Improvements and Next Steps for the Processing Language Server (LSP)

[SableRaf]

We’re revisiting the Processing Language Server with the goal of improving support for writing and editing Processing code outside the PDE.

Background

Several contributors have laid important groundwork for this effort:

• Initial work by @kgtkr was incorporated for Processing 4.1. They also built a minimal Processing LSP client for VSCode.
• Further work by @Efratror was included in Processing 4.3 (see [PR] LSP feature/declaration support - [merged] #678 and [PR] Lsp feature/reference support - [merged] #690)
• As part of the pr05 grant in 2024, @diyaayay worked on another VS Code extension though it did not make use of the built-in LSP.

Proposed Improvements

We’d like to improve and extend the current functionality of the built-in LSP. Priorities are:

• Display parameter names in function signatures (e.g., copy(sx, sy, sw, sh, dx, dy, dw, dh)) should show named parameters
• "Go to declaration" for built-in functions and classes (linking to Processing source code when possible)
• Hover documentation for built-in functions and core classes
• Support for overloaded functions (e.g., colorMode(mode), colorMode(mode, max), colorMode(mode, max1, max2, max3))

If you're interested in contributing or discussing further, feel free to comment here.

Thanks again to everyone who has contributed to this work so far!

[Gmin2]

Hey @SableRaf would love to work on Displaying parameters name in the function signatures functionality, i can go ahead with it right?

[SableRaf]

Hi @Gmin2! Nice to hear from you 😃 Sure, if you'd like to make a PR, we'll be happy to review it.

[Gmin2]

the build is broken for the lsp server when i create a client and connect to the lsp server, the server does not compile, should i show the error logs here ?

[SableRaf]

Hi @Gmin2! Thanks for looking into it. Please do share the logs, thanks.

A quick note: with 4.4.0 and 4.4.1 the internal layout of the Processing app changed somewhat, breaking the processing-java CLI. The issue you're having might be related. We'll be releasing a fix in 4.4.3 tomorrow. Please use this PR instead in the meantime #1046

cc @Stefterv

[Stefterv]

I don't think this has anything to do with the processing cli @SableRaf

@Gmin2 are you building using Ant or Gradle?

[Stefterv]

Also p.s. to keep this issue on topic, feel free to hop onto the devs-chat channel on the discord

[Gmin2]

@Gmin2 are you building using Ant or Gradle?

i am using gradle
could yu share the discord link @Stefterv

[SableRaf]

@Gmin2 You can use this link https://discord.gg/f9sCs2uY (note that it will expires in 7 days)

[Stefterv]

I've added #1059 to help aid in the development of the LSP, if anyone has suggestions or ideas on how to improve, let me know!