Having difficulty getting used to writing GDScript coming from C#

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Having difficulty getting used to writing GDScript coming from C#

award

There seem to be a lot of advantages to running the standard engine over the mono version such as smaller build size, no compilation, and extremely fast deployment. For that reason I thought I'd give GDScript a go. But I'm a longtime C# developer, and I've been extremely spoiled by JetBrains' Rider IDE.

When I'm working in GDScript, I really miss my IDE navigation and refactoring features such as "Go to declaration", "Find usages", context-aware rename-refactoring, more-robust auto-complete, etc. I tried using Rider as my GDScript editor using the Godot Support and GDScript plugins, but it still doesn't provide me with most of those features, and it causes some new headaches. Exported variables aren't shown in the inspector after I've created them by modifying the file externally. Rider is fine mixing tabs and spaces, but the GDScript parser isn't (and doesn't tell me until I try running the code)

I realize that not having these context features is directly related to some of the known and listed disadvantages of GDScript being a dynamically-typed language, and so I understand if there isn't any software which provides them. Still, if anyone has something that helps them with this in Godot, Rider, or any other editor, then I would love to know about it. Or just if anyone has tips about how they deal with the headache of refactoring GDScript in the engine editor, I'd love to hear that as well. Thanks! <3

Edit: I'm in 4.X right now because of some of the beta features I want, but I'm still interested in any solutions that might work in 3.X but not 4 yet.

cybereality

You can use Control + Left Click to go to the function definition. If it's an API function, it will go to the documentation. Refactoring is pretty bad (basically not existent). For that I use an external editor. Geany on Linux works, or Sublime Text, whatever, it doesn't have to be anything fancy. You can also look into VSCode. That probably has the best support in terms of external IDEs for Godot. I still perfer the built-in editor, since everything is in one window, but it does have the more advanced features you probably want.

Pixophir

I am all for GDScript for high level coding, but if those features are a hard requirement then it may be better to stick with C#. For scripting, I'd weigh them against the better integration and built-in help/lookup without alt-tabbing through browser and terminal windows, as well as warnings and errors while typing.

Refactoring scripts isn't that much of an issue if some standards and naming-conventions are observed right from the start. Scripts are rarely larger than a few 10s or lines. Yeah, they are scattered all over a project, that can't be helped for now.

I rarely refactor even in C++, and if I do it needs careful planning and is nothing that can be automated.

cybereality

I find I rarely have to refactor scripts. In fact, I've been working with Godot for 3 years, and I don't think I've done it more than like 2 or 3 times. Refactoring is important for architecture projects, usually like with C++ or languages like that, if you are writing libraries or complex code. For scripting, it is rare to need major refactors, as your scripts should be essentially self contained, and not very long, so usually find and replace on a function name or variable will be enough. Or just choose the right names from the beginning, I've got into a flow and I use the same style on all my projects, similar variable names, etc. so there are no mistakes. But if you do have the need, here and there, you can briefly use VSCode or whatever to clean something up.

award

Tried VSCode and it does seem to at least work better for those needs, so thanks! Still hitting the issue of scripts actually not reloading at all when they've been externally edited though. Maybe that's a bug specific to Godot 4? I can't seem to find a way around it either other than Reload Current Project, which is not a great solution. Is there a simple way I'm not finding of just forcing a single script to reload at least?

cybereality

Might be a bug. It usually worked fine in Godot 3.x, though it would have a popup sometimes that asks you to reload the script.

award

I just tested in 3.3.4 and scripts are automatically reloaded in Godot without hassle. So it does seem to be a bug. Is there any way in the Godot editor that I can manually force a file to reload? My googling only turns up how to do it from script.

award

It seems possibly related to this issue: https://github.com/godotengine/godot/issues/66792

cybereality

Yes, that seems like it may be the core issue. But it might help to make a new bug with detailed reproductions steps and a simple project to show the problem. It does not appear they understand the scope of the issue. Using a name for the bug like "Externally Edited Scripts are Not Reloaded Into the Editor" might help them understand.

award

There was another (longstanding) ticket that was more specific to this bug. It seems like it's fixed now? Probably got squashed separately in the 3.x and 4.0 branches.

https://github.com/godotengine/godot/issues/24633