Cannot create projects with swift extension

[suvnoque]

Bug Description:

Cannot create new project with the swift extension

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Install Swift extension
2. Run command "Swift: Create New Project..."
3. Error message appears

Additional Information

• Operating System: Windows 10 Home
• Theia Version: 1.57.100

[JonasHelming]

@tsmaeder

[tsmaeder]

That looks like the extension is trying to load something from VS Code's node-modules folder. We don't have such a folder since we are webpack-bundling our back end. It looks like the code in question is https://github.com/swiftlang/vscode-swift/blob/main/src/utilities/native.ts There's also microsoft/node-pty#582 and the discussion in microsoft/vscode#658. T.b.h, I don't really know what we could do except trying to reproduce the exact environment VS Code provides, but even the MS devs warn that this environment is not stable.

[tsmaeder]

I think @msujew knows a bit about platform-specific extensions. Maybe he has an idea?

[sdirix]

We have a similar issue for another extension: #14638

i.e. some extensions expect some binaries in specific places in the delivery

[msujew]

Note that we had the same discussion @tsmaeder in #13779. We definitely could reproduce the VS Code environment (sans the exact version of node-pty). It shouldn't be too much work, but it's rather a question of whether we want to support that.

[tsmaeder]

I am just wary of setting up another regular task where we have to track the node_modules folder in VS code. Maybe we just should set up some "common library" of node modules that we make available in the plugin host. The trouble is then if folks rely on behavior of a particular version (e.g. node-pty has many preview versions). The same will happen to extensions as VS code updates their versions of packaged node modules, though.

[sdirix]

I think a low effort approach to place some of our dependencies/binaries in the same location as VS Code does, makes sense. Just to be a bit more compatible in a pragmatic fashion.

I completely agree with @tsmaeder that we should not try to replicate VS Code's environment 100% as this will require a lot of work and is not encouraged anyway.

[msujew]

@sdirix With the current webpack/bundling setup, it's rather complicated to exclude specific dependencies to remain inside the node_modules. And how even is an adopter supposed to figure out which node_modules folders are required and which are not when packaging their app for production?

I've provided a PR #14720 to fix any extension that specifically requires the node-pty package. This method can be extended to support all of VSCode's bundled packages.