microsoft / microsoft/language-server-protocol

Add visibility-related (e.g. public/protected/private) symbol tags

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document symbols feature-request
Dominant language
TypeScript
Stars
13k
Forks
1k
Avg merge
6d 1h
Merged PRs (30d)
10

Description

For a language like Erlang, it would be convenient to distinguish exported/non exported (think of public/private) functions in the file outline or when jumping to a symbol.

The outline is powered by the "documentSymbol" request, where each symbol has a LSP symbol Kind associated.

Symbol tags can also be associated to symbols, but the only tag available right now is the "deprecated" one.

I suggest we add visibility-related tags to indicate the visibility of a symbol. This would be consistent with the already present "deprecated" symbol tag and enable the UI to present private/public symbols in slightly different ways (e.g. with slightly greyed out text, similar to what can already happen via semantic highlighting).

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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 documentSymbol request and the LSP SymbolTag specification linked in the issue, noting that deprecated is currently the only available tag. Define the visibility-tag semantics and protocol changes needed for exported and non-exported symbols; done means the specification clearly supports the proposed public, protected, or private distinctions.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
typescript
Domain
api, devtools
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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