Vscode: Iteration Plan for January 2018

[kieferrm]

Happy 2018 everyone! This plan captures our work in January. This is a 5 week iteration. We will ship early February.

Endgame

• January 29th: Code freeze for the endgame
• February 2nd: Endgame done

The endgame details for this iteration are tracked in #42374

Plan Items

Below is a summary of the top level plan items. Given the large number of explorations, we'll diverge from our usual practice of having plan items for all bullets upfront. This time we'll add them as we go.

Legend of annotations:

| Mark | Description |
| ------------- | ------------- |
| :runner: | work in progress |
| :hand: | blocked task |
| :muscle: | stretch goal for this iteration |
| :red_circle: | missing issue reference |
| :large_blue_circle: | more investigation required to remove uncertainty |
| :black_circle: | under discussion within the team |

Install/Update

• [x] Investigate in improving the update experience on Windows #41676 @joaomoreno

Workbench

• [x] Switch to async dialog API #39536 @bpasero
• [x] Support saving a file in admin mode #1614 @bpasero
• [x] UX for notification improvements #22388 @bpasero @stevencl
• [x] Multi-select in the Explorer, Open Editor #1023 @isidorn
• [x] Reimplement drop downs for Linux/Windows (themable, fixes initial empty contents) #25965 (PR @cleidigh) @bpasero
• [x] Enable Error decorations in explorer #782 @jrieken
• [x] Support natural language search in Settings editor #40957 @roblourens
• [x] Explore improving how a user changes a setting #41040 @roblourens @sandy081

Editor

• [x] Text model and storage reimplementation to improve performance #41042 @alexandrudima @rebornix
• [x] Allow to save large files > 256 MB #32503 @bpasero @alexandrudima
• [x] Support language-type independent snippets #13182 @jrieken
• [x] More customization for the caret #41052 @ramya-rao-a

Debug

• [x] Launch configs for multi root workspaces #38134 @isidorn
• [x] Support auto attach for node.js subprocess (aka cluster support) #40123 @weinand
• [x] Support to use nvm configuratons in node launch configs #25386 @weinand
• [x] Explore how to run DebugAdapter inside extension #40906 @weinand

Terminal

• [x] Improve accessibility of built-in terminal #8339 @tyriar

SCM

• [x] Submodule support @joaomoreno
• [x] Git commit message length counter @joaomoreno

Output Panel

• [x] Show product logs in the output panel #39638 @sandy081
• [x] Make log viewing in output panel more memory efficient #40196 @sandy081

Languages

Language Server Support

• [x] Create a website for LSP @dbaeumer @auchenberg
• [x] Protocol extension for goto implementation Microsoft/language-server-protocol#156 @dbaeumer

Emmet

• [x] Explore how to improve emmet activation in html and css files #29113 @ramya-rao-a

JavaScript/TypeScript

• [x] Adoption of TS 2.7 #41046 @mjbvz

CSS/HTML

• [x] Catchup with latest CSS/Less syntax Microsoft/vscode-css-languageservice#56 Microsoft/vscode-css-languageservice#57 Microsoft/vscode-css-languageservice#58 Microsoft/vscode-css-languageservice#47 @octref @aeschli

Extensions

• [x] vsce - Warn when package.json misses repository entry #41677 @joaomoreno
• [x] Improve quality of recommended extensions #41054 @ramya-rao-a
• [x] Tastefully extend recommendations to a wider range of file types #38543 @ramya-rao-a

Extension Contributions

• [x] Refresh JS Hint support Microsoft/vscode-jshint#48 @rmacfarlane

API

• [x] Migrate proposed Code action API to stable #34664 @jrieken @mjbvz
• [x] Propose API to resolve rename/definition scope #7340 @jrieken @mjbvz
• [x] Explore improving the HTMLPreview support #41047 @mjbvz @jrieken
• [x] Propose refactoring provider API #41048 @jrieken @mjbvz
• [x] Expose logging API to extensions #40053 @roblourens
• [x] Propose Search Provider API @jrieken, @roblourens
• [x] Propose API to create/delete/rename resources for refactorings @jrieken @mjbvz
• [x] Enhance custom tree view API, primary actions, use icons from resource URI, preserve expansion state, improve managing contributions #27823 @sandy081
• [x] Debug API to create/remove breakpoints @weinand
• [x] Support to modify the root folder of a workspace #35407 @bpasero

Performance

• [ ] :runner: Use ASAR for bundled node modules #41350, #41353 @alexandrudima
• [x] Explore using plain nodejs for helper processes #41685 @alexandrudima
• [x] Explore local storage replacement #18439 @bpasero

Serviceability

• [x] Issue reporter in separate renderer windows #41041 @rmacfarlane @octref
• Logs
  
  
  
