Auto-importing modules as namespaces?

[rauschma]

I’m not sure what the best way is to fix this, but: auto-importing is incredibly helpful. Alas, it only works for named exports. However, imports such as the following are frequent in Node.js and there, you get no help:

import * as path from 'path';

Possible solution: offer an auto-import if:

• there is an unknown foo followed by a dot and
• foo is the base name of a module.

[RyanCavanaugh]

Can you clarify what you're typing and when you'd expect this to show up?

[rauschma]

• Typing: path. (path being an unknown identifier).
• Quick fix suggestion: auto-import 'path'.

But I’m open to anything that helps with import * as: maybe there doesn’t have to be a dot after path. Then auto-importing would be offered for both namespace imports and named imports.

If something is already imported as a namespace, we ought to (but don't currently) prefix a completion with the namespace name, rather than adding a new named import.

As a second issue we might consider adding an option to always make a namespace import even if one doesn't already exist.

[rauschma]

As a second issue we might consider adding an option to always make a namespace import even if one doesn't already exist.

I don’t think that that would be useful:

• With path, both named imports and namespace imports are common.
• My thinking usually starts with: “something in module path”. Therefore, I’d prefer it if an IDE would namespace-import path for me when I first mention its name.

[mhegazy]

So the suggestion here is to offer the names of modules in the completion list with an additional action to import them? i.e. path would show up as a completion entry in the global scope.

[rauschma]

Yes! But I’m not sure what you mean by “in the global scope”. path would be global-ish, but the suggestion would appear anywhere, independent of scope.

[rauschma]

Oh, and it could be complemented by a quick fix offering to namespace-import path whenever that identifier is ever unknown anywhere.

[mhegazy]

My only worry is the amount of unrelated names we put in the completion list.

[DanielRosenwasser]

My only worry is the amount of unrelated names we put in the completion list.

True, but we already add in every possible named export in a project context.