Get rid of big "Run and Debug" button for R extension #10769

juliasilge · 2025-11-25T04:50:54Z

Addresses #3681

This is a little heavy handed (I would have liked to find a solution here that involves a less dramatic change) but this area of upstream doesn't seem to involve a lot of churn, so I think it's likely useful for us to make this type of adjustment. Quarto files are another type where this whole pane is quite confusing, and we can use a similar approach in that extension (set supportsUILaunch and contribute a viewsWelcome button or something).

With this PR, you now see this in the "Run and Debug" pane for .R files:

You should still see the normal content for a .py file or .qmd file or another kind of file.

Release Notes

New Features

R: added a link to the "Run and Debug" pane with info on debugging R code.

Bug Fixes

N/A

QA Notes

You should see new, less confusing content in the "Run and Debug" pane for .R files.
You should see no change to this pane for .py, .qmd, or other types of files.

… to specify how to handle Run and Debug pane

github-actions · 2025-11-25T04:51:10Z

E2E Tests 🚀
This PR will run tests tagged with: @:critical

^readme ^{valid tags}

juliasilge · 2025-11-25T04:52:21Z

extensions/positron-r/package.json

        "type": "ark",
-        "label": "R Debugger"
+        "label": "R Debugger",
+        "languages": ["r"],


This change here is what keeps us from prompting folks to install an (incompatible) extension. At the very minimum, we should contribute a language here to avoid that prompt.

juliasilge · 2025-11-25T04:54:05Z

extensions/positron-r/package.json

-        "label": "R Debugger"
+        "label": "R Debugger",
+        "languages": ["r"],
+        "supportsUILaunch": false


When we work on building Positron itself, the IDE registers the vscode://schemas/vscode-extensions schema at startup. This item is not in that schema, so if we go this direction overall, we will see a diagnostic in this file moving forward:

Property supportsUILaunch is not allowed.

I did some exploration of how to silence this diagnostic but did not find anything quickly/easily.

juliasilge · 2025-11-25T04:55:12Z

src/vs/workbench/contrib/debug/common/debug.ts

 export const CONTEXT_DEBUGGERS_AVAILABLE = new RawContextKey<boolean>('debuggersAvailable', false, { type: 'boolean', description: nls.localize('debuggersAvailable', "True when there is at least one debug extensions active.") });
 export const CONTEXT_DEBUG_EXTENSION_AVAILABLE = new RawContextKey<boolean>('debugExtensionAvailable', true, { type: 'boolean', description: nls.localize('debugExtensionsAvailable', "True when there is at least one debug extension installed and enabled.") });
+// --- Start Positron ---
+export const CONTEXT_DEBUGGER_SUPPORTS_UI_LAUNCH = new RawContextKey<boolean>('debuggerSupportsUILaunch', true, { type: 'boolean', description: nls.localize('debuggerSupportsUILaunch', "True when the debugger for the current file supports launching from the Run and Debug UI. Some debuggers (like R) use alternative debugging approaches.") });


This new context key is what allows extensions to say, "Hey, don't turn on all the debugger buttons for this type of file."

lionel-

Works great in R files!

Experimenting with it, I found the experience to be a bit jittery and confusing with other editors though.
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/c857f89f-722b-4553-bf72-90b4f45fb400

Also when no editor is opened:

Should we instead look at the currently opened console, retrieve its languageId, and use that instead of the current editor's language to determine whether to show the run and debug button?

lionel- · 2025-11-26T14:09:32Z

extensions/positron-r/package.json

-        "label": "R Debugger"
+        "label": "R Debugger",
+        "languages": ["r"],
+        "supportsUILaunch": false


Regarding casing, it would be better as supportUiLaunch. The simplest and most practical rule for camel casing is that it should be possible to programmatically go from camelCase to snake_case (in this case, support_ui_launch rather than support_u_i_launch). That's also the convention used inside VS Code.

lionel- · 2025-12-03T14:13:02Z

src/vs/workbench/contrib/debug/browser/welcomeView.ts

+				if (language && adapterManager.someDebuggerInterestedInLanguage(language)) {
 					this.debugStartLanguageContext.set(language);
 					this.debuggerInterestedContext.set(true);
 					storageSevice.store(debugStartLanguageKey, language, StorageScope.WORKSPACE, StorageTarget.MACHINE);
+


It would help to have this original code fenced

Suggested change

if (language && adapterManager.someDebuggerInterestedInLanguage(language)) {

this.debugStartLanguageContext.set(language);

this.debuggerInterestedContext.set(true);

storageSevice.store(debugStartLanguageKey, language, StorageScope.WORKSPACE, StorageTarget.MACHINE);

if (language && adapterManager.someDebuggerInterestedInLanguage(language)) {

// --- End Positron ---

this.debugStartLanguageContext.set(language);

this.debuggerInterestedContext.set(true);

storageSevice.store(debugStartLanguageKey, language, StorageScope.WORKSPACE, StorageTarget.MACHINE);

// --- Start Positron ---

lionel- · 2025-12-03T14:14:46Z

src/vs/workbench/contrib/debug/browser/welcomeView.ts

+				// if (language && this.debugService.getAdapterManager().someDebuggerInterestedInLanguage(language)) {
+				// Find debuggers for this language and check if any support UI launch
+				const adapterManager = this.debugService.getAdapterManager();


There is no changes to the if branch right? Probably better to leave this as is and refetch the adapterManager below, to reduce the amount of stuff in Positron fences.

lionel- · 2025-12-03T14:43:52Z

extensions/positron-r/package.json

+        "view": "debug",
+        "contents": "Positron currently provides initial debugging support for R code.\n[Learn more](https://positron.posit.co/guide-r.html#debugging)",
+        "when": "debugStartLanguage == 'r'"


Nice! We'll be able to use this to provide a "Pause" button to interrupt a running R command and drop in the debugger. This would be ideal with a context key that indicates whether the current console is busy.

juliasilge added 3 commits November 24, 2025 16:09

Explicitly contribute debugger for R

12aef33

Make a new debugger context key CONTEXT_DEBUGGER_SUPPORTS_UI_LAUNCH…

4ce24ad

… to specify how to handle Run and Debug pane

Update Run and Debug pane for R extension

d006c83

juliasilge commented Nov 25, 2025

View reviewed changes

juliasilge marked this pull request as ready for review November 25, 2025 15:05

juliasilge requested a review from lionel- November 25, 2025 15:05

Merged origin/main into positron-r-contributes-debugger

cb74ce6

juliasilge requested a review from jmcphers December 2, 2025 16:20

lionel- reviewed Dec 3, 2025

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Get rid of big "Run and Debug" button for R extension #10769

Get rid of big "Run and Debug" button for R extension #10769

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