LSP Auto-Activation
A language server is a proofreader for one programming language: it spots the typo, the missing import, the call to something that does not exist. Pando carries a proofreader for each common language and calls the right one the moment it touches a file. You set up nothing.
What it does for you
- Pando checks its own work. After changing a file it asks the proofreader for problems, and fixes them before telling you it is done.
- Nothing to configure. Pando recognises the language from the file name and knows which proofreader goes with it. Its catalogue covers more than forty languages.
- Nothing wasted. A proofreader starts only when a file of its language shows up. If you never open a Rust file, the Rust one never starts.
- Missing ones install themselves. Many are downloaded the first time they are needed. For the rest, Pando tells you the command to run.
How it feels in practice
You ask for a change in a Python file. Pando edits it, and a moment later adds: “there was an unused import, I removed it”. That second look came from the proofreader.
You also see the problem counts in the terminal interface’s status bar, and next to the lines when you browse a file in the editor.
When to use it
It is on from the start and most people leave it alone. Open its settings when you want to:
- add a proofreader for a language Pando does not know,
- make one start with Pando because it is slow to warm up,
- silence one you do not want,
- have problems reported while you only read files, not just when Pando edits them.
Good to know
- If a proofreader is not installed and cannot be installed automatically, Pando marks it as unavailable and stops trying. No stream of errors.
- If one crashes, Pando does not restart it in the same session. Restart Pando to try again.
- Some need a project file to make sense of your code, such as
go.modfor Go. - Your own settings always win over the built-in ones.