Allow to register a language for an output channel

[ArtemGovorov]

I have taken the idea from this extension https://github.com/formulahendry/vscode-code-runner and created a language + grammar to highlight the output of my extension:

  "contributes": {
    ...
    "languages": [
      {
        "id": "wallaby-output",
        "mimetypes": [
          "text/x-code-output"
        ]
      }
    ],
    "grammars": [
      {
        "language": "wallaby-output",
        "scopeName": "wallaby.output",
        "path": "./wallaby-output.tmLanguage"
      }
    ]
  },

It seems to work ok, but because of using the text/x-code-output mime type, the languages and its grammar gets applied to all output channels, not just mine. So not only my extension and other extensions using the same trick may clash with other output channels and each other, also some built-in features seem to stop working in all output channels - for example the file absolute paths detection stops creating links for the paths.

I'm wondering if it's possible to somehow constraint a language to work only within a specific output channel? If not, would it be possible to add such feature?

[ArtemGovorov]

From the API perspective, it'd be nice if the

export function createOutputChannel(name: string): OutputChannel;

function also accepted a languageId: string, or perhaps an instance of DocumentSelector, but this may be an overkill for this specific purpose.

[jrieken]

Cool, idea. I'd go with languageId or an Uri when creating a channel.

[ArtemGovorov]

BTW, apart from being able to colorize an output channel, here's another scenario that the feature implementation enables - implementing and registering any custom link providers for an output channel (we're using it for test links on the screenshot above).

[ArtemGovorov]

In v1.7 mimetypes were removed, so the workaround doesn't work anymore and currently custom output highlighting is broken in our extension, and few other extensions using the same trick, such as:

• Code Runner (https://github.com/formulahendry/vscode-code-runner/blob/master/package.json#L162)
• Output Colorizer
  (https://github.com/IBM-Bluemix/vscode-log-output-colorizer/blob/master/package.json#L40)

[jrieken]

hm... @isidorn can you comment?

[isidorn]

I will comment here #13502 since @ArtemGovorov already created that issue

[jroesch]

Is anyone actively working on this issue? I think I understand how to make the change for this, and would be willingly to give it a shot sometime later this week.

[ArtemGovorov]

@jroesch Did you have a chance to look into this one?

@jrieken I see more and more extension using text/x-code-output mime type and simply breaking each other because of this. For example an output channel highlighting supplied by one extension is breaking highlighting from other extension (even though they are highlighting completely different independent output channels).

[jrieken]

This feature request will not be considered in the next 6-12 months roadmap and as such will be closed to keep the number of issues we have to maintain actionable. Thanks for understanding and happy coding!

[seanpoulter]

@jrieken, would it be considered if I submitted a PR?

[xhliu]

Any fix coming? Seems a very useful feature.

[freedomhero]

Any update for this feature request?

[zhfnjust]

we need this feature