LuaLS / LuaLS/lua-language-server

Shorten tooltip for multiple return values

Open
#2,248 6 comments 3 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

Nobody has claimed this yet.

enhancement
Dominant language
Lua
Stars
4.4k
Forks
442
PR merge metrics
No merged PRs in 30d

Description

I'm writing functions that return multiple return values, sometimes up to 16. I'm finding the tooltip in vscode tricky to read, as it prints the return types one per line, like:

```lua
function foo()
-> number
2. number
3. number
4. number
5. number
6. number
7. number
8. number
9. number
```

I'd love an option to keep them all on the same line

```lua
function foo()
-> number, number, number, number, number, number, number, number, number
```

Or to use a more minimal syntax
```lua
function foo()
-> number (9)
```

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by reproducing the tooltip in VS Code for a Lua function with many return values, then locate the language-server code responsible for formatting function return types. Compare the requested single-line and count-based formats and establish which presentation or option should be supported; done means long return lists are readable without changing their meaning.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
lua
Domain
tooling
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.