VSCode support for bad chars

[lonix1]

VSCode now has built-in support for detecting "bad" characters.

Is this extension obsolete, or does it offer more features? I've been using it for a while and unsure whether to keep it or not?

[reneroth]

I saw that this extension seems to be deprecated, so I came along just to give a big "thank you" to @WengerK for providing us with this functionality all these years! 🙌🏻 This has been a lifesaver for those of us who managed to always accidentally press Alt+Space on Mac OS with their sticky fingers, resulting in unexplainable error messages.

[lonix1]

I don't think it's been deprecated (that isn't mentioned anywhere). Also, it shouldn't be deprecated as it could be providing extra functionality that the new vscode "bad char detection" feature isn't providing.

I've been using this extension and the Gremlins extension together for years. I made a similar note on the Gremlins tracker and apparently there is much that vscode still doesn't do. So there is life for both of these extensions.

It would be useful for us to determine which features this extension provides in addition to vscode, and document that in the README. When vscode supports all those features then this extension can be deprecated, but I have a feeling that won't happen anytime soon as vscode's support is minimal.

[mattvrydaghs]

I just ran into a instance where a file had a lot of hidden unicode characters that VS Code didn't highlight, but this extension and Gremlins did (I also use both extensions)

[fenhl]

This extension offers the ability to define additional characters to highlight, which the built-in feature doesn't.