Breaking Changes in v4.0.0

[w0rp]

This issue lists features removed and other breaking changes in ALE v4.0.0.

Removed Features

1. :ALEInfoToClipboard - Use :ALEInfo -clipboard or the plug mapping instead.
2. The quite old fallback setting name g:ale_linters_sh_shell_default_shell has been removed. Use g:ale_sh_shell_default_shell instead.
3. The quite old fallback setting name g:ale_linters_sh_shellcheck_exclusions has been removed. Use g:ale_sh_shellcheck_exclusions instead.
4. The old ale_lsp_root setting is no longer supported. Use ale_root instead.

Older Tools Support Removed

1. ember-template-lint versions below 1.6.0 are no longer supported.

Other Breaking Changes

1. Maybe: Respect PEP 704 virtualenv path default #4481 The ve-py3 directory name is no longer among the names ALE searches for by default for virtualenv directories. Set your g:ale_virtualenv_dir_names setting if you still need it.

New Deprecations

1. Use the ale_deno_import_map option for the Deno import map instead of ale_deno_importMap.

[vimpostor]

As the author of the original vim virtual text emulation, I propose to remove that specific compatibility code (i.e. emulating virtual text with popup-windows).

It is a total hack, has various edge cases where it is outright bugged (e.g. try it in split windows) and I replaced it with proper virtual text from vim9 a while ago.

The emulated virtual text also targets only a very limited number of vim versions, as it requires features from late vim 8.2, but proper virtual text is available with early vim 9.0. To avoid people being confused with buggy virtual text, I think it would be better to only provide the proper virtual text implementation.

Also g:ale_virtualtext_cursor = 'all' (the default) is not supported with emulated virtual text.

[w0rp]

@vimpostor I'm keeping Vim 8.0 support for this version of ALE. I'll still wait a few years before I make Vim 9.0 the minimum supported version, and then we can remove a huge chunk of code from the ALE codebase. ale#sign#ParseSigns and ale#sign#ReadSigns will be good ones to remove when 9.0 is the minium supported version.

[vimpostor]

@vimpostor I'm keeping Vim 8.0 support

Virtual text emulation requires vim 8.2

[nospam2998]

There is a mismatch between documentation and implementation for ale_lua_language_server_config/ ale_lua_lua_language_server_config which could be fixed by applying #4581 and updating the docs.

A more correct fix might perhaps be to update the implementation, as the variable name with a repeated _lua fits the naming standard for ale options. One could argue on whether that would be a breaking change or not. Technically it is, but I doubt anyone has ever managed to use an ale with a unpatched lua-language-server until today because of LuaLS/lua-language-server#2318. If it is considered a breaking change, it might be worth considering fixing it for 4.0.