Javascript editor 'Save actions' remove trailing whitespace spaces from all lines is not working

[kevinwhine]

I have been asked to report this issue here from https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=565046.

Within Eclipse IDE I am using
File type = Javascript
Editor = Javascript
Window > Preferences > Javascript > Editor > Save Action > Additional actions > Configure > Code Organizing > Formatter
Tick Remove trailing whitespace checkbox
Select 'All lines' radio button option

Expected: The white space should be removed upon saving the file.
Actual: Upon saving the file I can see that trailing white space remains

This can be easily seen as I use SonarLint to highlight coding standards transgressions.

Thank you for your time.

Kevin

Eclipse Installation details:
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[nitind]

@kevinwhine as I mentioned in the bug, that action only ever applied to files saved in designated JavaScript Source Folders using that specific editor. You didn't confirm that that's where the source file was, but in any event, that editor is no longer present in 4.16/2020-06.

[kevinwhine]

Are you confirming that this is not an issue are Eclipse 4.16 no longer uses the wild web Javascript editor?

I am double checking as the Eclipse folks pointed to here to this area when I raised https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=565046.

[nitind]

Quite the opposite, as it's what remains. The previous JavaScript Editor is not part of 2020-06, so this functionality is no longer offered, AFAIK.

[kevinwhine]

I apologise that my comprehension is not working to the level I want it to. I need to understand where is the correct place to report this issue.

thank you.

[nitind]

Since there is no longer a distinct "JavaScript Editor", I would have to guess here, as a feature request for the editor support you will have.

[kevinwhine]

For Wild Tools it is probably a feature request, but I trust you will understand that from a Eclipse JSDT history position it is now a gap/deficit

[p-bakker]

Any idea where such a feature ought to go? Is that something language servers take care of? Or some option in tm4e? Or is that something that must be implemented in WWD, either for all editors WWD 'controls' or on a per language basis?

I myself only do js/ts development, but I cannot think of any language where you'd not want to have the option to remove trailing whitespace and potentially subsequent empty lines.

I think using onEnterRules in tm4e one could at least remove whitespace on empty lines when hitting enter, so that if you hit enter on an indented line with some code and then hit enter again, at least the whitespace characters on the first empty line are removed. Maybe this is already part of the new tm4e onEnterrules config, but I haven't been able to test that out yet

[mickaelistria]

I myself only do js/ts development, but I cannot think of any language where you'd not want to have the option to remove trailing whitespace and potentially subsequent empty lines.

There is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitespace_%28programming_language%29 , but not sure it's really industry-strandard ;)
Do the "Format" action on the editor, provided by the language server, remove the lind endings?
The language server would be free to implement that, as part of formatting or with onTypeFormatting or by sending some applyEdit upon receiving didChange. However, I don't think one should require a LS to be able to remove whitespaces on a random file. Eclipse IDE already has a command to remove whitespaces (Ctrl+3 > Remove trailing whitespaces), the tricky part becomes how to automate that on save; for that I don't have a good answer at the moment.

[p-bakker]

The rightclick > source > format option on .ts files does remove trailing.

Note that the rightclick > source > format option also replaces my space-based indents with tabs. Looks like WWD reads from Preferences > General > Editors > Text Editors > Insert spaces for tabs? Cause when I change that setting, it affects what formatting does.

Am not seeing any incoming applyEdits or onTypeFormatting

Which got me looking into being able to configure this on a project level, but that doesn't seem possible, correct?

I did find references to .editorconfig and found https://github.com/angelozerr/ec4e, which I installed, added a .editorconfig to my project, but it doesn't seem to have any effect: what is send to the lsp still seems to read from Eclipse prefs. Any thoughts on that @angelozerr?

And I found references to tsfmt.json, but it seems that is a legacy option that is only applicable for the TS lsp that shouldn't really be used

@mickaelistria tnx for the tip on Eclipse offering a command to remove trailing whitespace in the entire file. Been using Eclipse for over a decade, never knew that existed :-)

[mickaelistria]

Note that the rightclick > source > format option also replaces my space-based indents with tabs. Looks like WWD reads from Preferences > General > Editors > Text Editors > Insert spaces for tabs

Yes.

Which got me looking into being able to configure this on a project level, but that doesn't seem possible, correct?

Correct, unless the language server itself supports it (eg reading some configuration file on the project level, exactly like tsfmt.json). But I don't think this language server does support such configuration.

what is send to the lsp still seems to read from Eclipse prefs

The issue is that the language server is usually shared between multiple projects, so we cannot send configuration of 1 project and assume it's right for for the language server to use it for all projects.

Been using Eclipse for over a decade, never knew that existed :-)

Yes, it happens often to me as well. Fortunately now it's easier to search thanks to Ctrl+3 listing about everything available in the IDE, it often shows some good surprises like this one.

[angelozerr]

I did find references to .editorconfig and found https://github.com/angelozerr/ec4e, which I installed, added a .editorconfig to my project, but it doesn't seem to have any effect: what is send to the lsp still seems to read from Eclipse prefs. Any thoughts on that @angelozerr?

You can see in the README that only indent_style and indent_size aply is supported. The other preferences cannot be supported because of limitation of preferences scope of Eclipse IDE (you cannot have editor scope)

[p-bakker]

The issue is that the language server is usually shared between multiple projects, so we cannot send configuration of 1 project and assume it's right for for the language server to use it for all projects.

