Automatic imports

[pfitzseb]

It would be really nice if we could automatically add a using Foo: bar statement when completing bar anywhere in the editor, similar to what the TS LS does. I'm not sure how feasible this is though.

[ZacLN]

I'm not sure I completely understand what you mean - something similar to the "Fix missing reference" action?

[pfitzseb]

Well, we know what symbols are available in the current environment. So if I have e.g. Plots in my env, then autocompleting plot could add a using Plots: plot at the top of the file. This is complicated by the fact that imports aren't file specific in Julia, and that many packages could export/define the same binding and there's no way for us to choose the right one.

So overall this probably is very similar to the "Fix missing reference" action (which I haven't ever tried). Do we support that?

[ZacLN]

A bit similar - it turns a missing ref into a qualified name if possible (e.g. argtail -> Base.argtail) by searching over unexported names of packages that that have been used.

This should be easy enough, we'd probably want to restrict it to completions where a few characters (3?) have already been typed otherwise you're going to get a ton of completions each time (quite costly). I'll have a play and stick up a PR

EDIT - I've just remembered that you can only apply edits for completions to the current Doc so it may be a touch more complicated

[BioTurboNick]

Did this recently get integrated? I keep finding random usings added to my code that I never intended.

[pfitzseb]

Yes. You can switch julia.completionmode to exportedonly to disable the feature (which does need some work).

[BioTurboNick]

Thanks! I mean it is a nice idea in general, I just find myself with unintentional autocompletes frequently enough. Maybe be better to have the using insertion behind an extra key press immediately after autocomplete occurs?

[scimas]

This should not be turned on by default since the extension is detecting even some of the Base types as "unexported symbols" and keeps adding import/using statements for them. Examples of such types are String, Bool.

[davidanthoff]

I feel that in general we should never modify the source code on completion in some other location than where the completion is happening, but instead have a feature like this as a code action that a user needs to opt-into with an extra click.

[pfitzseb]

Debatable. The TS extension does the same by default.

[davidanthoff]

The TS extension does the same by default.

And it drives me nuts :) I think as a UI principle, things that automatically change things somewhere under the hood and I don't even see something happening in the UI are just weird. I think one of the nice things about completion is that the edits happen right in front of my eye, where I am focused right now, where my cursor is. I can't miss that. But something that edits parts of the doc that maybe aren't even visible right now seems like a step too much. I think we could have an option to enable it, but I would much prefer that the default was that a code action showed up for this.

[pfitzseb]

Fair enough. Let's disable it by default and slap an "Experimental" warning on the setting?

[lrnv]

What if I want the completion for everything but do not want the software to modify my usings statements while i'm not looking ? It's driving me crazy and polutes my git log...