Rewriting the Watches view

[igorlfs]

Up until the implementation of the threads view, nvim-dap-view's main feature was, arguably, the watches view. But in its current state, it's very limited. For instance, there's no way to interact with the variables (e.g., expand, collapse). Also, the usage of virtual lines was a bad choice, in hindsight.

The goal of this issue is to track the reimplementation of the watches view, from the ground up.

Done

• Reimplementation without relying on virtual lines

TODO

• Variable expansion (feat(watches): expand variables #49)
• Better folding / collapsing I guess this comes for free with variable expansion
• Copying variables
• setVariables request
• setExpression request

Future

Maybe this could be built-in into nvim-dap? Could help with some drawbacks (see #46)

Resources

vim.ui.tree
#32

If you're missing anything, please add a comment here (do not create new issues for feature requests about the watches view)

[RizaHKhan]

I couldn't add the whole variable when debugging PHP files. It kept missing the $

[igorlfs]

I couldn't add the whole variable when debugging PHP files. It kept missing the $

That happens because nvim-dap-view expands the variable under the cursor using the <cexpr>, which itself uses the iskeyword option. To handle your use case, you can append a $ for this setting, but it may affect the behavior of other plugins.

[WayenVan]

would be great to have the collapsing and expansion behaviour

[deniz-hofmeister]

I am excited for this! Currently still on nvim-dap-ui and this is for me the limiting factor to consider the transition. I love your layout, I love the tabs setup, but I do like to really dig into variables, expand/collapse the variables etc. The key decision maker for my transition will be based on how easy it is to read out variables, especially dig into deeply nested values (like pytorch really likes to do), during a breakpoint. So yeah, variable inspection readability. (and also, when there are many variables active in a scope, how easy can i navigate all the variables?)

Love your work though! Am excited!

[igorlfs]

I am excited for this! Currently still on nvim-dap-ui and this is for me the limiting factor to consider the transition. I love your layout, I love the tabs setup, but I do like to really dig into variables, expand/collapse the variables etc. The key decision maker for my transition will be based on how easy it is to read out variables, especially dig into deeply nested values (like pytorch really likes to do), during a breakpoint. So yeah, variable inspection readability.

I'm glad you're excited! If you wanna the new implementation a try, hop over to #46 (if anyone is following this thread, you're also invited!)

(and also, when there are many variables active in a scope, how easy can i navigate all the variables?)

To be fair, there's no special trick for navigation in these circumstances. Feel free to give more details about your situation, but in general, I do agree that it'd be nice to have some sort of filter for the scopes. Since the scopes view comes from nvim-dap, perhaps you can open a feature request over there?

Love your work though! Am excited!

❤

[igorlfs]

Hey folks!

Over the past few weeks, I've been implementing all the missing features, and I'm finally tackling the expansion of variables! It's here!

It's a complex feature, but it seems to be mostly working with the adapters I tested (debugpy, JS debug adapter). It's not ready to be released yet, but it's usable. In fact, I'm making this comment as an invitation for testers!

If you're excited about this feature and don't mind a few bugs, head over to the feat/expand-variables branch, and leave a comment in the PR (here) with any bugs you find!

[igorlfs]

Hey folks!

The PR is ready to be merged! There are still some minor quirks I'm sure, but they can be addressed in follow-up PRs.

Gonna leave it open for a couple more days, to see if there's any feedback.