Support file-type-specific settings

[heaths]

In our project we have a number of files where tabs are strictly required (a format we do not control). However, we want to normalize tabs to spaces throughout the rest of the project.

For now, I just ask that people don't edit those files in VSCode. I even considered adding them to the ignore list for VSCode itself. But it's not uncommon to have file-specific settings, so I thought it would be nice if VSCode allowed for more complex patterns - much like files.exclude, perhaps something like:

"editor.insertSpaces": true,
"diffEditor.ignoreTrimWhitespace": true,
"files.settings": {
  "**/*.idt": {
    "editor.insertSpaces": false,
    "diffEditor.ignoreTrimWhitespace": false
  }
}

[bpasero]

👍

[SamVerschueren]

It's a nice idea but maybe It's a better idea to use an array instead of a map of globbing patterns. The order in which you specify the rules matter because what should be done in this case?

"files.settings": {
  "**/*.idt": {
    "editor.insertSpaces": false,
    "diffEditor.ignoreTrimWhitespace": false
  },
  "**/file.idt": {
    "editor.insertSpaces": true,
    "diffEditor.ignoreTrimWhitespace": true
  },
}

Maps don't keep their order so the result in this case is not known untill you test it. If **/*.idt is executed after **/file.idt, there is no way to specify other rules for file.idt.

When using an array, the order is kept and you know the outcome of the following settings.

"files.settings": [
  {
    "files": ["**/*.idt", "**/*.json"],
    "editor.insertSpaces": false,
    "diffEditor.ignoreTrimWhitespace": false
  },
  {
    "files": "**/index.idt",
    "editor.insertSpaces": true,
    "diffEditor.ignoreTrimWhitespace": true
  }
]

This way, you know for sure that index.idt will have the setting editor.insertSpaces: true.

We had a similar discussion in the XO linter for overridable configs. More information can be found here xojs/xo#58

[siegebell]

adding to @SamVerschueren's idea, the pattern should conform to a DocumentSelector, and the entries should be ranked by languages.match