Auto-commit characters do not work consistently

[frevds]

Type: Bug

In TypeScript, I can use the "." as an auto-commit character for committing the suggestion only in the left-hand-side expression. After an " = " in the right-hand-side they don't seem to work.
Also, these characters cannot be configured.

It is extremely annoying during development. I unlearnt my prior behaviour from other editors and am pressing Return or Tab all the time for autocompletion, but am annoyed having to do this explicitly.

It is surprising that a feature as very basic and essential as this does not get properly implemented in VSCode for such a long time. If Visual Studio is able to do it, VSCode should be.

Furthermore, committing a suggestion does not recognize what follows, always committing the whole word even if the rest of the word is already there, forcing everybody to delete the rest of the word. These basic convenience features are expected of a proper code editor. If it's too complicated to implement using a Regex-based system, I'm afraid you'll have to find a different way, having this not working properly cannot be excused, it's a must to have, or a reason to switch to a different editor.

VS Code version: Code 1.87.2 (863d258, 2024-03-08T15:20:17.278Z)
OS version: Windows_NT x64 10.0.22631
Modes:

System Info

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Process Argv	--crash-reporter-id fd07ca10-4e2d-453c-ba70-cbc1dfbb2fa2
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Extensions (17)

Extension	Author (truncated)	Version
vscode-pandoc	Chr	0.4.5
vscode-typescript-to-json-schema	mar	0.0.17
debugpy	ms-	2024.2.0
isort	ms-	2023.10.1
python	ms-	2024.2.1
vscode-pylance	ms-	2024.3.1
jupyter	ms-	2024.2.0
jupyter-renderers	ms-	1.0.17
vscode-jupyter-cell-tags	ms-	0.1.8
vscode-jupyter-slideshow	ms-	0.1.5
azure-account	ms-	0.11.6
cpptools	ms-	1.19.8
vscode-xml	red	0.26.1
LiveServer	rit	5.7.9
vscode-counter	uct	3.4.0
vscode-icons	vsc	12.7.0
markdown-pdf	yza	1.5.0

A/B Experiments

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[mjbvz]

Please share a code example that demonstrates the issue

[frevds]

Please share a code example that demonstrates the issue

Certainly, here is a way to reproduce two issues: @mjbvz

Make a new file, set the language to "TypeScript", then paste the following snippet and follow the instructions:

const foo = { boo: '' }; 

// 1. type "f" to see the suggestions pop up
// 2. type "." to autocomplete "foo"
// 3. press Enter or Tab (to commit "boo", since other characters we wish to type next (such as space or "=") don't work)
// 4. write " = " (now we are on the right-hand side of an expression)
// 5. now repeat, type "f" to see the suggestions pop up
// 6. type "." to see it FAIL to autocomplete "foo"

// foo.boo = f.

PS: The same issue occurs using Javascript as the language.

[mjbvz]

@RyanCavanaugh On the right hand side, isNewIdentifierLocation is true which surpasses commit characters. Seems wrong but maybe I'm overlooking a use case

[RyanCavanaugh]

AFAICT it's been this way forever. It's straightforward to change but I'd be quite concerned about messing with muscle memory.

[frevds]

At least provide a setting for activating it?
And preferably also a setting for the actual commit chars?
Muscle-memory and forever indeed, but I can't imagine anybody enjoying this actually having to press Tab and Enter all the time rather than the next character that should follow.

And how is the right-hand side ever a new identifier?
Only for inline/lambda functions with parameters maybe, which is a valid case sure, but doesn't occur that often to drop the commit.

[RyanCavanaugh]

I'm not trying to disagree with anything here, just stating facts.

[frevds]

I'm also not trying to press any change here (apparently this behaviour has some point).
But it would be great to have a choice to switch this behaviour, maybe even interactive (I remember VS had a keyboard combo to switch the commit behaviour on-the-fly, if it cannot be decided generally).

[RyanCavanaugh]

@DanielRosenwasser reminded me why we do this

If you're trying to write this code by typing the characters it contains:

const addOne = x => x + 1;

At this point when you write the space:

const addOne = x|
//              ^- space here

we would end up completing it to

const addOne = XMLDocument

which is extremely annoying.

[frevds]

Yeah, the space could be selectively disabled then maybe. Or (as in VS) the autocommit suggestion is not selected in the list in this case, but the mode can be switched using Alt+Space (or whatever it was there), since indeed both cases are possible and cannot be formally known beforehand.
However, it is more likely that you don't want to write a lambda expression here, and the commit only working sometimes is even more annoying (you don't consciously discriminate these cases, you just notice that sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, ergo you cannot rely on it).

[mjbvz]

@RyanCavanaugh I think the proper fix is for TS to compute commit characters instead of having VS Code try to derive them: microsoft/TypeScript#27623

Closing in favor of that issue which also should align with lsp

[frevds]

May I point out the other part of my request @mjbvz again:

Furthermore, committing a suggestion does not recognize what follows, always committing the whole word even if the rest of the word is already there, forcing everybody to delete the rest of the word.

Anything that can be done here?

As an example:

That also happens if I complete everything: