VS Code + FORTRAN IntelliSense

[lukhirt]

Hi,

I just learned that Chris Hansen's repo (fortran-language-server) is no longer under development and you are the one who keeps it going nowadays :)
Currently I am still using the setup with Chris Hansen's fortls version, simply because I am making use of his VS Code extension (FORTRAN IntelliSense). I was thus wondering if your version of the fortran server may be used instead for this VS Code extension.
If not, could we please discuss shortly how could I benefit from your version of fortls when working in VS Code? :)

Cheers,
Lukasz

[gnikit]

Hi @lukhirt,

To briefly answer your question, yes you can replace fortran-language-server with fortls. This is the main reason why I kept the name fortls so people and code editor extensions would not have to support 2 language servers.

To be a bit more detailed:

Simply uninstalling fortran-language-server and installing fortls should already give you access to most new features I have added, but it will certainly not give you access, through VS Code settings.json, to all the new settings. You can use a .fortls file to circumvent that, since I have unified the command-line and json interfaces, but there is a much easier way.

I am also a developer for the VS Code Modern Fortran extension, so in VS Code we have complete control over Fortran support and features. I made the decision a while back that relying on FORTRAN Intellisense to have Language Server features in VS Code was a really bad idea, since that extension hasn't been updated for years.

In the Pre-Release version of the extension, and all versions moving forward, we can natively interface with fortls, so you no longer need to have FORTRAN Intellisense installed in your system.

A range of new settings should be available under fortran.fortls. to configure the language server from within Modern Fortran. FYI this still a work in progress see fortran-lang/vscode-fortran-support#293

The other main reason why I recommend to individuals to switch is for the shear number of bug fixes and new features fortls has when compared to fortran-language-server. You can find a condensed summary here

I hope that clears things up a bit.

P.S. the default settings Modern Fortran sets to fortls are pretty reasonable so it should be plug-n-play in most cases. Let me know if you have any troubles setting up.

[lukhirt]

Hi @gnikit,

Wow! That's a great news that everything is under Modern Fortran extension now.
I just gave it a try and yes, it works - I had to remove the other extension though to make it work, but well...
I will need to dive into documentation now and see what's in there, can't wait!

By the way, thanks for a thorough description, that helped a lot.

[gnikit]

No worries, glad I could help