Project tools/actions UI

[jmcphers]

In RStudio, the Build pane not only lists the output of a Build (or Build-like action) -- it also knows something about what kind of project you are in, and offers commands relevant to that project type. For example, in an R package project, you get buttons that give you one-click access to install, test, or check the package.

In a website project, you get a "Build website" tool instead:

Generally speaking, RStudio detects the project type automatically, but if it guesses wrong, Project Options lets you configure the build tools to your liking.

In Positron, we are currently using VS Code's Tasks API to run build and related jobs. These work well and are a good semantic match for build-like jobs, but without a Build pane, we don't currently have any place to advertise project-specific tasks.

Positron should have, if not a Build pane, an extensible way for language packs to define and surface project-specific tasks and tools with the appropriate UI affordances.

[lionel-]

Here is an idea that might make this better in the short term. If we move the terminal to the side bar, the build tasks would look like:

This might make sense as an immediate solution since a typical R developer interacts more often with the build tasks than the terminal, so the payoff of being able to see both the console and the tasks at the same time seems worth the awkwardness of having the terminal in the side bar instead of next to the console.

Another thing we could explore is whether we could approximate a full blown build pane by duplicating the terminal under the name "Build". The build tasks would then target this new viewpane instead of the terminal. In this scenario the terminal pane would remain fully independent and would still have its default location in the bottom pane.

[DavisVaughan]

duplicating the terminal under the name "Build"

We also discussed making this "Build" terminal read only. i.e. it is mainly an output view

[jennybc]

I just felt the lack of a Build Pane in a quarto website context (our own wiki). I miss this "Render website" button from RStudio:

[juliasilge]

This came up with multiple folks during alpha user feedback, and in discussions I think we found there are two needs here, both of which are solved by RStudio's Build Pane but could be separated from each other:

1. Folks want to see the output of build tasks and similar in something that feels different than the Terminal (easier to see at the same time as source code editor and console, seems like folks want something in the side bar). We could consider popping off a read-only terminal for this.
2. Folks really want buttons that apply to their projects, like "Render website" or "Build package". We could consider contributing these to the top, workspace-level activity bar.

[petetronic]

2. Folks really want buttons that apply to their projects, like "Render website" or "Build package". We could consider contributing these to the top, workspace-level activity bar.

When we look at this separate second request, we should consider how much this overlaps with https://github.com/posit-dev/positron/issues/2085 (i.e. not an editor toolbar, but reuse of a customizable toolbar component in another location)