Add more specific scopes to bool, num, double, int, Object, String, dynamic in textmate grammar

[Number-3434]

Treat bool, num, double, and int as keywords.

Note

It is not necessary to change the default colouring for these types.
These could be configured by the user, or by external theme packs.

Before:

After:

(Ignore the difference in bracket colours).

This could also apply to String, Map, List, Set, Object, and dynamic.

• TextMate Grammars
• Semantic Highlighting

[DanTup]

Can you provide some motivation for this? Those things are types so it seems like they should be coloured as such.

Unfortunately we can't change colours conditionally in a textmate grammar, so this isn't something we could control as an option there (we could perhaps have a Semantic Tokens modifier for built-in types like these that would allow you to customise them, but based on your other issues I think you're not using Semantic Tokens and that might not help you).

To change the textmate grammar, I think it would need to be clear that the majority of users would prefer this change.

[Number-3434]

Can you provide some motivation for this? Those things are types so it seems like they should be coloured as such.

Clarification

I don't need there to be an option to toggle this, I can manually do it in the settings if TextMate grammars are provided.

Motivation

Dart is my second language after C#, and I got used to seeing keywords such as int, bool, etc. highlighted as keywords.

(In fact, the images above are actually from Dart and C#).

In my opinion, since int, bool, etc. in Dart are built-in types (i.e. shipped with the SDK and don't require an import statement), they could technically be interpreted as keywords.

In C#, built-in keyworded types are given the scope keyword.type.<type>.cs (e.g. int would be given keyword.type.int.cs).

Therefore, in Dart, these built-in types could be given scopes such as:

• keyword.type.int.dart
• keyword.type.double.dart
• keyword.type.string.dart
• keyword.type.num.dart
• keyword.type.object.dart
• keyword.type.dynamic.dart
• keyword.type.set.dart
• keyword.type.list.dart
• keyword.type.map.dart
• keyword.type.symbol.dart
• keyword.type.bool.dart

[DanTup]

One option is that we change support.class.dart to support.class.primitive.dart here (and add String to the list):

Dart-Code/syntaxes/dart.json

Lines 231 to 234 in 622472f

	{
	"match": "(?<!\\$)\\b(bool|num|int|double|dynamic)\\b(?!\\$)",
	"name": "support.class.dart"
	},

This should keep the same colouring by default, but I think would allow you to customise the colours yourself in the VS Code settings.

I think we should only do it for the items in that existing list though. Types like Set/List/Map/etc. are not really special - they are just classes that live inside the SDK (like hundreds of other classes). The textmate grammar cannot tell the difference between List from the SDK and class List {} that is user-defined.

[Number-3434]

One option is that we change support.class.dart to support.class.primitive.dart (and add String to the list)

That sounds perfect!

What about Object though? Would that also be included?

[DanTup]

Yeah, I think it would be reasonable to include that too.

[Number-3434]

Sorry, I didn't fully read your comment before.

To clarify, I use semantic tokens.

I like them as they provide much richer information, but it is sometimes annoying that they override textmate tokens.

Sorry, I tried the fix and I actually do need semantic tokens for this, as they are overriding the TextMate tokens.

---

With semantic highlighting:

Without semantic highlighting:

[DanTup]

I use semantic tokens.

Ah sorry, I misunderstood from comments in #4963 and thought you had semantic tokens disabled.

Semantic Tokens will completely replace the textmate grammar (this is VS Code behaviour), although the grammar will be used immediately when you open a file and then replaced when the tokens arrive.

In that case, supporting this would require server changes to add additional modifiers to those types.

[Number-3434]

Ah sorry, I misunderstood from comments in #4963 and thought you had semantic tokens disabled.

Sorry, in that issue I meant something like "this syntax highlighting does not need semantic tokens".

Would it be wise to implement both? (I.e. in this v3.84.0, release TextMate grammars, and later release semantic highlighting)?