coala language server

Work Done

The power of coala can now be directly leveraged from within the code editor. coalals was written to support language server protocol, an editor independent protocol for source code processors such as linters and fixers. My project involved building a language server based exposing coala, an editor (VS Code) plugin and optimizing coala core to better support coalals. The following is a break down of all the work done:

1. coala-ls
   • Supports open, save, change, publishDiagnostics, format, showMessage, shutdown request types.
   • Supports limited code fixing.
   • Supports concurrent analysis cycles and management.
   • Supports all file types supported by coala core.
   • Supports sending UI message when coala core behaves unexpectedly.
   • Supports section filtering based on tags.
2. coala-vs-code
   • Supports using coala from VS Code.
   • Supports all file types supported by coala.
   • Supports limited set of extension customization using VS Code settings.
   • Published on Store.
3. coala
   • Supports section filtering.
   • Supports section filtering by tags.
   • Supports analysis of coala on in-memory files (FileProxies).

Challenges

Working on my project was not always a smooth ride. I had to work on three different pieces of technology, one for each phase and care about how they would work together. I already had some experience working with language servers but TypeScript and VS Code Plugin Development was quite new to me. But, thanks to the referable work done previously on my project, this got a lot easier. I also had some problems dealing with code structuring and reviews but by I eventually learned proper git etiquettes.

Work to be done

Although most of the said goals have been achieved, much is left to be done in order to make coalals even more efficient and improve the user experience. I think that given enough dev time coalals can be improved to be a very efficient way to use coala. The following is a break down of what I think is possible and should be done:

1. coala
   • Support Apply Actions on FileProxies, this would make it possible to extend complete code fixing support for coalals.
2. coala-ls
   • Pip release to make installing coalals easier.
   • Support for custom section tags via editor configuration instead of default tags.
3. coala-vs-code
   • CD System to make delivery of plugin builds streamlined.
   • More extension customization options like custom tags.