Should the native TypeScript LSP include top-level imports in its `textDocument/documentSymbol` response?

[colecrouter]

Acknowledgement

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Comment

Question

The existing VS Code TypeScript extension intentionally filters imports from
the Outline view. This behavior was introduced in:

• Top-level imports should be de-emphasised in outline view vscode#50829
• microsoft/vscode@f1efd11

The native TypeScript LSP currently appears to include imports instead. For
example:

import DefaultComponent from './component';
import * as utils from './utils';
import { value, original as renamed } from './values';
import type { Options } from './types';

Expected Behavior

I am not certain which behavior is intended. I would appreciate clarification
on whether:

1. The difference from the existing VS Code TypeScript extension is intentional.
2. The native LSP should preserve the established Outline behavior.

The LSP specification does not appear to describe whether imports should be
reported as document symbols, so this seems to be a language-server policy
decision.

Motivation

Including imports can substantially clutter the Outline without providing much value in return. Knowing the intended behavior would help determine whether downstream servers and users should expect that behavior to cease when adopting TS 7.

[jakebailey]

I don't think this was intentional, it's just that we didn't know that VS Code's TS extension was filtering these. We've always returned them over the wire and continued to do so over LSP.

I'm not personally opposed to changing this, though I don't know what Visual Studio expects here.