Surface "variablePresentation" in settings.json

[int19h]

microsoft/ptvsd#1621 (comment)

This allows user to control how various variable groups are shown in debugger UI. We have implemented it for VS originally (to allow it to request old behavior); but it's more broadly useful, and people are already asking for it in VSCode context.

[kimadeline]

Todo:

• add it to the schema
• document it with all the other launch.json props (open an issue on the vscode-docs repo)

[int19h]

On a second thought, I'm not sure we want to expose this directly like that. While setting it in launch.json does work, logically, the proper place for this is in extension settings (since this is usually a generic debugging UX preference, not specific to a particular debug target). So perhaps it would be better to expose it in settings, and have some code that injects the corresponding properties into the debug configuration?

It can be put in the schema regardless, but if we do it, we'll have to keep it there for back-compat reasons even if we also do the setting later - and that will be more confusing than having it in one place.

@luabud, what do you think?

[DonJayamanne]

o perhaps it would be better to expose it in settings, and have some code that injects the corresponding

I'd suggest not adding into settings.json until we have users requesting the ability to change the defaults, else we end up with more settings in settings.json that are probably not going to be used by a majority of the users.

[int19h]

We already have users asking for this - see the StackOverflow link in the bug description.

[luabud]

I agree with you @int19h, it makes sense to have it as a User setting (I don't see how someone would like to disable this per project?).

@DonJayamanne about this:

else we end up with more settings in settings.json that are probably not going to be used by a majority of the users.

I feel that this is already the case for VS Code all up, isn't it? Perhaps I'm biased because I love the power of customization in VS Code, so I'd love to have this in the extension too.

[int19h]

What would be the settings.json name for this? I'd expect something like "python.debugging.variablePresentation", but note that we don't have anything that starts with "python.debugging" at the moment.

[luabud]

@int19h I like it! An alternative would be to have python.debuggerVariablePresentation, but I prefer your suggestion because it goes with our other settings (python.testing, python.linting, etc.).
I don't foresee us having many settings for debugging in the settings.json file, but I think it's good to follow our standard format.

[jeffreyyjp]

Hello, guys. I may wonder if we already have this in settings. I searched variablePresentation in settings but don't find anything. And to be honest, I don't like the launch.json solution. I like to have the global config about this, not only for launch.json for each project.

[AdamYoblick]

Hi everyone,

We have some customers asking for this from the PTVS side as well, so we'll probably need to expose these options in a python-specific Tools -> Options page in VS.

Following the stack overflow post (https://stackoverflow.com/questions/62346091/how-can-i-disable-hide-the-grouping-of-variables-in-vscode-python/62401205#62401205), I just want to make sure I'm aware of all the presentation option values.

"variablePresentation": {
    "all": "inline",
    "class": "group",
    "function": "hide",
    "protected": ...,
    "special": ...,
}

Are these all the available variable types?
Are inline, group, and hide all the available presentation types?