Types show differently in VSCode and DevTools

[annagrin]

Platforms: macos, (soon web as well, after dart-lang/webdev#2103)

VSCode

DevTools

Questions

• Should we display types similarly in VSCode and DevTools?
• Should we make the representation realistic, i.e. if the field is showing in DevTools/VSCode then the user can access it via expression evaluation, unless it is shown as private?
  • Currently 0.runtimeType.name field is not accessible (does not compile) but shows in DevTools
  • Currently (0,1).runtimeType.$1 is not accessible (does not compile) but shows in VSCode

Related: dart-lang/webdev#2103

[annagrin]

/cc @bkonyi @nshahan @elliette @DanTup

[elliette]

@helin24 is currently working on having DevTools use the Debug Adapter Protocol (https://microsoft.github.io/debug-adapter-protocol/) which will ensure the representation of objects is consistent across DevTools and VS Code. The inconsistencies seen here will be handled by that work.

[annagrin]

@elliette thanks! That would resolve question 1. Another question I had was whether we would like the type representation to be realistic:

• Should we make the representation realistic, i.e. if the field is showing in DevTools/VSCode then the user can access it via expression evaluation, unless it is shown as private?
  • Currently 0.runtimeType.name field is not accessible (does not compile) but shows in DevTools

/cc @bkonyi