"character must be non-negative" in inlay hints

[DanTup]

Hit by @incendial at #4421 (comment)

workbench.desktop.main.js:615   ERR Illegal argument: character must be non-negative: Error: Illegal argument: character must be non-negative
	at w (/Applications/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Resources/app/out/vs/workbench/api/node/extensionHostProcess.js:7:1267)
	at new p (/Applications/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Resources/app/out/vs/workbench/api/node/extensionHostProcess.js:94:13423)
	at new n (/Applications/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Resources/app/out/vs/workbench/api/node/extensionHostProcess.js:94:14913)
	at asRange (/Users/dimannich/.vscode/extensions/dart-code.dart-code-3.61.20230307/out/dist/extension.js:39344:24)
	at asLocation (/Users/dimannich/.vscode/extensions/dart-code.dart-code-3.61.20230307/out/dist/extension.js:39675:66)
	at asInlayHintLabelPart (/Users/dimannich/.vscode/extensions/dart-code.dart-code-3.61.20230307/out/dist/extension.js:40113:31)
	at convertBatch (/Users/dimannich/.vscode/extensions/dart-code.dart-code-3.61.20230307/out/dist/extension.js:41685:25)
	at Object.map (/Users/dimannich/.vscode/extensions/dart-code.dart-code-3.61.20230307/out/dist/extension.js:41694:17)
	at asInlayHint (/Users/dimannich/.vscode/extensions/dart-code.dart-code-3.61.20230307/out/dist/extension.js:40088:27)
	at convertBatch (/Users/dimannich/.vscode/extensions/dart-code.dart-code-3.61.20230307/out/dist/extension.js:41717:31)
	at async Object.mapAsync (/Users/dimannich/.vscode/extensions/dart-code.dart-code-3.61.20230307/out/dist/extension.js:41725:17)
	at async ee.provideInlayHints (/Applications/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Resources/app/out/vs/workbench/api/node/extensionHostProcess.js:98:49977)

[DanTup]

@incendial how often do you see this? If you could run with the instrumentation log enabled for a while and trigger this, you could find the offending response by searching for "character"::-1 in the log, and that line might help understand what's happening.

My feeling is that we're trying to get the location of a synthetic element, but I looking through the code I've not been able to come up with any scenarios that would cause this.

[incendial]

Only saw this one day, I'll get back when I see it again

[incendial]

I also sometimes see inlay hints blinking when I open source control changes comparison. So it might be connected, coz I don't have them enabled, actually.

[incendial]

source control changes comparison

[DanTup]

I also sometimes see inlay hints blinking when I open source control changes comparison. So it might be connected, coz I don't have them enabled, actually.

Can you clarify what you mean by clickingblinking, and that they're not enabled? They show up by default while you're holding Ctrl+Option (Ctrl+Alt?), so if you're pressing some keybinding that includes those keys, you'll see them show up.

You can completely disable them with:

"[dart]": {
	"editor.inlayHints.enabled": "off",
},

(we override the default for Dart to offUnlessPressed because the global VS Code default is on)

[incendial]

Can you clarify what you mean by clicking,

You mean blinking?

[incendial]

Inlay hints appear while the file is being loaded by VS Code. At first the file has all the symbols grey and then they get colored by VS Code. VS Code also shows hints for a second or two and then they disappear.

They show up by default while you're holding

Never used this shortcut and don't have this key pair to be in any other only one shortcut comes to mind (which has option + control), but it's out of the context of simply opening a file, so doesn't matter.

[DanTup]

You mean blinking?

Oops, yes.

At first the file has all the symbols grey and then they get colored by VS Code. VS Code also shows hints for a second or two and then they disappear.

Are you able to capture a GIF/video of this? Syntax highlighting is done in two stages - a TextMate grammar that's run immediately (synchronously I think), then the server provides "semantic tokens" that are more accurate. Part of this will turn uncoloured variables to coloured variables, so perhaps that's what you mean.

I don't understand why Inlay Hints would show though - if you're not holding down Ctrl+Alt/Cmd+Option I'd be interested to see these (I don't believe I've ever seen them, and it sounds like a VS Code bug if they're showing up without being triggered).

[incendial]

Are you able to capture a GIF/video of this?

Will try, but there are no stable repro, although I see them quite a few times a day.

I don't believe I've ever seen them, and it sounds like a VS Code bug if they're showing up without being triggered

Yeah, been thinking about that too

[incendial]

Okay, here is one example, no shortcut is pressed:

Screen.Recording.2023-03-13.at.19.11.35.mov