Auto-Activation triggers from Content Assist do not seem to work (IEP-1662)

[sirOwlBeak]

Describe the bug
When a '.' character is entered after a pointer variable, the trigger to replace '.' with '->' characters for pointer fields does not seem to work. I have this setting enabled in de preferences (default setting anyway).

my environment is:
Espressif-IDE is an Integrated Development Environment(IDE) based on Eclipse CDT for developing IoT Applications using ESP-IDF framework.
Version: 3.7.1
Build id: 20251208-0956
OS: Linux, v.6.14.0-36-generic, x86_64 / gtk 3.24.41, WebKit 2.50.1
Java vendor: Eclipse Adoptium
Java runtime version: 21.0.6+7-LTS
Java version: 21.0.6

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Reference a pointer somewhere in your code
2. add '.' to trigger the automatic replacement to '->'
3. No automatic replacement happening

Expected behavior
I expected to have the '.' swapped with '->' characters and then trigger the auto complete box for this variable

Screenshots

Bug Report
Please attach the bug report zip file generated. The file is generated in the workspace root directory.
Espressif > Generate Bug Report

[github-actions]

Hi @sirOwlBeak! This is an automated response.
If you don’t find the answer helpful, please check the ESP32 IDE forum (https://www.esp32.com/viewforum.php?f=40) or GitHub issues (https://github.com/espressif/idf-eclipse-plugin/issues) to see if the issue has already been discussed.

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Espressif-IDE 3.x uses the new LSP-based C/C++ editor (clangd via CDT-LSP) instead of the classic CDT C/C++ editor and indexer. [LSP support; LSP blog]

The pointer “. → ->” replacement and related content-assist behaviors are features of the old CDT editor, which is no longer supported for ESP-IDF projects in Espressif-IDE 3.0.0 and later. [LSP blog] As a result, this specific auto-replacement is expected not to work in the new LSP C/C++ editor.

What you can do:

• Confirm you are using the LSP C/C++ editor (default in Espressif-IDE 3.7.1 for ESP-IDF projects). [Espressif-IDE index]
• If this behavior is important for your workflow, please file or update an issue in the idf-eclipse-plugin GitHub repository so it can be tracked as a feature request or regression: https://github.com/espressif/idf-eclipse-plugin/issues. [LSP blog]

The current documentation does not describe a way to re-enable the old CDT editor for ESP-IDF projects in Espressif-IDE 3.x, so there is no documented workaround within Espressif-IDE itself.

[sigmaaa]

Hi @sirOwlBeak,
Thanks for reporting this!

The “. → ->” auto-replacement is a feature of the default C/C++ editor in Eclipse CDT. Starting from Espressif-IDE 3.0.0, the IDE uses the CDT LSP–based editor instead, and this particular editor does not currently support that automatic substitution.

Because of that, this behavior isn’t controlled on the Espressif-IDE side, and the best place to request or track support for this feature is the CDT LSP project itself:
https://github.com/eclipse-cdt/cdt-lsp/issues

If they implement it in the LSP editor, it will automatically become available in future Espressif-IDE releases.

[sigmaaa]

Hi @sirOwlBeak,

Just a quick update — it looks like the CDT LSP team is already looking into this behavior: eclipse-cdt/cdt-lsp#560

[sirOwlBeak]

thank you for the update