But when the client sends the format request to the LSP, it can send along several formatting options, see https://microsoft.github.io/language-server-protocol/specifications/lsp/3.17/specification/#textDocument_rangeFormatting. WWD already sends "options":{"tabSize":4,"insertSpaces":false} with the textDocument/rangeFormatting request

exactly like tsfmt.json). But I don't think this language server does support such configuration.

The TypeScript LSP does support tsfmt.json I think, see https://github.com/typescript-language-server/typescript-language-server/blob/92ccb07fec4fc8a4c76c89b061ab8a31f808c7a4/src/lsp-server.ts#L428

[p-bakker]

You can see in the README that only indent_style and indent_size aply is supported

I saw that, but those don't work for me either :-/

This is the .editorconfig placed in the root of my project:

root = true

[*]
indent_style = space
indent_size = 4
trim_trailing_whitespace = true
insert_final_newline = true

When I press TAB in the typescript editor or when I select something to do Ctrl-Shift-F to format, still tabs are used

[mickaelistria]

But when the client sends the format request to the LSP, it can send along several formatting options, see https://microsoft.github.io/language-server-protocol/specifications/lsp/3.17/specification/#textDocument_rangeFormatting. WWD already sends "options":{"tabSize":4,"insertSpaces":false} with the textDocument/rangeFormatting request

OK, you're right. Then this is a bug in LSP4E that seems to not read project settings. Can you please report it to LSP4E?

[angelozerr]

When I press TAB in the typescript editor or when I select something to do Ctrl-Shift-F to format, still tabs are used

Perhaps it is broken, I have no time today to support this project.

[p-bakker]

I have no time today to support this project.

Maybe tomorrow then :-)

Then this is a bug in LSP4E that seems to not read project settings
But where are the project level settings for this? To my knowledge there are none, but that is where ec4e would come in (if it still works and if LSP4E then reads of the IPreferenceStore of the editor.

Or are you sure that LSP4E wouldn't ready it from from the editors preference store and thus that would be the bug to file with LSP4E?

[p-bakker]

The other preferences cannot be supported because of limitation of preferences scope of Eclipse IDE (you cannot have editor scope)

Bare with me for a sec...

• So LSP's may or may not support the documentFormatting, rangeFormatting and onTypeFormatting capability
• When the LSP does any of the above formatting actions, it takes FormattingOptions as input, which include trimming trailing whitespace etc.
• .editorconfig supports defining all these formatting options on a project by project basis
• the Generic editor has a preference store
• Eclipse only offers formatting settings for indents (to my knowledge)

So, couldn't the combination of ec4e, WWD and LSP4e get the following done:

• store all the settings from .editorconfig into the editors preference store (I'm assuming you can just store anything in there)
• LSP4E picking up all those preferences
• in the case of the LSP not supporting the onTypeFormatting capability take care of at least: trim_trailing_whitespace and
  insert_final_newline, by tying into a some document save and document change event?

Or am I over simplifying things here?

[mickaelistria]

The editors preference store is global and affects all projects. Here you want project-scope settings. So the various settings need to be set per-project and consumers also need to read project settings 1st before falling back to the global preference store.

ec4e is supposed to set project settings according to .editorconfig already.

But if LSP4E doesn't read project settings but only reads global preference store, then those project-specific settings aren't forwarded to the language server. This is most likely the only remaining issue/bug for this combination to work.

[akurtakov]

I wasn't aware of ec4e. Is there any reason to not have it in platform.text by default?

[p-bakker]

The editors preference store is global and affects all projects

My understanding is that ec4e modifies a Preference store per editor, not the global, workspace-level pref store (see last bullit on https://github.com/angelozerr/ec4e#similar-project)

But if LSP4E doesn't read project settings but only reads global preference store, then those project-specific settings aren't forwarded to the language server. This is most likely the only remaining issue/bug for this combination to work.

ok, so I'll file an issue with LSP4E then :-)

What then remains though is 2 things:

• taking care of trim_trailing_whitespace while editing and insert_final_newline on save if the LSP doesn't offer the onTypeFormatting capability
• a 'format on save'

Personally I'm not that keen on the 'format on save', but particularly the trim_trailing_whitespace while editing I find a big miss

[angelozerr]

I wasn't aware of ec4e. Is there any reason to not have it in platform.text by default?

It was my goal when I started this project long time ago. IMHO I think platform should support .editorconfig, the main problem with Eclipse preferences is that it is not possible to support preference for a resource scope that editorconfig requires.

[p-bakker]

the main problem with Eclipse preferences is that it is not possible to support preference for a resource scope that editorconfig requires

@angelozerr in your opinion, is eclipse/lsp4e#245 doable though?

[mickaelistria]

FWIW, I do believe it's doable, as we have access to ProjectPreferences object (that could be wrapped in a PreferenceStore, added to a ChainedPreferenceStore and so on).

[angelozerr]

@mickaelistria @akurtakov do you think platform could host ec4e?

[mickaelistria]

do you think platform could host ec4e?

please open an issue to eclipse.platform.text where we can discuss it.

[p-bakker]

FWIW, I do believe it's doable

@mickaelistria I'll take your word for it then :-)

[angelozerr]

please open an issue to eclipse.platform.text where we can discuss it.

done with eclipse-platform/eclipse.platform.ui#877