microsoft / microsoft/terminal

Settings UI reformats settings.json in an hard to read way

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#8,991 15 comments 5 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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Area-Settings Area-SettingsUI Issue-Task Product-Terminal
Dominant language
C++
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Forks
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Avg merge
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Merged PRs (30d)
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Description

Environment

Windows build number: [run `[Environment]::OSVersion` for powershell, or `ver` for cmd] 19041
Windows Terminal version (if applicable): 1.6

Any other software?

Steps to reproduce

Before ever opening the Settings UI, open the settings.json. Make a copy of it for comparison and keep it open in an editor such as VS Code. Close the active settings.json. Now open the Settings UI. Then open json from either the Settings dropdown or from the Settings UI. Notice how the file is completely reformatted in a user unfriendly way.

Expected behavior

I expect the settings.json to remain in the same readable format it's always been.

Actual behavior

The settings.json is now harder to read and unorganized compared to the normal format.

If the Settings UI is never opened, the original format remains.

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

Reproduce the issue by comparing settings.json before and after opening it from the Settings UI or Settings dropdown. Trace the Settings UI path that reformats the file, then verify that opening the UI preserves the existing readable format in settings.json.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
cpp
Domain
desktop
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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