microsoft / microsoft/vscode-java-pack
Feature request: Improve output console color scheme
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- Dominant language
- TypeScript
- Stars
- 352
- Forks
- 166
- Avg merge
- 17h 47m
- Merged PRs (30d)
- 32
Description
For Spring Boot projects, the debug output console should have a nice coloring theme by default, which is not the case currently.
With default settings, all text is a single color which is not very readable.
There is a related StackOverflow question regarding this: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/62280290/provide-color-theme-to-the-java-process-console-in-the-terminal-of-vscode-whil
Currently, there are two (easy, but not scalable) ways how to achieve the desired coloring:
- Add
spring.output.ansi.enabled=ALWAYStoapplication.propertiesfile -> The issue with this approach is that it has to be set up for each project and it just adds unnecessary complexity to application.properties. - Add
"args": "--spring.output.ansi.enabled=ALWAYS"in launch.json -> This issue with this approach is that it also needs to be set up per-project basis and it is not so easy to share configuration as .vscode directory is not within version control scope.
Proposed Solution
I suggest a solution that VS Code pass "args": "--spring.output.ansi.enabled=ALWAYS" by default for Spring Boot projects. There should be an option to control it (on/off) maybe within settings.json
Before

After

@nickzhums Please review.
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First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
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Research direction
Start by tracing how the Java extension handles Spring Boot launch configurations and how arguments from launch.json are assembled; compare the application.properties and launch.json approaches described here. Define the settings.json on/off behavior, then verify that a Spring Boot project receives ANSI output by default and that the option can disable it.
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Assessment
- Tech stack
- java, spring-boot, typescript, vscode
- Domain
- developer-experience, tooling
- Issue type
- Feature
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 35/100