C++ Intellisense - Switching back-and-forth between targets very slow

[VSCodeTriageBot]

Issue Type: Bug

This is a plea to allow intellisense to support quickly switching between multiple configurations, without having to re-build the index every time.

Scenario: Using PlatformIO's support for targeting multiple boards, it's common to need to review code as it is built for multiple platforms. See steps to reproduce for specific walkthrough. Many projects support multiple target boards. Here are two examples:

• https://github-com/forkineye/ESPixelStick
• https://github-com/aircoookie/wled

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Install VSCode + PlatformIO extension
2. Clone https://github-com/forkineye/ESPixelStick to local directory
3. Load VSCode for local ESPixelStick directory
4. ((Allow time for PlatformIO first-time setup))
5. Ctrl-Shift-P, run "PlatformIO: Switch Project Environment", select "env:espsv3" (this targets the ESP8266 d1 mini board) 5a. ((Allow time for Intellisense first-time setup for this environment)) 5b. Verify intellisense works ... yay!
6. Ctrl-Shift-P, run "PlatformIO: Switch Project Environment", select "env:esp32_quinled_quad_eth" (this targets an ESP32 based board) 6a. ((Allow time for Intellisense first-time setup for this environment)) 6b. Verify intellisense works ... yay!
7. Switch back to "env:espsv3" (e.g., to investigate bug, build issue, etc. related to that platform)

Desired / Expected Results: Intellisense index generated at step -5 remains valid, allowing instantly switching between supported platforms with valid intellisense.

Actual Results: Intellisense index needs to be rebuilt every single time the platform is switched. This makes any investigation of multiplatform bugs very difficult.

Other notes: Clearly, the intellisense data needs to differ between environments. After all, the toolchain, headers, and defines can be different for each environment. However, it is highly desirable to only build this index once for each environment.

Is it possible to have multiple intellisense instances running in the background, so that it becomes possible to quickly "switch" between active environments?

VS Code version: Code 1.67.2 (c3511e6c69bb39013c4a4b7b9566ec1ca73fc4d5, 2022-05-17T18:15:52.058Z) OS version: Windows_NT x64 10.0.22000 Restricted Mode: No

System Info

|Item|Value| |---|---| |CPUs|11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-11700KF - 3.60GHz (16 x 3600)| |GPU Status|2d_canvas: enabled
canvas_oop_rasterization: disabled_off
direct_rendering_display_compositor: disabled_off_ok
gpu_compositing: enabled
multiple_raster_threads: enabled_on
oop_rasterization: enabled
opengl: enabled_on
rasterization: enabled
raw_draw: disabled_off_ok
skia_renderer: enabled_on
video_decode: enabled
video_encode: enabled
vulkan: disabled_off
webgl: enabled
webgl2: enabled| |Load (avg)|undefined| |Memory (System)|63.92GB (52.00GB free)| |Process Argv|. --crash-reporter-id 605b3ccf-c19c-4a99-a163-7ed8529cada2| |Screen Reader|no| |VM|0%|

Extensions (21)

Extension|Author (truncated)|Version ---|---|--- doxdocgen|csc|1.4.0 vscode-eslint|dba|2.2.2 gitlens|eam|12.0.6 prettier-vscode|esb|9.5.0 better-cpp-syntax|jef|1.15.13 csharp|ms-|1.24.4 python|ms-|2022.6.2 vscode-pylance|ms-|2022.5.2 jupyter|ms-|2022.4.1021342353 jupyter-keymap|ms-|1.0.0 jupyter-renderers|ms-|1.0.6 remote-containers|ms-|0.234.0 remote-ssh|ms-|0.80.0 remote-ssh-edit|ms-|0.80.0 remote-wsl|ms-|0.66.3 cmake-tools|ms-|1.10.5 cpptools|ms-|1.9.8 cpptools-extension-pack|ms-|1.2.0 powershell|ms-|2022.5.1 platformio-ide|pla|2.4.3 cmake|twx|0.0.17 (1 theme extensions excluded)

A/B Experiments

``` vsliv368cf:30146710 vsreu685:30147344 python383cf:30185419 vspor879:30202332 vspor708:30202333 vspor363:30204092 pythonvspyl392:30443607 pythontb:30283811 pythonptprofiler:30281270 vshan820:30294714 vstes263:30335439 pythondataviewer:30285071 vscod805:30301674 pythonvspyt200:30340761 binariesv615:30325510 bridge0708:30335490 bridge0723:30353136 vsaa593cf:30376535 vsc1dst:30438360 pythonvs932:30410667 wslgetstarted:30449410 pythonvsnew555:30457759 vscscmwlcmt:30465135 cppdebug:30492333 vsclangdc:30486549 ```

[VSCodeTriageBot]

confidence for label suggest: 0.5. does not meet threshold

[VSCodeTriageBot]

confidence for assignee jrieken: 0.7. does not meet threshold

[VSCodeTriageBot]

confidence for label suggest: 0.5. does not meet threshold

[VSCodeTriageBot]

confidence for assignee jrieken: 0.7. does not meet threshold

[VSCodeTriageBot]

confidence for label suggest: 0.5. does not meet threshold

[VSCodeTriageBot]

confidence for assignee jrieken: 0.7. does not meet threshold

[VSCodeTriageBot]

confidence for label suggest: 0.5. does not meet threshold

[VSCodeTriageBot]

confidence for assignee jrieken: 0.7. does not meet threshold

[VSCodeTriageBot]

confidence for label suggest: 0.5. does not meet threshold

[VSCodeTriageBot]

confidence for assignee jrieken: 0.7. does not meet threshold

[VSCodeTriageBot]

confidence for label suggest: 0.5. does not meet threshold

[VSCodeTriageBot]

confidence for assignee jrieken: 0.7. does not meet threshold