Invisible characters generated in i18n-types.ts (zero width space (unicode U+200b))

[Nicolab]

Version

5.26.2

Describe the bug

Hi,

Some invisible characters generated in a comment:

Sometimes these kind of invisible characters cause certain analysis tools to crash

Reproduction

Install Gremlins extensions in VS code or similar. https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=nhoizey.gremlins

Logs

No response

Config

{
   "esmImports": true,
   "outputPath": "./src/locales",
   "$schema": "https://unpkg.com/typesafe-i18n@5.26.2/schema/typesafe-i18n.json"
}

Additional information

No response

[kristian-nst]

Same here. A bit annoying. What's the reason? 🤔

[Nicolab]

Same here. A bit annoying. What's the reason? 🤔

An invisible character is present in the generator, so it is written in all the comments. This is unintentional on the part of the author. It slipped in during a copy/paste, it can happen.

[benjaminstrasser]

Thanks for reporting this! The zero-width spaces (U+200B) are actually intentional, not a copy/paste accident.

When developers search their codebase for translation text, the search would incorrectly match the generated type files JSDoc comments instead of the actual translation source files. The zero-width spaces prevent this while keeping the text readable in IDE tooltips.

However:
Adding a configuration for this was initially considered, but the idea was probably rejected because it wasn't expected to cause any issues. This however seems to cause some issues as at least two people reported this.
A simple fix would be to add another configuration option (e.g., maskTranslationText: boolean) to make this feature opt-out.

However I am open for ideas! Any Input? @mledl @jjnp @sjaghori @Nicolab

Here the link to the original discussion: #453 (reply in thread)

[Nicolab]

Hello @benjaminstrasser,

A simple fix would be to add another configuration option (e.g., maskTranslationText: boolean) to make this feature opt-out.

Yes good idea, just a boolean to disable zero-width spaces (U+200B) 👍
That will be sufficient if there is a problem with an external tool or a parser.

Thanks!