microsoft / microsoft/language-server-protocol

WorkspaceSymbol response data for `workspace/symbol` lacks detail field

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feature-request workspace symbols
Dominant language
TypeScript
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Description

I am working on a language server for the VHDL language and encountered this limitations of the 'workspace/symbol' response data that I want to bring up here.

VHDL is a language that supports overloading which means there can be several identically named functions in the same file.
The workspace/symbol request offers no way to provide the signature of the function. It is poor UX to show a long list of identically named functions.

The temptation is to put the signature in the name of the symbol itself but this will cause clients such as VSCode to highlight matches in the signature. This behavior is pointing to a lack of separation of concerns where the server is responsible for filtering on the query but clients such as VSCode try to make their own made-up highlighting of matches, related issue: https://github.com/microsoft/language-server-protocol/issues/1674

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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 with the workspace/symbol response data in the Language Server Protocol and review the related issue about VSCode highlighting. Determine how overloaded symbols could expose signatures without putting them in the symbol name; done means a clearly specified protocol change that addresses this separation-of-concerns problem.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
typescript
Domain
api, developer-experience
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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