[ISSUE] Workbench extension instability (was Ctlr+Shift+B ... task list is now empty)

Developer Tools Particle Workbench
1

Noticed the clean tasks disappeared a few days back, now all build tasks are gone.
Drop down says "No build tasks to run found. Configure Build Task…

Alpha 4 build.

?

2

And while we are at it, CTRL+SHIFT+P only displays 9 “Particle:” tasks in the “other commands” drop down. Seems quite a few of the full set are now missing.

3

thanks for the report @WoobaGooba. to better help, we’ll need more info - see: Information: How to report bugs and provide feedback

4

I’ve gone from a functioning workbench, building and flashing to completely useless.

Disappearing task lists occurred with VSC 1.29.1 and extensions alpha 4 on Win 10 64 bit.

Attempts to reload the extensions did not fix the issue.

Finally attempted to uninstall and re-install VSC. Lots of fun here, VSC does not entirely wipe during the uninstall process. StackOverflow provided detail re: purging the extensions and setup/history.

Finally have a fresh VSC installed. Theme, Snippets, and Code do install. Code is particularly mysterious. This takes nearly 10 minutes to install, and has twice loaded C/C++ Extensions 1, 2, and 3. C/C++ Extensions seem to load whenever I open/create a new folder in Explorer and after I create a new Particle Project …each time taking many minutes. And VSC does not start acting like a Particle customization (none of the Tasks will function) until after the C/C++ Extensions have finished loading. It essentially takes 10 minutes to create a folder or Particle Project

Workbench seems to be functioning. Workspace has no target or firmware version set. I set firmware to 0.6.0, target to electron , CTRL-SHIFT-B task list is empty again. Cut the following lines out of -workspace …
“particle.firmwareVersion”: “0.6.0”,
“particle.targetDevice”: “electron”

Save file, VSC starts loading the C/C++ extensions again! But the build task list is again populated.

Exiting and re-starting VSC, again installs the C/C++ extensions.

Also, unlike the install tutorial, I have not been auto prompted to load any local compilers.

Finally have a stable 0.7.0/electron workbench. Compile seems OK. CLI particle update is complaining !!! There was an error trying to execute DFU utilities.

Coming from Eclipse environment, I am massively confused with VSC notion of workspace, folder, and a Particle project. How do they relate, typical workflow, recommended usage, explorer structure, etc.

*** WARNING: MAY CONTAIN CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION - PLEASE SANITIZE BEFORE SHARING ***
To report an issue, visit:
https://community.particle.io/t/information-how-to-report-bugs-and-provide-feedback/44245

{
    "vscode": {
        "appName": "Visual Studio Code",
        "appRoot": "c:\\Users\\woobagooba\\AppData\\Local\\Programs\\Microsoft VS Code\\resources\\app",
        "version": "1.29.1"
    },
    "cli": {
        "binpath": "C:\\Users\\woobagooba\\.vscode\\extensions\\particle.particle-vscode-core-1.0.0-alpha.4\\src\\cli\\bin\\windows\\amd64\\particle.exe",
        "ok": true,
        "version": "1.35.2"
    },
    "localCompiler": {
        "dependencies": [
            "deviceOS@0.7.0",
            "gcc-arm@5.3.1",
            "buildtools@1.0.0",
            "buildscripts@1.0.0",
            "deviceOS@0.6.4",
            "gcc-arm@4.9.3"
        ]
    },
    "platform": {
        "os": "windows",
        "type": "Windows_NT",
        "release": "10.0.17134",
        "arch": "x64",
        "path": {
            "key": "Path",
            "value": "... "
        },
        "homeDir": "C:\\Users\\woobagooba",
        "particleDir": "C:\\Users\\woobagooba\\.particle",
        "localCompilerToolchainDir": "C:\\Users\\woobagooba\\.particle\\toolchains"
    },

    "versions": {
        "http_parser": "2.7.0",
        "node": "8.9.3",
        "v8": "6.1.534.41",
        "uv": "1.15.0",
        "zlib": "1.2.11",
        "ares": "1.10.1-DEV",
        "modules": "57",
        "nghttp2": "1.25.0",
        "openssl": "1.0.2n"
    },
    "extensions": [
        {
            "id": "ms-vscode.node-debug",
            "version": "1.29.2"
        },
        {
            "id": "ms-vscode.node-debug2",
            "version": "1.29.5"
        },
        {
            "id": "ms-vscode.references-view",
            "version": "0.0.8"
        },
        {
            "id": "marus25.cortex-debug",
            "version": "0.1.21"
        },
        {
            "id": "ms-vscode.cpptools",
            "version": "0.20.1"
        },
        {
            "id": "particle.particle-vscode-core",
            "version": "1.0.0-alpha.4"
        },
        {
            "id": "particle.particle-vscode-snippets",
            "version": "1.0.0-alpha.4"
        },
        {
            "id": "particle.particle-vscode-theme",
            "version": "1.0.0-alpha.4"
        }
    ]
}

*** WARNING: MAY CONTAIN CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION - PLEASE SANITIZE BEFORE SHARING ***
To report an issue, visit:
https://community.particle.io/t/information-how-to-report-bugs-and-provide-feedback/44245