Multi-Document-Information in DocumentSymbolsRequest

[Trias]

This is not a feature request as such, but rather I'm asking for advice on how to model our use case in lsp.

We want to display nested, but multi-document (think: inheritance) symbol-Information with textDocument/symbols.

DocumentSymbols defines two response-types: SymbolInformation[], which represents a flat list with a location-Field and DocumentSymbol[] which defines a hierarchical representation.

Now first choice would be the hierarchical representation, but it implies that all ranges point to the current document. SymbolInformation on the other hand does explicitly forbid infering hierarchical structures, but allows location in other doucments. It accepts a containerName, however this is apparently only intended to be used for grouping.

Is it possible to represent our use case in LSP without abusing the protocol? If not, how would an Interface look like which is acceptable to the lsp spec?

[rwols]

The hierarchy in textDocument/symbol is supposed to convey hierarchy in the sense of nested code blocks, not type information.

Instead of textDocument/symbol, I think you're looking for a "type hierarchy" kind of request (client->server):

#136
#1041
microsoft/vscode-languageserver-node#426

[Trias]

yes i believe this is a good match. With the caveat that we dont plan to use position-dependent information. Maybe we can integrate this use case into the proposal? i.E. make range optional to display document-level type-hierarchies?

As the PR is closed but not merged and this is as i understand not yet part of the spec, can you tell me what the status of this proposal is?

[dbaeumer]

@Trias is it ok for you to fold this with #136.

[Trias]

yes i think my question has been answered, although i would of course prefer that lsp would provide such a request type. I'm going with a custom solution now.