LuaLS should expose whether a variable reference is an upvalue through a new upvalue semantic token modifier.
Currently, local variables and upvalues are both reported as:
semantic token type: variable
modifiers: -
while globals are already distinguished using:
semantic token type: variable
modifiers: global
This makes it impossible for editors such as VS Code to visually distinguish local variables from upvalues.
Example
local function outer()
local value = 123
return function()
print(value) -- upvalue
end
end
Currently the value reference inside the inner function is:
It would be useful for LuaLS to report it as:
while the declaration remains:
Proposed semantic token model
variable -> local variable
variable + upvalue -> upvalue
variable + global -> global variable
parameter -> function parameter
For example:
local foo = 1
local function outer(bar)
local baz = 2
return function(qux)
print(foo) -- upvalue
print(bar) -- upvalue
print(baz) -- upvalue
print(qux) -- parameter
print(print) -- global
end
end
would produce approximately:
foo -> variable + upvalue
bar -> variable + upvalue
baz -> variable + upvalue
qux -> parameter
print -> variable + global
Ordinary locals would remain simply:
Why a modifier?
A modifier seems preferable to introducing a new semantic token type because upvalue describes a property of a variable reference rather than a fundamentally different kind of symbol.
It also fits the existing LuaLS representation of globals:
This gives editor themes a simple way to distinguish all four cases:
variable
variable + upvalue
variable + global
parameter
Scope
The upvalue modifier should be applied to references resolved to a variable declared in an enclosing lexical scope.
For example:
local x = 1
local function f()
print(x)
end
would be:
x declaration -> variable
x reference -> variable + upvalue
Nested closures should work recursively.
Motivation
This would allow VS Code themes to use different colors for locals, parameters, upvalues, and globals, making lexical scope much easier to understand in closure-heavy Lua/LuaJIT code.
LuaLS already performs the necessary lexical-scope resolution; this proposal would expose that information through semantic tokens.
LuaLS should expose whether a
variablereference is an upvalue through a newupvaluesemantic token modifier.Currently, local variables and upvalues are both reported as:
while globals are already distinguished using:
This makes it impossible for editors such as VS Code to visually distinguish local variables from upvalues.
Example
Currently the
valuereference inside the inner function is:It would be useful for LuaLS to report it as:
while the declaration remains:
Proposed semantic token model
For example:
would produce approximately:
Ordinary locals would remain simply:
Why a modifier?
A modifier seems preferable to introducing a new semantic token type because
upvaluedescribes a property of a variable reference rather than a fundamentally different kind of symbol.It also fits the existing LuaLS representation of globals:
This gives editor themes a simple way to distinguish all four cases:
Scope
The
upvaluemodifier should be applied to references resolved to a variable declared in an enclosing lexical scope.For example:
would be:
Nested closures should work recursively.
Motivation
This would allow VS Code themes to use different colors for locals, parameters, upvalues, and globals, making lexical scope much easier to understand in closure-heavy Lua/LuaJIT code.
LuaLS already performs the necessary lexical-scope resolution; this proposal would expose that information through semantic tokens.