Hi Edward,

This conversation is very valuable because I want to make the experience of 
installing and using LeoInteg easy and straightforward for all long-time 
(or not) users of Leo, irrespective of their familiarity with vscode. So 
thanks for putting out your very own thoughts as you experience the process 
of trying out this extension still in development! 
 
Because of my professional deformation for using vscode/sublime daily for 
the last 7 years or so, I'm having a hard time presenting the installation 
and usage methods to people unfamiliar with vscode in a clear and concise 
way. 

That is to be expected I guess :)

Although most of this will be irrelevant once I deem the project advanced 
enough to be compiled and distributed as an actual vscode extension 
(installed and ran seamlessly via the extension/market panel) It's still 
very much important because I also have to fine-tune what I show in the 
leoInteg panels, and in the readme, etc. 

Which brings me to what I think is the subtlety that make the whole process 
of 'testing a vscode extension still in development' a bit confusing: 
you're not running nor debugging my extension : you're running the whole of 
vscode's source itself (the second vscode window that opens when you press 
F5) with leoInteg in it, as if it was installed as a real extension. 

I hope that last paragraph made sense... English is a second language to 
me, so my sentence structures may be flaky at times. It's referred in the 
official doc as "compiling and running the extension in a new Extension 
Development Host window" 
https://code.visualstudio.com/api/get-started/your-first-extension

To help in clarifying all of this, I'm currently working on 
https://github.com/boltex/leointeg/issues/44 , so this is changing the 
appearance of the interface and, hopefully, going to help a lot in the 
startup, and automation of the server startup and the connection to it, so 
I'll make video captures right after I'm done with this. Hopefully before 
the week end. (I'm open to doing zoom sessions: as soon as I finish those 
changes on the interface)

But in the meantime, I'll address the numbered points you raised :

*Point 1:* yes, I meant the folder itself as such via the right-click 
context menu (once vscode is installed with defaults behavior on windows) 
see this screenshot: 


*Point 2: *addressed above, when pressing F5, you're running/debugging the 
*whole 
of vscode,* with the addition of leoInteg installed and running in it, as 
an extension. It's the normal way to try an extension that's still in 
development.

*Point 3: *(see pic below for nomenclature) leoInteg adds a (stand-alone) 
view in the side bar, accessible via the 'lion' icon in the activity bar. 
It's also 'reflected' (a "clone" in Leo's parlance if you will) by default 
in the explorer view of the side bar. (both the folder explorer and leo's 
outline rarely need to take the whole vertical space, and its nice to see 
them at the same time, that why I added a reflection of Leo's outline in 
vscode's explorer view)

[image: code basics hero]
LeoInteg also provides body pane(s), (as expected), a log pane, (at the 
bottom with the other output panels), a "Welcome/Settings webview" page 
similar to the gitLens welcome screen (
https://github.com/eamodio/vscode-gitlens) and some dialog windows that 
popup when external file changes are detected. (can be automated to always 
refresh for 2 way auto sync, see 
https://github.com/boltex/leointeg/issues/32#issuecomment-636386336 )

*Point 4:* you're right, and that's why i intend on making a small video by 
capturing myself installing and running the whole thing in a 
straightforward and unambiguous way. 

As it is now, upon activating, leoInteg will try to start the 
*leobridgeserver.py 
*python script itself, and connect to it on localhost. I'm currently 
changing this to not doing none of those 2 things and instead offer 2 
buttons in the outline pane, with a mention that those can be automated in 
the option settings. 

So that's it for now i guess, i'll go grab a coffee and finish those last 
points that will clear things up a lot... I'm pretty confident about it... 
:) 

In the meantime here's a vscode pro tip: ctrl+shift+p is the most useful 
command: it opens the command palette that lazy -searches to run any 
command, (equivalent to the minibuffer in leo? i think so)

...And lastly, just a reminder: if you happen to get things running , open 
your favorite Leo file in leoInteg and try to fill out the checkmarks in 
the test sheet :) 
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1M7TA3J0hkBpU4BkyChThrhzwKxhTPtQHacXDYRvEQes/edit?usp=sharing

I'll give some more updates and details later - thanks again for trying and 
reporting ! !

Félix


On Wednesday, June 3, 2020 at 12:34:28 PM UTC-4, Edward K. Ream wrote:
>
> On Friday, May 29, 2020 at 10:44:13 PM UTC-5, Félix wrote:
>
> > I just pushed a new version on the master branch of LeoInteg. ...I made 
> sure it runs well under Windows this time! ;) 
>
> Here is the list of things that confused me. Remember, I'm still a 
> complete vs-code newbie. Unless otherwise noted, I'm trying to follow the 
> instructions a leointeg/README.md.
>
> *Confusion 1*
>
> Here is part of the development version installation instruction from 
> README.md:
>
> QQQ
> Make sure you have Node.js and Git installed, then:
> 1. Get this repository: git clone https://github.com/boltex/leointeg.git
> 2. Right-click it -> open with vscode (or from a vscode window, File-> 
> Open Folder...)
> QQQ
>
> In point 2 above, what does "it" refer to? I guessed it meant the leointeg 
> folder itself. Iirc, I opened the folder from inside vs-code.
>
> *Confusion 2*
>
> This is more generic. I'm never quite sure what's your code, where it 
> resides, and what it supposed to do. In particular, F5 is bound (in 
> vs-code) to "Start debugging". But this is confusing! Debugging "what".
>
> I suppose Leo newbies might be confused in somewhat similar ways. But in 
> Leo, Ctrl-b, execute-script, clearly means execute p.b. What is the 
> equivalent of p.b in the vs-code world.
>
> *Confusion 3*
>
> I now see three main parts in the left-hand pane: Open Editors, Outline, 
> Timeline and Leo. I'm not sure which parts are due to leointeg. All of 
> them? What do they do?
>
> *Confusion 4*
>
> My guess is that vs-code remembers lots of state between invocations. No 
> doubt this is great for more experienced users, but it makes it difficult 
> for a newbie to know what a "clean" start would be like.
>
> *Summary*
>
> I'm pretty sure all these confusions can be cleared up fairly easily.
>
> Feel free to answer in writing, or to set up a zoom meeting if that would 
> be easier for you.
>
> Edward
>
>

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