GoTo-Symbol-Stack VSCode Extension

Extension for Visual Studio Code (VSCode) editor to jump to symbol (function, variable, ...) declaration, track the positions in a stack, navigate back and forth.

It is relying on the same function used natively by VSCode to jump to the symbol (the one with default key F12), but the native jump back (default Cmd/Ctrl+-) is tracking differently the positions (eg., storing when editing or when scrolling and making a short break), therefore this module provides an alternative, storing the positions only when jump to symbol is triggered.

The behaviour is somehow similar to jumping to ctags symbols in Vim editor and back to initial position (however, to make it clear, this extension does not require ctags at all).

The code for this extension is hosted at:

• https://github.com/miconda/vscode-goto-symbol-stack

Features

The navigation operations are:

• jump to symbol (go to declaration) - Alt+] - save current position on top of the stack and jump to symbol definition
• go to previous position (down on stack) - Alt+[ - jump to previous position saved in stack
• got to next position (up on stack) - Alt+Shift+] - jump to next position save in stack

Note: for MacOS, use Option key instead of Alt.

A screenshot while jumping to declaration of symbols and back with this extension enabled:

Navigation Notes

The position is saved on stack only when pressing Alt+]. It is not saving the position when being on top of the stack and pressing Alt+[ (go back), so navigation forward (Alt+Shift+]) goes up to the position when last Alt+] was pressed, not to the postion where cursor jumped after pressing last Alt+].

If there is no symbol at the position when Alt+] is pressed, the position is saved on top of the stack, so it can be used to keep track of other wanted placed in edited files.

Requirements

Initial version has been developed using VSCode v1.11.2, but it should work for earlier versions.

Extension Settings

Following VSCode commands with key bindings are exported by this extension.

    {
        "command": "extension.goto-symbol-stack.goToSymbolDeclaration",
        "key": "alt+]"
    },
    {
        "command": "extension.goto-symbol-stack.goPrevOnStack",
        "key": "alt+["
    },
    {
        "command": "extension.goto-symbol-stack.goNextOnStack",
        "key": "alt+shift+]"
    }

Key bindings can be changed via VSCode preferences.

All the VSCommands exported by this extension are presented next.

    {
        "command": "extension.goto-symbol-stack.goToSymbolDeclaration",
        "title": "GoToSymbolStack: goToSymbolDeclaration - save position on top of the stack and go to symbol declaration"
    },
    {
        "command": "extension.goto-symbol-stack.goPrevOnStack",
        "title": "GoToSymbolStack: goPrevOnStack - go to previous position in stack"
    },
    {
        "command": "extension.goto-symbol-stack.goNextOnStack",
        "title": "GoToSymbolStack: goNextOnStack - go to next position in stack"
    },
    {
        "command": "extension.goto-symbol-stack.clearFilePosStack",
        "title": "GoToSymbolStack: clearFilePosStack - empty the file positions stack"
    }

Installation

The extension is published on VSCode Marketplace at:

• https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=miconda.goto-symbol-stack

To install it from the marketplace, launch VS Code Quick Open (Cmd+P or ⌘+P), paste the following command, and press enter.

ext install goto-symbol-stack

To install from Git repository, clone it to your account VSCode folder (on MacOS or Linux, that is ~/.vscode/extensions):

cd ~/.vscode/extensions
git clone https://github.com/miconda/vscode-goto-symbol-stack

The extension needs to be enabled from VSCode preferences.

Known Issues

Tested only on MacOS on files with C code.

ToDo

• command to show details of the positions stored in the stack
• ...

Contributions are welcome, use github.com pull requests of the project:

• https://github.com/miconda/vscode-goto-symbol-stack

Developers

Initial Author:

• Daniel-Constantin Mierla (@miconda)

Contributors:

• @newro

Copyright

Daniel-Constantin Mierla (asipto.com)

License: MIT

Release Notes

1.1.0 (2017-06-08)

• added the ability to save and load stack information for workspace
• improved multi-editor group behavior
• support to move stack info with multiple view column

For release notes of older versions, see CHANGELOG.md file.

Enjoy!