VSCode esbonio extension uses deprecated variable ${workspaceRoot} instead of ${workspaceFolder}

[davbeek]

VSCode has deprecated the variable ${workspaceRoot} in favour of ${workspaceFolder} to better align with Multi-root Workspace support, see:

https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/variables-reference#_why-isnt-workspaceroot-documented

The VSCode esbonio extension still uses ${workspaceRoot}, see:

https://swyddfa.github.io/esbonio/docs/latest/en/lsp/getting-started.html?editor=vscode-esbonio#confval-esbonio.server.pythonPath-string

This is confusing, since all VSCode documentation uses ${workspaceFolder} now.

For example, the setting "esbonio.server.pythonPath": "${workspaceFolder}/.venv/bin/python gives an error starting up the esbonio language server. Replacing ${workspaceFolder} by ${workspaceRoot} works. Removing the setting also works.

[alcarney]

Ah yes... that's not ideal.

The simplest 'fix' would be to add ${workspaceFolder} as an alias for the existing ${workspaceRoot} logic in the VSCode extension - would that be sufficient for your needs?

I still haven't quite got my head around how ${workspaceFolder} is supposed to work in a multi-root context but hopefully that can wait until #326 is tackled.

[lextm]

${workspaceRoot} is still widely used so it would be too rushed to stop supporting it. Ideally the language server should support both as valid variables in the foreseeable future.

[davbeek]

The simplest 'fix' would be to add ${workspaceFolder} as an alias for the existing ${workspaceRoot} logic in the VSCode extension - would that be sufficient for your needs?

Yes, sufficient indeed, although I wonder if and when VSCode could drop support for $(workspaceRoot}. No idea how long they keep supporting deprecated features. Replacing ${workspaceRoot} by ${workspaceFolder} in the extension and adding ${workspaceRoot} as an alias for ${workspaceFolder} would be more work, but would perhaps be a more robust fix.

[alcarney]

As far as I know there's no API extensions can rely on for the implementation of variables like ${workspaceRoot} which means we have to implement support for these ourselves.

On the flip side, this means we can support ${workspaceRoot} for as long as it makes sense and there's not much difference between what is an alias for what at the moment 😄

[davbeek]

Indeed, I was rather surprised to read that API support for variable resolving is still missing, see:
microsoft/vscode#140056
microsoft/vscode#148514

Then indeed, your straightforward solution would be perfect.