Hot reload on save, only if the current file had changes.

[p4-k4]

Hey there, as the title states - It would be nice to have the option to only hot reload on save; when the current file had changes and was indeed saved.

The problem is 1. An unnecessary hot reload is triggered and 2. the debug console is polluted in hot reload logging.

What happens currently is that even though a files changes have been saved (the file does not required another save), if we (for whatever reason) save again it will trigger an unnecessary hot reload.

Admiringly, I have a habit of saving incrementally - Vim/Evil users will understand, I'm sure I'm not the only one.

I did try to check to see if such an option exists, but it appears not? Thanks

[DanTup]

I have a habit of saving incrementally

I'm not sure I fully understand the request here. By incremental do you mean while you're making changes, or that you press Save a lot even when not making changes?

Having explicit saves (even when no changes) trigger a reload is useful when using auto-save, as the hot-reload-on-auto-save can be disabled (so it doesn't trigger lots), but you can use Ctrl+S as a way to force a reload.

It's possible to add a new setting to control this, but I'd like to be sure I understand exactly what the user case first. Thanks!

[p4-k4]

I'm not sure I fully understand the request here. By incremental do you mean while you're making changes, or that you press Save a lot even when not making changes?

By this I mean I make regular saves in very small increments by habit (and I'm sure I can vouch for many others who do the same).

An automatic hot-reload-on-save is good but that should only occur if a file has indeed been saved, otherwise it's pointless to trigger a hot-reload when the latest changes have already been pushed. This is how emacs-lsp/dart-lsp behaves which is a small thing but caught my attention when trying out dart-code recently.

The options for dart-code always and manual (except never) currently trigger a hot reload regardless of the saved state of the currently opened file.

Perhaps always can trigger a hot reload regardless, that makes sense. But maybe manual can be triggered only if the current file has outstanding changes. Hope that makes sense.

[DanTup]

By this I mean I make regular saves in very small increments by habit

Is this while you're reviewing/reading code? Or while you're doing something else?

I'd like to understand the situations in which this happens as it may affect the solution (for example I'm wondering whether it would be best to support it for both always and manual, or if just for always is enough.. we do need to support the current behaviour when using manual as it's there to support auto-save users that want to manually trigger reloads ad not have them on every auto-save).

Thanks!

[p4-k4]

Good question, and yes it could be either while reading or as I'm working, I'm constantly triggering saves. As a vim/evil key binds user, this is quite common, if you ever watch a vim user - they'll habitually be pressing<leader>, f, s like there's no tomorrow.

Regardless, I feel it doesn't make sense to persistently hot-reload-on-save for either manual oralways (UNLESS a file has just had changes saved, then yes let's trigger a hot-reload).

Either way, manual or always still clog up the debug console unnecessarily - We're in some cases forced to scroll up past the noise to get to console messages that actually do matter.

It makes more sense to me to just hot-reload only once a file has had changes saved that have not already been pushed. That would be regardless of if the save was manual/automatic.

Hope that helps

[DanTup]

I feel it doesn't make sense to persistently hot-reload-on-save for either manual or always (UNLESS a file has just had changes saved, then yes let's trigger a hot-reload).

We do need to support this for manual, it's important for supporting auto-save users that do not want hot-reload triggering on every auto-save (eg. whenever the pause typing for a few hundred milliseconds), but they do want to then be able to press Save (even though the changes were already auto-saved) to trigger the reload.

I think rather than adding a new setting, I may adjust the options to the existing setting:

• never - "Do not reload when saving"
• manual - "Reload for manual saves (requires pressing Save explicitly if using autosave)"
• manualIfDirty - "Reload for manual saves (requires pressing Save explicitly if using autosave) only if the saved file had changes"
• all (previously always) - "Reload for all saves, manual or automatic"
• allIfDirty - "Reload for all saves, manual or automatic only if the saved file had changes"

The old value of "always" will continue to work, although report that it's not longer valid (so that existing users don't have their behaviour changed).

[p4-k4]

Those all look good, each acknowledging the various use cases. allIfDirty would directly address what I had mentioned. Cool!