Automatically selecting auto completion suggestion despite not pressing enter or tab key

[lakshits11]

Please describe the problem.
For hints on what information is helpful, see: https://clangd.llvm.org/troubleshooting.html

After todays update to version 0.1.18, it automatically selects the auto completion suggestion.

For example if i write while and then when i open a curved bracket without clicking or selecting the while snippet suggestion, it automatically selects that snippet without my wish and finally it looks like this:

There are two brackets inside while loop, one is mine and other is snippet's.

Same problem is also occuring in if and also many other conditions/loops etc.

When I reverted back to older version, the problem disappeared.

Logs
Please attach the clangd log from the "Output" window if you can.
If possible, run with --log=verbose - note that the logs will include the contents of open files!

I[00:44:13.619] --> textDocument/clangd.fileStatus
I[00:44:13.619] --> textDocument/clangd.fileStatus
I[00:44:13.621] --> workspace/semanticTokens/refresh(37)
I[00:44:13.621] --> textDocument/clangd.fileStatus
I[00:44:13.621] --> textDocument/clangd.fileStatus
I[00:44:13.621] --> textDocument/clangd.fileStatus
I[00:44:13.621] <-- reply(37)

System information
Clangd version (from the log, or clangd --version):

clangd extension version: 0.1.18
Operating system: Manjaro XFCE

[jasonwzz]

I noticed something like this as well but I thought this is expected from editor.acceptSuggestionOnCommitCharacter being fixed with the newer version (#347). I turned acceptSuggestionOnCommitCharacter off to get back to what it was. Is my understanding incorrect that this is actually not expected or is this a different issue?

[sam-mccall]

Yeah, there are a few intersecting pieces of behavior here:

• editor.acceptSuggestionsOnCommitCharacter being on by default
• when typing, vscode has completions[0] automatically selected, ready to commit, this is Implement "Suggestion Mode" from Visual Studio microsoft/vscode#139825
• clangd advertising a large set of commit characters (e.g. ()
• vscode inserting the commit character you typed (e.g. ( and its matching )) when we'd rather it only trigger the suggestions (e.g. wh( => while(^) not while((^)), this is Support suppressing commit character from being inserted during completion microsoft/vscode#42544
• commit-character support being historically broken in vscode-languageclient (Support allCommitCharacters even if the client announces commit characters per item. microsoft/vscode-languageserver-node#673)

Because it was broken for so long, we didn't understand all the interactions, and the result is a broken mess: you type whi(, maybe with no intention of triggering completion at all, and get while ((condition)) { }.
While each individual piece is working as (someone) intended, the result best seen as a bug.

The only piece we have control over is the set of commit characters, so we'll try and find a sensible fix in those terms.

[HighCommander4]

Doesn't the approach taken here take control away from users, in that previously if they didn't like this behaviour they could turn off editor.acceptSuggestionsOnCommitCharacter, but if they do like it (e.g. see #347), now there's no way to turn it back on?

[sam-mccall]

Strictly: no, because this never worked! (except for ~1 day, with 0.1.19)

Relative to if we set the commit characters: yes, absolutely, and i think this is a problem.

However if the default behavior is extremely broken, that's a big problem. Exacerbated by:

• many users won't explore the settings
• it's not obvious what to change to fix this, symptoms are intuitive ("completion feels wrong") and it takes some investigation even to work out what you want

I might be wrong about this behavior being very broken - it seems jrieken likes it, there must be at least one other! @HighCommander4 did you manage to reproduce the behavior in vscode? I find it incredibly jarring, more than it looks like on paper.

[HighCommander4]

@HighCommander4 did you manage to reproduce the behavior in vscode?

Yeah, you were right that the reason I wasn't seeing the auto-activation was due to editor.quickSuggestions.other: off, and the commit behaviour due to being on an older vscode-clangd than 0.1.18.

Having now installed 0.1.18 to see what it's like, I agree that interaction between the ( commit character and snippets is bad, and means that ( probably shouldn't be a commit character until vscode fixes that somehow (or at least, not a commit character when snippets are enabled?)

Some of the other commit characters seem fine, though, and some like ; and . in particular seem useful -- perhaps we could consider bringing back a more restricted set?