When LSP fails

[havrlisan 24]

In this post, I'll share all the workarounds I use when LSP fails, which have greatly helped me during coding. Hopefully, you'll find them useful before Embarcadero completely fixes the LSP Server, which I'm sure will be soon. 

I'll also mention GExperts throughout this post, as it includes some useful features that can speed up using the tools listed below.

 

Delphi Uses Helper

Link: https://delphisorcery.blogspot.com/2021/03/introducing-delphi-uses-helper.html

Feature: proper replacement for the Find Unit... refactor (Ctrl+Shift+A) feature.
Description
This has been by far the most helpful plugin. It's as simple as typing the name of a type and pressing Ctrl+Shift+A to find the unit where it's declared. When the window pops up, you can press Enter to add the unit to the uses section (use the left/right arrows to switch between interface and implementation sections), or press Shift+Enter to open the unit and jump to the line where the type is declared.

GExperts bonus: The IDE already has a similar feature under the Refactor menu with the same shortcut, Ctrl+Shift+A, but it doesn’t work well and is certainly not as fast as Delphi Uses Helper. However, sometimes the default feature will trigger instead of the plugin (e.g., when pressing the shortcut without any text at the caret position). To remove the default shortcut, use GExperts' IDE Menu Shortcuts: find the shortcut under Refactor > Find Unit... (it should be the last one), and assign it to another key.

 

 

MMX - Show Related Classes

Link: https://www.mmx-delphi.de/

Feature: shows ancestor class, implemented interfaces, and sibling classes for a given class.
Description

Want to quickly navigate to a class’s ancestor or interface, or find out which siblings it has? This feature gives you exactly that, neatly and efficiently.

To use it, right-click and go to MMX Commands > Navigate and Move > Show Related Classes. Or even better, map a shortcut by going to MMX > Properties > Key Bindings and finding Show Related Classes. I’ve personally mapped it to Shift+Alt+3.

 

 

MMX - Open Unit...

Link: https://www.mmx-delphi.de/

Feature: displays searchable units based on set configuration. 
Description

Quickly displays all units based on your configuration. The configuration allows for adding units from the currently opened project or project group, and the following paths: Project Search path, IDE Library path, and IDE Browsing path.

 

 

Find Original Symbol

Feature: additional help navigating to a unit, type, or method.
Description

Using Find Declaration (Ctrl+Click) is known to fail occasionally, especially on bigger projects. What I've found helpful at times is to try using the Find Original Symbol that's located under the Search > Find Symbols menu item. I've personally mapped the Find Declaration to Ctrl+< and the Find Original Symbol to Ctrl+Shift+< through the GExperts IDE Menu Shortcuts, and I spam them when needed. It does help sometimes.

 

 

Add a shortcut to the Reload LSP Server menu item
Link: https://github.com/havrlisan/zx-idetools/blob/main/Source/Zx.IT.KeyBinding.ReloadLSPServer.pas

Description

In Delphi 12.1, a menu item Reload LSP Server was added under the Tools menu. Before that, you could add a custom tool to manually kill the LSP, and the IDE would restart it automatically. Unfortunately, they didn't add a shortcut for the menu item, so your options are limited to mouse clicks or to clicking Alt > T > accelerated key. Note that the accelerated key will be automatically assigned, and it depends on your menu items under the Tools menu, which sucks because that's the most changeable menu (because of custom tools, or third-party plugins).

Usually, I'd use GExperts IDE Menu Shortcuts to manually add the shortcut, but the Reload LSP Server menu item doesn't show up there. After some debugging, I realized that the menu item in question isn't registered on IDE startup, but is loaded sometime after all other packages are loaded. My best guess is that the GExperts remembers the menu items when loaded, and doesn't re-fetch them afterward (I'm too lazy to search through the source code, sorry).

So I decided to implement an IDE notifier that listens to a "ProjectGroupOpen" notification and then tries to find the Reload LSP Server menu item and assigns the shortcut to it. I've set the default shortcut to Alt+Shift+W, but the code is quite simple and is easily portable to a package of your own.

 

 

That's all I've got so far. If you have some other features or tips, feel free to share them in this post!

 

Edited September 20 by havrlisan