Suggestion: Improve Symbol Definitions in ObjectScript LS for Better VS Code Integration

[hsyhhssyy]

In the current ObjectScript language server, the definition of symbols appears to be somewhat inconsistent, which may be preventing the use of VS Code’s Automatic Symbol References feature (available since version 1.112). This feature can automatically recognize symbols in code when it is copied and pasted into AI Chat, and provide related information, as shown in the example.

Currently, the LSP only allows class names to be treated as symbols. To explore a possible improvement, I made some adjustments to the symbol-related LSP implementations. The main changes include:

1. Refining the structure of DocumentSymbol, which did not seem fully aligned with expectations. Adding support for WorkspaceSymbol, since its absence appeared to prevent “Go To Definition” from working properly
2. Registering variable names and many others as symbols

One benefit of this change is that Ctrl+T (Go To Symbol) can now display a more complete set of symbols, including variables and properties. This can be particularly helpful when working with larger files.

The first point seems like a straightforward fix. For the second, I’m not entirely certain whether there are specific design considerations or constraints around how symbols are defined in your implementation. However, it seems that including variables and properties as symbols could be beneficial—for example, it may improve document indexing when using AI Chat and also support features like Ctrl+Click navigation. Based on this, I went ahead and added symbol registration for variable names as well.

I’m currently doing a final review and test of my changes. Before submitting a PR, I wanted to check whether there are any particular requirements or conventions regarding symbol definitions that I should be aware of.

[isc-bsaviano]

Hi @hsyhhssyy, I appreciate your interest in this, but we don't accept PRs for this extension. The product owners want to keep tighter control over it since it is dependent on ISC proprietary code. DocumentSymbol is also a core feature that the main extension depends on, so there would be need to be a thorough review to be sure that nothing broke.

I don't want to discourage your creativity and interest in this extension, so let's find a path forward. Can you write up a more detailed specification for your proposed changes and post it here? I think that will be easier to review than a large code diff. I will also update this extensions's documentation to clearly state our stance on contributions.

[isc-bsaviano]

@isc-klu I think this is something good for you to sink your teeth into. I'd like to hear your thoughts.

[hsyhhssyy]

Hi @isc-bsaviano @isc-klu

my request is actually quite straightforward. I’d like symbols copied into the chat input box to be automatically converted into a Chat-supported #sym format. This would greatly reduce the difficulty of referring to specific code when chatting with AI.

Based on my testing and adjustments, it seems that achieving this would only require below minimal changes:

1. Add support for the workspaceSymbolProvider capability.
   A simple way to verify this is by pressing Ctrl+T in VS Code and typing a symbol (for example, a function name). The symbol should appears in the dropdown list. Ideally, showing both server and local symbols of the same file would be better.
2. Fix the text range parameters in Symbol Definition.
   To test this, select a symbol definition (such as a function name) in VS Code and press F12. The expected behavior would be a message like “No references found,” rather than “No definition found.”

If a symbol supports these two aspects, it should be able to be pasted into the chat input field as references.

At the moment, only class names support “paste as #sym.”

Since it seems this can be achieved even without workspaceSymbolProvider support, I suspect that modifying only the second point might be sufficient. However, in my actual development attempts, that didn’t seem to work.

So, based on the VS Code specification, I implemented both changes. I haven’t yet had the chance to isolate variables and verify this assumption more systematically.

[isc-bsaviano]

@hsyhhssyy Thanks for the detailed comment.

1. This is currently provided by vscode-objectscript. I added the support there instead of here because there wasn't any "magic" by this extension's proprietary parser module needed. That is likely to change in the future due to work by KC, but it's still in development.
2. The DocumentSymbols provided by this extension are implemented according to the LSP spec here. I did a quick look through and didn't see any non-conformance. It's possible there's something I missed, but most of this code has been unchanged in years and we haven't had any issues with other VS Code features.

The description of the feature in VS Code's release notes make it sound like it should only depend on DocumentSymbol, so if anything number 2 above may be the likelier culprit. I wonder if this is just a bug in VS Code core related to this feature though.

[isc-klu]

@hsyhhssyy — thanks for raising this. Please be assured that we do want to provide solid support for both DocumentSymbol and WorkspaceSymbol. I plan to take a deeper look to see if we’re missing anything, particularly around the two scenarios you called out:

1. ... pressing Ctrl+T in VS Code and typing a symbol (for example, a function name). The symbol should appears in the dropdown list.
2. ... select a symbol definition (such as a function name) in VS Code and press F12. The expected behavior would be a message like “No references found,” rather than “No definition found.”

I’ll follow up once I’ve had a chance to dig into these in more detail.

[isc-klu]

1. Add support for the workspaceSymbolProvider capability.
   A simple way to verify this is by pressing Ctrl+T in VS Code and typing a symbol (for example, a function name). The symbol should appears in the dropdown list. Ideally, showing both server and local symbols of the same file would be better.
2. Fix the text range parameters in Symbol Definition.
   To test this, select a symbol definition (such as a function name) in VS Code and press F12. The expected behavior would be a message like “No references found,” rather than “No definition found.”

Re: 1

I can actually see quite a few symbols in my minimal test setup.

@hsyhhssyy, could you share a bit more detail on what’s missing? For example, a couple of sample classes and the specific symbols you expect to see (but don’t) would be really helpful.

Re: 2

My guess is that this might be related to the lack of a reference provider. @isc-bsaviano, what do you think?

[hsyhhssyy]

I don’t know what you all are thinking, but I feel the current discussion may have drifted a bit away from the main point.

My original idea was to make this ObjectScript file support Automatic Symbol References during AI chat.
I have already written code myself to implement this feature, but since this project does not accept PRs, I have not continued reviewing the code further.

At the moment, based on my testing, ClassName is the only symbol that can achieve Automatic Symbol References in the current version; none of the other symbols work.
This includes method names. Although methods can jump to their definitions via Ctrl+Click, which shows that they support part of the symbol functionality, they do not support Automatic Symbol References. As a result, they cannot be correctly recognized during AI chat. When copied and pasted into the chat box, they become plain text.

Automatic Symbol References are meant to save the effort of manually selecting files and explaining locations when referring to a function or class in a very long file. By copying the symbol, the corresponding file can automatically be added into the AI context, and the AI can also be given the exact line number.

I do not have any particular requirements for the functionality of Ctrl+T or F12, and I do not normally use them in my daily workflow. The reason I brought up this issue is that I observed these behaviors gradually while testing during the development of Automatic Symbol References. For example, with Ctrl+T, after I implemented method names so that pasting them into the chat box would turn them into symbol links, I noticed that method names also started appearing in that list. As for the F12 issue, I found that in my first version, the pasted link could not be clicked to jump or show the line number, but after I added this part, MethodName suddenly became clickable and could jump to the definition.

So I think the core issue is that symbol support for ObjectScript files may be incomplete, which causes Automatic Symbol References not to work properly, rather than there being a problem with the Symbol feature itself.

@isc-klu :

As for an example, you can try this right now: double-click any client-side file's classname to select the whole word, copy it, then open VS Code’s built-in AI chat window (that is, the Copilot chat window) and paste it. You will see that it becomes a link. Ctrl+Click will jump to the definition of that class, and hovering the mouse over it will show the file name and line number. But method name does not work this way — after copying and pasting, it is just plain text, with no link and no jump functionality.