Allow users to choose which editor to use for editing variable binary data

There has been a new feature introduced to view and edit binary data of variables:

https://code.visualstudio.com/updates/v1_64#_viewing-and-editing-binary-data

This is a powerful feature and has the potential to expose fine-grained workflows such as disassembly views. However, it enforces the user installs and uses the Hex Editor ms-vscode.hexeditor extension:

https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/blob/a7d2cfe5c56ac960584c9b8a7127fd5450792aa4/src/vs/workbench/contrib/debug/browser/variablesView.ts#L522

Can a setting be exposed to allow the user to override this behaviour and choose a different extension for inspecting variables?

[connor4312]

perhaps the hex editor functionality should become part of the VS Code core codebase?

That’s something we discussed, and decided to take a similar approach to the one we use flame chart where we install it on the fly. For a feature that a very small percentage of VS Code users are likely to see, we didn’t want to increase our overall footprint for it.

Can this contract be made public at that point and allow other extensions to be used? And even marked as experimental in the meantime?

I think it could be marked experimental after non-continuous memory is available (and when a few questions are sorted https://github.com/microsoft/debug-adapter-protocol/issues/239 https://github.com/microsoft/debug-adapter-protocol/issues/238).

[haneefdm]

Just pinging again. @connor4312 do you know what I can do to help? I know the HexEditor made some progress but it still falls short in terms of life-cycle management.

Also, with my extension, we don’t need VSCode proper to do any memory reads itself or worry about refreshes and life-cycle management. No need for a virtual file system either. This may need a second option on who manages the data model (actual reads/writes, binding to debug sessions, etc.) We can do a much better job and is not a one size fits all mechanism, because we are tailored for debugging. Not file editing.