sebastianvitterso
commented
3 weeks ago Ever since I started using vscode, I wondered why JSON was chosen as the file format for snippets. It's not flexible at all for this use-case.
I have a snippet called "Vue scaffold", which gives me a basic vue file. The snippet file for it looks like this:
{
"Vue scaffold": {
"description": "Vue scaffold",
"prefix": "vue scaffold",
"body": [
"<template>",
" <div></div>",
"</template>",
"",
"<script setup lang=\"ts\">",
"</script>",
"",
"<style></style>"
],
}
}Notice how the snippet itself is located within "'s, inside an array?
Markdown with frontmatter would be better, in my opinion. This would even allow us to get syntax highlighting in our editors.
–––
description: Vue Scaffold
prefix: vue scaffold
–––
```vue
<template>
<div></div>
</template>
<script setup lang="ts">
</script>
<style></style>
vs-code-engineering[bot]
maxime4000
So I've been trying to build snippet for my workflow and it's been a nightmare to write working snippets! This is integral part of VSCode and little to no help is the Editor helping it's user to build reliable and working snippet...
All I want to do is to transform this RELATIVE_FILEPATH from "src\Properties\gameState\Something.cs" to "Game.Properties.GameState" and I just don't understand how the EBNF syntax work or how to build a ".code-snippets" file accordingly.
Suggestion :
Creating code snippets is painful because there is a lack of strong examples through the documentation. Syntax highlighting is not great at all and invalid snippet are not easy to debug and find what is wrong in it.
I fully think this feature would benefits from a mix of thoses solutions :
Opinion
To be honest, this feature is powerful yet so unfriendly to use... Could this part be improve so user can create snippets that answer to their workflow in a friendlier way?
Fun fact
In the past, I've written some snippet using fancier transform than the one I'm asking for and it did work like I wanted! And yet, I'm not able to rewrite it back now... I guess it was luck that I've succeed to write those snippets... Seriously, it's not normal that I can't rewrite simple snippet but can write complex Find and Replace Regex that work through the whole codebase...