Vscode: Allow language extensions to override editor.wordSeparators

[daviwil]

• VSCode Version: 1.15.1
• OS Version: Any

There's a pretty common request from PowerShell extension users to enable double-click selection of variable names like $myVar including the initial dollar sign character. After some research it seems that the only way to control this double-click selection behavior is by having the user change their editor.wordSeparators setting to remove the $ which is included by default.

Is there any way that a language extension can override this setting (or behavior) for a specific language aside from editing the user's settings file to add this setting? If not, is it possible to programmatically add or edit a language-specific config section (like [powershell]) in the user's config?

Thanks!

[daviwil]

Related issues:

• https://github.com/PowerShell/vscode-powershell/issues/240
• https://github.com/PowerShell/EditorSyntax/issues/23
• https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/2036#issuecomment-193873124

[jrrdnx]

I would like this as well. For me:

• do _not_ select the "." in JS files (when selecting objects/properties using dot notation)
• _do_ select the dot in CSS files (when selecting values such as "1.5rem")

[rjmholt]

Following up on @daviwil's question: Without looking for an implementation, is there any mechanism currently available to change the word separation characters for particular languages or extensions (i.e. as an extension developer)?

[TylerLeonhardt]

Looks like it's easily configurable:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/31632351/visual-studio-code-customizing-word-separators

[shane-smith]

@tylerl0706 - that was mentioned in the original post that started this discussion.

The request is to extend that, so that it can be defined on a per-language (or per-filetype) basis, rather than globally.

[rjmholt]

Yes, and in our case I think an API for the extension to hook in or set this setting (or one related to it) is desired — some way to specify that word separators for our particular language do not include $. That kind of setting doesn't really make sense to me on a per-user basis — everyone using PowerShell (in our case) will generally want the same word definition and not need to set it themselves.

[HookyQR]

Just found this is problematic for code completion for 'words' which begin with $ as well. The code completion (24|7) is not triggered until the next character (eg. the f of $f) is typed, simple insertion (with the CompletionItem.label) results in double $$ as a result. The $ is not highlighted in the suggestions either.

Setting the wordSeparators (as the user) still doesn't trigger code completion until after the first non-$ character. I'm assuming this would be the case for any other character not present (removed) from the wordSeparators list, which IMO is contrary to the user's intent in that case.

Removing a character from that list should make it valid as a 'word' character. Thus, for the $ case, a$b should be added to the auto complete list (of words in the file) but it isn't.

Version 1.31.0-insider (2019-02-04)

[TylerLeonhardt]

Add this to your settings to get this only for PowerShell!:

{
    "[powershell]": {
        "editor.wordSeparators": "`~!@#%^&*()-=+[{]}\\|;:'\",.<>/?"
    }
}

I _think_ this means we can close this issue? 😊

[HookyQR]

Doesn't solve my problem of symbols beginning with characters considered to be wordSeparators by default.

[TylerLeonhardt]

@HookyQR I believe this might be a PowerShell extension issue. Can you test something for me?

Open this file:

~/.vscode-insiders/extensions/ms-vscode.powershell-1.11.0/out/src/main.js

and modify line 45 from:

        wordPattern: /(-?\d*\.\d\w*)|([^\`\~\!\@\#\%\^\&\*\(\)\=\+\[\{\]\}\\\|\;\'\"\,\.\<\>\/\?\s]+)/g,

to

        wordPattern: /(\$?-?\d*\.\d\w*)|([^\`\~\!\@\#\%\^\&\*\(\)\=\+\[\{\]\}\\\|\;\'\"\,\.\<\>\/\?\s]+)/g,

Note the additional \$?.

[HookyQR]

I'm saying, I'm creating a new extension, I don't use powershell, or the extension. The problem is in the VS Code mainline ... somewhere. 🤷‍♂️

[jonathannz]

Where did this issue get to?

Is it possible to define editor.wordSeparators on a per language basis? (as asked by the original poster?)

Currently, when editing PHP file, if I double click on variables, selectors, values, etc., with hyphens in them, I end up selecting on part of it. E.g., Double-clicking review in jgm-review-widget will only select review. I would expect it to select jgm-review-widget in its entirety.

[jonathannz]

Where did this issue get to?

Is it possible to define editor.wordSeparators on a per language basis? (as asked by the original poster?)

I seem to have answered my own question. Applying the following User Setting, I was able to modify editor.wordSeparators for just PHP:

 "[php]": {
            "editor.wordSeparators": "`~!@#%^&*()=+[{]}\\|;:'\",.<>/?",
        }

[TylerLeonhardt]

Yeah I think this issue can be closed.