How to make code linting less aggressive?

[aaronschiff]

Apologies if this is covered in the documentation, I couldn't find an answer.

Is there a way to configure linting of R code in Positron so it doesn't apply until I have at least completed typing the current line of code?

For example, simply typing y gets a yellow squiggle because there is no such symbol in scope (yet). Then typing y <- gives a red squiggle for a missing righthand side. Then y <- x |> gives a red squiggle, etc. I find the squiggles appearing and disappearing while I'm typing quite distracting. Also, I like to use the Error Lens extension which provides more information about errors without having to hover, but that becomes unusable with errors popping up all the time while I'm tying.

Examples with Error Lens enabled:

[Aariq]

I also get squiggles under functions that are not explicitly namespaced. E.g.:

[petetronic]

Hi @Aariq, if you run the first line to load ggplot2, does that diagnostic go away for you?

[Aariq]

Yes, it does.

[Aariq]

But if I restart R, then the tab goes back to being orange and showing "1 problem in this file" in the popup. This seems misleading to me.

[jennybc]

The issue you're getting at @Aariq is being tracked in #2649.

[juliasilge]

@aaronschiff I'm not familiar with the Error Lens extension, but it definitely looks like it doesn't play very well with our current (dynamic analysis) approach for diagnostics! The current situation is that the LSP uses your live R session to understand what functions and variables exist, so when you type y, the LSP thinks, "Wow, there is no such thing as y right now." In the longer term, we have plans to move to more static analysis as outlined in issues like #2649 and #2321.

What language and LSP implementation do you find works well with that Error Lens extension? i.e. in what situation does it work well for you?

You might experiment with the positron.r.diagnostics.enable setting and see if turning off the diagnostics helps you, but be aware of #3685. Also, maybe this totally makes the Error Lens extension useless, if we aren't generating the diagnostics at all!

[aaronschiff]

@juliasilge Error Lens is nice to have, but even without using Error Lens, I find the linting squiggles appearing and disappearing while I'm typing code to be quite distracting.

Before trying Positron I used VSCode with the REditorSupport extension. I believe it uses {lintr} for linting and it seems to produce fewer squiggles / errors on the current line of code that I'm typing. That may partly reflect the linting options that I set in .lintr. Does Positron have a similar way to control what linting errors get picked up?

[juliasilge]

This is pretty normal behavior for diagnostic tools of this style (see how the best-in-class Rust diagnostics behave as you type, for example), but I have opened #6709 to track and prioritize adding a configurable delay to mitigate the aggressiveness you are experiencing. Please take a look to see if you have any additional details to add!