we can change that unless we maybe introduce some max-width for it?

Yeah, something like that. A single super long message (we know that they can be long) shouldn't push out all other items but it should be truncated at one point. Ideally so that other entries are still visible

[sandy081]

I don't think keeping max-width on an item will make it look better because it can cause weird spacing issues like ⬇️ (This happens because right side items are wrapped).

Another way is to clip the item content (in code and not in css).

[bpasero]

Should we move this to December? The setting is disabled by default anyway.

[sandy081]

Yeah we can and it will also give us time to get feedback.

[jrieken]

Another way is to clip the item content (in code and not in css).

I believe this can be done nicely in CSS. Let's use this as a flex-box learning opportunity.

[mlfecho]

Hi, in case this ticket needs a bump, I just wanted to offer an example where this hide instead of clip behavior is problematic.

The vim extension prints warnings like file permissions in the status bar, and without the visible warning it can look like you're successfully saving a file when you actually aren't.

[vscodenpa]

We closed this issue because we don't plan to address it in the foreseeable future. If you disagree and feel that this issue is crucial: we are happy to listen and to reconsider.

If you wonder what we are up to, please see our roadmap and issue reporting guidelines.

Thanks for your understanding, and happy coding!