Problem

If a user misses to install an important language extension that provides debugging (like python or java), the setup of run & debug makes a lot less sense. The provided defaults in "Select Environments" are all meant for JS and don't give any additional context.

In usertesting we saw most Java/Python users without the right extension give up on "run & debug", and one even try Chrome-debugging on a python file. None of them clicked on the nondescript "More …" in "Select Environment" (which opens the search for debugger extensions).

Solutions

The run & debug viewlet and setup prompt could use file and workspace recommendations to highlight a shortlist of extensions that the user should install to make debugging easier.

We could start with a small scope for Java, C++ and Python and run this as experiment.

cc @sana-ajani @stevencl @isidorn