SmartSend removes empty lines with triple-quoted strings

[cbrnr]

Type: Bug

Behaviour

SmartSend on a triple-quoted string containing empty lines (i.e. two or more subsequent \n) removes empty lines on execution.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Hit Shift-Enter on the following string:

"""Hello

World




How are you?"""

The result is:

'Hello\nWorld\nHow are you?'

The expected result is:

'Hello\n\nWorld\n\n\n\n\nHow are you?'

Diagnostic data

Output for Python in the Output panel (View→Output, change the drop-down the upper-right of the Output panel to Python)

2024-07-04 08:42:46.921 [info] Telemetry level is off
2024-07-04 08:42:46.921 [info] Experiments are disabled, only manually opted experiments are active.
2024-07-04 08:42:46.921 [info] Python interpreter path: ~/.pyenv/versions/3.12.4/envs/temp/bin/python
2024-07-04 08:42:47.743 [info] Starting Pylance language server.
2024-07-04 08:42:49.160 [info] > ~/.pyenv/versions/3.12.4/envs/temp/bin/python ~/.vscode/extensions/ms-python.python-2024.9.2024062703-darwin-arm64/python_files/normalizeSelection.py
2024-07-04 08:42:49.307 [info] Send text to terminal: /Users/clemens/.pyenv/versions/3.12.4/envs/temp/bin/python
2024-07-04 08:47:40.793 [info] > ~/.pyenv/versions/3.12.4/envs/temp/bin/python ~/.vscode/extensions/ms-python.python-2024.9.2024062703-darwin-arm64/python_files/normalizeSelection.py
2024-07-04 08:47:40.827 [info] Send text to terminal: """Hello
World
How are you?"""

Extension version: 2024.9.2024062703
VS Code version: Code 1.91.0 (ea1445cc7016315d0f5728f8e8b12a45dc0a7286, 2024-07-01T18:53:23.353Z)
OS version: Darwin arm64 23.5.0
Modes:

[anthonykim1]

@cbrnr Hello! Thank you for filing the issue. I believe this is expected behavior as we "normalize" white spaces to send to terminal and REPL. I think you should be able to repro this even when you turn off smart send, if I recall correctly.

[cbrnr]

Yes, I can reproduce the behavior also when SmartSend is off. However, I do not think that this is expected behavior. Executing a command should not modify ("normalize") the contents of a string, which is what is happening here. So to me, this is clearly a bug.

[hoechenberger]

I would tend to agree with @cbrnr here: if I send something to the REPL, it should not get modified. If I intended to print this string, suddenly some intentionally empty lines would be gone -- surely this cannot be right!

[anthonykim1]

Thank you all for your feedback. Let me bring this up the team.

[anthonykim1]

Good news folks. Managed to get this in August plan, so I will be investigating how to best handle this normalization of command when we send it to either terminal REPL or native REPL!

[hoechenberger]

Amazing, thanks @anthonykim1!

[anthonykim1]

Hi folks! Just merged in the PR for this, that being said it should be available starting tomorrow's(August 21st) pre-release of the Python extension. Give this a try via running shift+enter on your multi line string or even an assignment to the multi-line string. Thank you all :)

[anthonykim1]

Verification steps:

1. Install latest pre-release version of Python extension
2. Open a Python file or create one with multi line string such as

"""
hello there



"""

3. Press shift+enter and watch that new line character inside the multi-line string are NOT truncated and therefore respected.