  • [x] Propagate log level to all processes dynamically #39754 @sandy081
  
  
  • [x] Support to upload logs #40056 @mjbvz @roblourens
  
  

Engineering

• [x] Self-host on @ts-check for our JS code #41678 @joaomoreno @egamma
• [ ] :runner: Support extensions that contribute translations aka "language packs" #39178 @dbaeumer @sandy081 @aeschli
• [ ] :runner: Tool to generate/update a language pack from transifex #41682 @aeschli
• [x] Speed up gulp-build @alexandrudima
• Improve issue tracking support bot @chrmarti
  
  
  
  • [x] Delay action of auto-assignment bot by 15s #33999
  
  
  • [x] Explore support for detecting duplicate issues #41292
  
  

Documentations

• [x] Make 5min Node.js debugging video to be embedded in docs and uploaded to YouTube channel @auchenberg
• [x] Add Debugging Recipe for VueJS. https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode-recipes/issues/55 @auchenberg

---

Deferred

• Improve documentation of our electron upgrade process #41036 @tyriar
• Add intelisense support for src attributes and href in html #2037 @octref @aeschli

• Adopt logging service @joaomoreno the adoption by the #41680 team

• :muscle: Render white space for selection option #1477 @ramya-rao-a

• Provide API for creating a file based output channel #41672 @sandy081
• :hand: Electron update to 2.0 @tyriar @bpasero
• :muscle: Docathon team
• :hand: Support 32-bit apt repositories #20790 @tyriar
• Better support for webpack TBD
• Support web-site for issue reporting @octref @rmacfarlane
• Improve stability of smoke test, run it as part of the builds #41679 # @joaomoreno
• :muscle: Process explorer as a separate renderer window #41045 @rmacfarlane

[NateLing]

hi,are you sure update electron to 2.0? The last electron version is v1.8.2-beta.3.

[roblourens]

We haven't done it yet, this is just the plan for the month. And the ✋ means we're blocked.

[Eskibear]

I find the following entry in Roadmap#for-extension-authors, seems completed.

Support migrating the publisher of an extension to another publisher

Does this means we can transfer alice.toy-extension to bob.toy-extension, leaving everything else unchanged?
~If so, I'm eager to know when to include the feature, and how to migrate. Thanks.~
[UPDATE] The answer is yes.

[aberonni]

Hi, sorry to bother, I'm wondering whether you think #14909 might possibly make it into the next iteration? I think it is quite the dealbreaker for a lot of people who aren't using VSCode right now because of that issue.

If not, could you give an update on the issue as to why it is not being developed?

Thanks!

[egamma]

@aberonni we create the iteration plan at the beginning of an iteration (pls see). We understand that this feature has many up votes, but there are others with more votes. All I can say for now is that the feature is on our radar.

[aberonni]

@egamma thanks for getting back to me, that makes perfect sense to me.

[alxgrtnstrngl]

@egamma @kieferrm After a quick look at the top 5 tickets it appears they pertain to UI/UX enhancements and it doesn't appear as if any of them made it into this iteration. Most of these pertain to UI/UX enhancements. Do the items in the January 2018 iteration block many of the items below?

14444 - vscode.extensions Doesn't Update On Installing / Removing / Disabling Extensions without restarting

5605 - Feature request: symbols tree view

10121 - Allow for floating windows

10546 - Tabs for integrated terminal

14909 - Support a grid layout for editors

I understand the enhancements above involve a lot work and will probably take more than a few iterations to complete. Is there a way the developer team could create a short-term plan on how to address these? Could you put this in the project wiki or a plan document so users could track them? There needs to be a bit more transparency with the community on these sorts of initiatives.

Please keep in mind that the above issues are serious blockers for users coming from other editors who want to migrate their workflows to VSCode but can't because the UI/UX isn't as flexible or efficient resulting in a loss of productivity for them.

[egamma]

@alxgrtnstrngl thanks for your feedback. In addition to the iteration plan we also maintain the roadmap for the next 6 months. We update the roadmap based on user feedback. Several of the items you mention above are already on this roadmap.

Our planning process is documented here https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/wiki/Development-Process

[ghost]

Guys I saw release notes and I'm impressed. Thank you very much! It's my daily tool which I'm using more than 8 hours per day and I'm every single day happy because of VS Code. Thank you very much! That support, activity, features, bug-fixes, team - it's amazing! 🥇

[onetrev]

I'm concerned that "Catchup with latest CSS/less syntax" was checked off when this item that was in the list is still open.

[octref]

@onetrev Getting full PostCSS/cssnext support is going to take multiple iterations. We've started internal discussion and you'll see more work toward it in future iterations.
With that said, if future CSS features come out of the draft phase, become spec and get supported by major browsers, we will support those features in vscode-css-languageservrice.

[kieferrm]

Shipped. Closing.