ale_hover_cursor is not respected after ALE is initialized

[k4yt3x]

Information

VIM version

NVIM v0.10.1
Build type: Release

Operating System: Arch Linux 6.10.10-arch1-1

What went wrong

TL;DR: g:ale_hover_cursor is only checked when ALE is initializing. Setting this variable afterwards does not change ALE's behavior. Setting g:ale_hover_cursor in Lazy's config callback per ALE's README example does not work.

I recently started trying noice.nvim and noticed that a window pops up when I move my cursor around:

After looking around and disabling different plugins like coc.nvim and others, I narrowed the issue down to ALE. After searching the internet and asking GPT, I tried adding these into my Nvim config, but they didn't help:

• vim.g.ale_echo_cursor = 0
• vim.g.ale_hover_cursor = 0
• vim.g.ale_cursor_detail = 0

So I turned on debug logging and started tracing the code to see where it came from. Here's the traced callstack:

• cursor.vim : ale#cursor#Echom : 17
• cursor.vim : ale#cursor#TruncatedEcho : 41
• hover.vim : ale#hover#HandleLSPResponse : 250
• hover.vim : s:OnReady : 284
• hover.vim : ale#hover#Show : 335
• hover.vim : ale#hover#ShowTruncatedMessageAtCursor : 363
• events.vim : ale#events#Init : 218

Specifically, after the initialization register the hover callback here on line 218 of events.vim:

ale/autoload/ale/events.vim

Lines 217 to 219 in a7ef181

	if g:ale_hover_cursor
	autocmd CursorHold * if exists('*ale#lsp#Send') | call ale#hover#ShowTruncatedMessageAtCursor() | endif
	endif

... the ale#hover#ShowTruncatedMessageAtCursor function does not check for the g:ale_hover_cursor anymore:

ale/autoload/ale/hover.vim

Lines 350 to 371 in a7ef181

	function! ale#hover#ShowTruncatedMessageAtCursor() abort
	let l:buffer = bufnr('')
	let l:pos = getpos('.')[0:2]
	if !getbufvar(l:buffer, 'ale_enabled', 1)
	return
	endif
	if l:pos != s:last_pos
	let s:last_pos = l:pos
	let [l:info, l:loc] = ale#util#FindItemAtCursor(l:buffer)
	if empty(l:loc)
	call ale#hover#Show(
	\ l:buffer,
	\ l:pos[1],
	\ l:pos[2],
	\ {'truncated_echo': 1},
	\)
	endif
	endif
	endfunction

In other words, changing this variable after the callback is registered won't alter ALE's behavior. I am reporting this as a "bug" because this is not my expected behavior. In ALE's documentations, we can set variables in Lazy's config section:

ale/README.md

Lines 296 to 312 in a7ef181

	#### [lazy.nvim](https://github.com/folke/lazy.nvim)
	```lua
	{
	'dense-analysis/ale',
	config = function()
	-- Configuration goes here.
	local g = vim.g
	g.ale_ruby_rubocop_auto_correct_all = 1
	g.ale_linters = {
	ruby = {'rubocop', 'ruby'},
	lua = {'lua_language_server'}
	}
	end
	}
	```

However, setting vim.g.ale_hover_cursor in the config callback function doesn't really work:

It has to be set before require('lazy').setup() is executed, so I think this is a bit counterintuitive. Perhaps it'll be better to add another check for the variable in ale#hover#ShowTruncatedMessageAtCursor or somewhere that makes it possible to change ale_hover_cursor on the fly without doing ALEToggle twice?

In the event this won't be fixed, for anyone that's having the same issue, just do vim.g.ale_hover_cursor = 0 before require('lazy').setup() and it should be fine.

Reproducing the bug

1. Install folke/noice.nvim
2. Install ALE
3. Open a file with LSP support and move the cursor onto a symbol. Notice how an echom command pops up.

:ALEInfo

Expand

[iton0]

@k4yt3x thank you for the temp fix. With the init plugin spec for lazy you can do it in the same file as your ale config:

return {
	"dense-analysis/ale",
	event = { "BufReadPost", "BufNewFile" },
	init = function() 
		local g = vim.g
		
		g.ale_hover_cursor = 0
	end,
	config = function()
	end,
}

[k4yt3x]

@iton0 Thanks for the tip. I didn't know that's a thing. In which case, if you don't want to implement toggling this option on-the-fly you can close this issue.