Not all Hack files are detected correctly

[azjezz]

Preliminary Steps

• reviewed How Linguist Works,
• reviewed the Troubleshooting docs,
• considered implementing an override,
• verified an issue has not already been logged for your issue (linguist issues).

Problem Description

URL of the affected repository:

https://github.com/azjezz/waffle

Last modified on:

2018-12-08

Expected language:

Hack ( 100% )

Detected language:

Hack ( 61.5% )
C++ ( 38.5% )

[pchaigno]

Thanks for the report @azjezz!

We could probably improve results here with a partial heuristic rule based on <?hh for Hack. I'll look into it.

You checked the considered implementing an override checkbox. Why did you choose not to implement such an override in the end?

[azjezz]

i could do that, but i guess this can be fix as you said based on <?hh.
a long term solution would be better than using override.

[azjezz]

there's also the lack of color support in hack.

e.g : https://github.com/azjezz/waffle/blob/f746ca07c39fba31b7e921b8f33c54c0b02cacec/src/Waffle/Http/Message/Response/TextResponse.hh

[pchaigno]

i could do that, but i guess this can be fix as you said based on <?hh.
a long term solution would be better than using override.

My new heuristic rule is unlikely to handle all cases, unless I consider all .hh files without <?hh as C++.

there's also the lack of color support in hack.
e.g : https://github.com/azjezz/waffle/blob/f746ca07c39fba31b7e921b8f33c54c0b02cacec/src/Waffle/Http/Message/Response/TextResponse.hh

It looks like that file is detected as C++, so not an issue with the Hack highlighting.

[azjezz]

@pchaigno i talked with on of hack core team member before about <?hh and he said that when @hhvm drops support for php - there's chance that <?hh would be gone too ( unlike php, in hack you don't close <?hh and you can't mix hack with html ) so that's another problem.

[pchaigno]

Okay. Thanks for the information.

I've made a pull request (cf #4347) to add a new heuristic rule. It should help detect Hack .hh files properly, but won't address misclassifications of C++ .hh files.

[pchaigno]

The fix will take effect with the next release of Linguist, which usually happens once a month.