Microsoft/TypeScript

Rationalize our presentation and handling of merged/alias symbols in the IDE.

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#3,025 opened on May 4, 2015

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 (3 comments) (0 reactions) (0 assignees)TypeScript (48,455 stars) (6,726 forks)batch import
Domain: APIDomain: LS: Quick InfoHelp WantedSuggestion

Description

Examples of where we could be better:

  1. Quick info for an alias could present information about the alias, as well as information about what the alias points to.
  2. Goto-type for a union type could allow you to go to any constituent union-type-element.
  3. Goto-def on a merged symbol could allow you to go to any declaration.
  4. Quick info on a merged symbol could show you all the constituent declaration pieces.

etc. etc.

Contributor guide

Tech stack
typescript
Domain
developer experiencetooling
Issue type
feature
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
4
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
over 1 week
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
stale
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
needs investigation
Prerequisites
TypeScript symbol modelIDE quick info APIs
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
10
Research direction
Investigate TypeScript's language service implementation, particularly the QuickInfo and GoToDefinition methods in src/services/languageService.ts. Understand how symbols are resolved and how merged declarations are handled. Consider using the checker's getAliasedSymbol and getMergedSymbols APIs. Propose a design for presenting alias and merged symbol information. Start with small test cases to understand current behavior.