Platform specific configuration default values for extension authoring

[hackwaly]

This is useful, so we don't need programming to achieve it.

hackwaly/vscode-ocaml#82 (comment)

[weinand]

@hackwaly Please explain what feature you are asking for
(I do not want to dig into vscode-ocaml myself).

[hackwaly]

I means ability to specify different default values for each platforms on same field of configuration. Eg. "executable_extname" on Windows default to ".exe" and for other platform default to "".

[weinand]

@hackwaly and where would this be used?
We have already a mechanism for task.json, launch.json, package.json to deal with platform differences. See https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/tasks#_operating-system-specific-properties

[hackwaly]

Sorry, I didn't see where package.json support it. I'll try it.

[weinand]

@hackwaly aha, you are asking for this feature in "package.json". Please be aware that the support described in https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/tasks#_operating-system-specific-properties is only available for Debugger contributions in package.json.

I suggest that you create an example of what you want to do in a package.json.

[hackwaly]

{
  "contributes": {
    "configuration": {
      "ocaml.replPath": {
        "type": "string",
        "default": "ocaml", // I want default to "ocaml.exe" on windows.
        "description": "Path to OCaml REPL."
      }
    }
  }
}

[weinand]

The configuration settings that you contribute in the package.json will end up as user setting.
Instead of using one ocaml.replPath for all platforms I recommend to use different paths for different platforms. VS Code uses this approach for the integrated shell:

If the settings are shared across different platforms, a user can have different paths for different platforms simultaneously.

I do not think that your approach with the "executable_extname" variable would be of great use because it breaks down as soon as the path includes more than just the basename (e.g. a full path with drive letter and path separator).

[hackwaly]

Thank you for your advice.

[weinand]

@hackwaly you are welcome!