Inactive code block not working correctly (IEP-1500)

[mmrein]

Describe the bug

Apart that LSP editor makes inactive code block look like comment, which looses its syntax higlhight and therefore makes multi-target builds much harder, it can even be straight up wrong.

Screenshots

I made myself some core affinity setup indication so I can see it at one place without needing to run sdkconfig and searching through various components.

This is how it looked in IDE v2.12 - you can see which configuration is active and which is not:

And this is same setup with IDE v3.3:

Steps to reproduce

You can try adding this or simillar code to you project and build it:

/* ESP System Settings / Main task core affinity */
#if defined CONFIG_ESP_MAIN_TASK_AFFINITY_NO_AFFINITY	// Main task has affinity
#elif defined CONFIG_ESP_MAIN_TASK_AFFINITY_CPU0		// Main task set to Core 0
#elif defined CONFIG_ESP_MAIN_TASK_AFFINITY_CPU1		// Main task set to Core 1
#endif
/* WiFi / WiFi task */		
#if defined CONFIG_ESP32_WIFI_TASK_PINNED_TO_CORE_0		// WiFi task set to Core 0
#elif defined CONFIG_ESP32_WIFI_TASK_PINNED_TO_CORE_1	// WiFi task set to Core 1
#endif
/* MDF Common / MDF task */
#if defined CONFIG_MDF_PINNED_TO_CORE_0					// MDF task set to Core 0
#elif defined CONFIG_MDF_PINNED_TO_CORE_1				// MDF task set to Core 1
#endif
/* LWIP / TCPIP task affinity */
#if defined CONFIG_LWIP_TCPIP_TASK_AFFINITY_NO_AFFINITY	// TCPIP task has affinity
#elif defined CONFIG_LWIP_TCPIP_TASK_AFFINITY_CPU0		// TCPIP task set to Core 0
#elif defined CONFIG_LWIP_TCPIP_TASK_AFFINITY_CPU1		// TCPIP task set to Core 1
#endif
/* mDNS task - may be used with webpages */
#if defined CONFIG_MDNS_TASK_AFFINITY_NO_AFFINITY		// mDNS task has affinity
#elif defined CONFIG_MDNS_TASK_AFFINITY_CPU0			// mDNS task set to Core 0
#elif defined CONFIG_MDNS_TASK_AFFINITY_CPU1			// mDNS task set to Core 1
#endif

Expected behavior

Clear and correct distinction between active and inactive code block, preferably by change of background color of whole block while keeping original syntax highlight.

Espressif-IDE Product Information:

espprodinf.txt

[github-actions]

Hi @mmrein! 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.

---

Thank you for reporting this issue with inactive code blocks in Espressif-IDE. This appears to be related to the LSP (Language Server Protocol) integration in the newer versions of Espressif-IDE.

Based on the knowledge sources, Espressif-IDE 3.0 and later versions use CDT LSP for code editing features. The latest version 3.1.0 specifically mentions "Full support for CDT Language Server Protocol (LSP) 2.0, providing enhanced code navigation, syntax highlighting, and error checking" as one of its new features Espressif IDE 3.1.0 Release.

The issue you're experiencing is that inactive code blocks (code within #if/#elif directives that are not active based on your current configuration) are being displayed as comments, losing their syntax highlighting. This makes it difficult to work with multi-target builds and can lead to confusion about which configuration options are actually active.

Your example with the core affinity settings is particularly relevant, as these configuration options exist across multiple ESP32 variants as shown in the documentation for ESP32, ESP32-C3, and other variants.

For this specific issue, I recommend:

1. Reporting this bug through the official GitHub repository at https://github.com/espressif/idf-eclipse-plugin/issues
2. Include your screenshots and code example as you've done here
3. Specify that you'd prefer inactive code blocks to maintain their syntax highlighting while being visually distinguishable from active code

In the meantime, you might consider using Espressif-IDE version 2.12.1 for projects where this functionality is critical, as the documentation notes: "For ESP-IDF version 4.x and earlier, please use Espressif-IDE version 2.12.1."

[mmrein]

Might as well address some more points:

• All three bot recomendations were done in the first place
• I am still using IDE 2.12 with IDF v4.4 in production, but I need to switch to IDF v5+ finally as there are some major security issues addressed there (WPA3 for SoftAP/mesh mainly)
• I tried using VSCode with clangd extension which would solve this issue as expected, but it unfortunatelly reports tons of false errors and is unusable for that reason. Tried reporting it in [Feature Request]: Better support for clangd extenstion out of the box (VSC-1527) vscode-esp-idf-extension#1352, but that went nowhere and just autoclosed (in 14 days...) for inactivity.