Use graalvm-compiled native image for clojure-lsp instead of jar

[bpringe]

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[PEZ]

Maybe we can have a setting where you put a path to any binary or jar with clojure-lsp, and Calva will use this one instead of the bundled jar of the setting is used.

I think that including binaries for all platforms will make the extension a bit heavy and generally harder to maintain. And creating some kind of dynamic download introduces risk and edge cases and stuff.

[bpringe]

That's a good idea, at least for a first step, if not a permanent solution. @ericdallo mentioned that lsp-mode downloads lsp itself, but I agree that this adds complexity I'd rather not add, as you saw when I created that PR that downloaded the jar, and then closed it.

Just to be sure, Eric, you plan to keep packaging the jar for releases, right?

[ericdallo]

Yes @bpringe the idea is to distribute only the jar and the native binaries.
The only file I'd want to remove is the embedded jar (clojure-lsp) since now we have native binaries, but I think calva don't uses it, only the jar, right?

IMO, it'd be nice if Calva have a option to auto download the correct binary based on user OS but also provide a way to override that path if user prefer. That's exactly how lsp-mode work for every server :)

[bpringe]

Yeah, I'm not sure the best route here... as Peter said, and as I've seen, adding an auto download feature like that adds complexity and maintenance (though I know lsp-mode does this). The question is whether it's worth it for us. It may be, because I think by default Calva should use the graalvm binary out-of-the-box, without requiring the user to download it themselves and set some setting.

From the specs on mem usage and cpu usage you showed me, it looks like those are drastic improvements that I'd like to provide by default / out-of-the-box to users.

[ericdallo]

I see, my only concern is the need to include the 3 binaries on calva?
Just FYI, 3 binaries * ~30mb(zipped), each binary unzipped is ~118MB

I still think Calva download the correct one would be the best. Also, clojure-lsp provides a install-latest-clojure-lsp.sh script (but only work for linux/mac for now, we could have one for windows)

Just my point of view, you certainly know what is the best for Calva :)

[bpringe]

We would not include the binaries. I think Peter was suggesting if we don't have Calva download the binary for the user's OS, then we just use the jar by default, and if the user wants to use a graalvm binary it's up to them to download it and provide the path to it, in which case Calva would use it.

[bpringe]

I'll have to look into using that download script, if a Windows one could exist too.

[ericdallo]

I see, looks an alternative indeed.

A windows script would undoubtedly work, but it'll need to be another file, like install-latest-clojure-lsp.bat, that would simply download the latest windows binary and unzip it

[bpringe]

@PEZ What do you think? If we do download the binary, should we do it via Calva code so we can provide incremental progress indication (% complete), or should we use a script like Eric mentioned, and just provide non-incremental progress?

@ericdallo Does lsp-mode show the progress of the download, and if so, how? My only concern with showing non-incremental progress is that if the user's internet is slow or something, they can't see the progress % and may think something's broken if a spinner is just spinning, for example.

[ericdallo]

Yeah, lsp-mode just show a Installing clojure-lsp server... but it could be improved to get the download status just like curl, get and other commands provide (I think even emacs provide a tool like that).
But yeah, if you wanna show progress, probably it'd be necessary to do that on Calva's side.

[PEZ]

Since Calva handles itself pretty well without clojure-lsp, maybe this downloading can be pretty opaque? It could be a button in the statusbar that reads ”Initializing clojure-lsp” which on hover displays a tooltip that says ”Some more Calva features will be enabled when this is done”. There could be the same throbber as we use on the indicator for when clojure-lsp is indexing.

As long as this process does not block the rest of Calva it can just go on while the user jacks in or whatever. A progress indicator would signal that you need to wait for something, when in fact you don't.

[ericdallo]

Looks good, maybe just differencing between downloading and initializing clojure-lsp to avoid false positives regarding clijure-lsp startup time : 😅

[bpringe]

Makes sense. Yeah, I think it can say "Downloading clojure-lsp" and then switch to "Initializing" when that begins. The download would basically only happen when we upgrade clojure-lsp or on initial install of Calva. Calva will check if the current binary is the version that is set to be used, and if so no download will occur.

[ericdallo]

Looks great to me