Quarto extension and preferred language for code cells

[jthomasmock]

Positron Version: Positron Version: 2023.09.0 (Universal) build 203
Code - OSS Version: 1.79.0
Commit: 519fbc7
Date: 2023-09-22T02:37:21.484Z
Electron: 22.3.10
Chromium: 108.0.5359.215
Node.js: 16.17.1
V8: 10.8.168.25-electron.0
OS: Darwin arm64 22.6.0

Steps to reproduce the issue:

1. Create a new Quarto document with an R interpreter selected.
2. Insert a new code cell with the shortcut or command palette. It will give an interactive selector for the language, with Python as the first option. Choose Python.
3. Insert a new code cell with the shortcut or command palette. It will give an interactive selector for the language. Choose Python.
4. Every subsequent code cell will require selecting the language again and again, when most of the time it will be static. The default Quarto behavior is to prefer the language of the previous chunk, by putting it at the top of the list. However, it still makes you select a language each time and doesn't seem to follow the indicated interpreter.

What did you expect to happen?

I would expect that the Positron selected interpreter (R/Python) would indicate the default language of a code cell so I don't have to specify it every time.

Were there any error messages in the output or Developer Tools console?

[jthomasmock]

X-posting with: quarto-dev/quarto#425

[EllaKaye]

It would also be really nice if the first option for the first chunk in a Quarto document automatically matched the selected interpreter. I think it would be reasonable to assume that if a user has the R interpreter selected, they are most likely to want an R code chunk (not the default first option of Python). It's only a small detail, but, I can see it's something that would frustrate me quite quickly if I need to scroll down to select r for the first chunk of every Quarto doc I write.

I'm not sure if this is sufficiently different from @jthomasmock's issue to warrant a separate issue. Happy to re-post if so.

[isabelizimm]

I believe this is solved in the Quarto extension as of quarto-dev/quarto#540

[DavisVaughan]

I would expect that the Positron selected interpreter (R/Python) would indicate the default language of a code cell so I don't have to specify it every time.

We don't quite do this, but I think it is much much less painful now. You explicitly select the language once for the first cell, and then every cell after that auto inherits that language until you manually change it.

[juliasilge]

If you are interested @EllaKaye you could add your idea of connecting the default language of a code cell to the active interpreter to quarto-dev/quarto#405 or as a new issue on that Quarto repo.

In Positron with v1.114.0 of the Quarto extension, I see the correct behavior for the default language choice for each code cell:

code-chunk-language.mov

You do have to hit Enter to select the default choice, so we could improve this a bit further in the future.

[DavisVaughan]

@juliasilge with a newer version of Quarto, you don't have to hit enter. That's quarto-dev/quarto#540