AllAccepted answers
John Murray · 11 hr ago

As noted in the original post, when a Windows version of the VSIX is built and used it crashes VS Code's extension host process. I have a WRC open for this, as I suspect there's a problem with how the Windows variant of the InterSystems API package has been built.

Meanwhile maybe try the steps in https://community.intersystems.com/post/how-windows-users-can-try-gj-con...

John Murray · Oct 9

A couple of updates on this technique:

  • You'll need the Dev Containers extension from Microsoft installed.
  • We can simplify the procedure by starting with the 'Dev Containers: Clone Repository in Container Volume...' command from Command Palette. This avoids needing a local clone of the repository in your Windows filesystem.

I have updated the original post.

John Murray · Oct 7

It's worth noting that the extension can't currently run on Windows without crashing VS Code's extension host (EH) process and thus impacting all other extensions. More information here, which I hope qualifies my entry for the 'Find a bug in InterSystems IRIS External Languages Offerings' bonus.

For Windows users there's a workaround, as long as you have SSH access to a Linux host on which you can run Docker containers. Here's what to do:

  1. Launch VS Code on your Windows desktop.
  2. If you don't already have it, install the 'Remote - SSH' extension from Microsoft.
  3. From Command Palette run `Remote-SSH: Connect Current Window to Host...`.
  4. Enter your SSH connection string in the form `user@host`.
  5. When prompted for your password (top centre), enter it.
  6. Wait for the progress notifications (lower right) to complete and for the Remote panel on the status bar (far left) to confirm that you are connected.
  7. In Extensions view, find gj :: configExplorer and install it. This action will install it on the Linux server for use of the account you connected there with. It also installs Server Manager if necessary.

When operating this way gj :: configExplorer executes in an EH on your Linux server. Connections to the target servers' superserver ports will originate from there, not from your Windows device. Resolving the server names / addresses will behave accordingly.

John Murray · Aug 8

I develop and publish VS Code extensions targeting users of the InterSystems platforms. Occasionally an extension needs some support classes installed on the servers it works with. I propose establishing a naming convention for these classes, as follows:

  1. First dot-piece of the package name should be vscode
  2. Second dot-piece should be derived from the "publisher" property in the extension's package.json manifest, as follows:
    • If publisher is "intersystems-community" then use dc
    • Otherwise use the publisher string, transformed if necessary to conform to package-naming constraints (e.g. remove punctuation). Uppercase characters in the publisher string may be retained or folded to lowercase at the choice of the publisher, but the transformation should be applied consistently for all classes published by that publisher. For example, if the extension uses publisher ID Acme-Nadir their class names might begin vscode.AcmeNadir. or vscode.acmeNadir. or vscode.acmenadir.
  3. Third dot-piece should be derived from the "name" property of the extension, using the same transform guidance as above.
  4. Additional dot-pieces of the package name can be added at the choice of the extension author.
  5. Classnames should follow the convention proposed by @Robert Barbiaux in this article, i.e. be upper camel case (aka Pascal case).