Better/Working version of TerminalHelper.scpt for Visual Studio Code for Mac

TerminalHelper.scpt

-- This file resides at /Applications/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Resources/app/client/vs/workbench/contrib/debug/bin/TerminalHelper.scpt
on run argv
	set working_dir to missing value
	set runtimeArgs to missing value
	set runtimeName to missing value
	set programArgs to missing value
	set env_vars to ""
	
	repeat with i from 1 to (count of argv)
		set a to (item i of argv)
		
		if a = "-w" then
			set i to i + 1
			set working_dir to quoted form of (item i of argv)
		else if a = "-r" then
			set i to i + 1
			set runtime to quoted form of (item i of argv)
		else if a = "-ra" then
			set i to i + 1
			set runtimeArgs to (item i of argv)
		else if a = "-rn" then
			set i to i + 1
			set runtimeName to (item i of argv)
		else if a = "-p" then
			set i to i + 1
			set program to quoted form of (item i of argv)
		else if a = "-pa" then
			set i to i + 1
			set programArgs to (item i of argv)
		else if a = "-e" then
			set i to i + 1
			set env_vars to env_vars & " " & quoted form of (item i of argv)
		end if
		
	end repeat
	
	set cmd to ""
	if working_dir ≠ missing value then
		set cmd to "cd " & working_dir & "; "
	end if
	
	if env_vars ≠ "" then
		set cmd to cmd & "env" & env_vars
	end if
	
	set cmd to cmd & " " & runtime
	if runtimeArgs ≠ missing value then
		set cmd to cmd & " " & runtimeArgs
	end if
	
	set cmd to cmd & " " & program
	if programArgs ≠ missing value then
		set cmd to cmd & " " & programArgs
	end if
	
	tell application "Terminal"
		activate
		
		set targetWindow to front window -- Default to the front window
		set targetTab to selected tab of targetWindow -- Default to the current tab
		
		if targetWindow ≠ null then
			-- Create a new tab if the current window is busy
			if targetTab is busy then
				-- Delay required if/when you have to switch to a fullscreen Terminal.app instance since the new tab command will not fire in Terminal.app
				delay 0.5
				
				set tabCount to count of every tab in targetWindow
				
				-- Create a new tab
				tell application "System Events" to keystroke "t" using command down
				
				-- Wait for the new tab to be created
				repeat while (count of every tab in targetWindow) = tabCount
					delay 0.1
				end repeat
				
				set targetTab to selected tab of targetWindow
			end if
			
			do script cmd in targetTab
		else
			set targetWindow to (do script cmd)
		end if
		
		set dev to tty of targetWindow
		
		if runtimeName ≠ missing value then
			-- find the "process" that runs under the given tty and remember its process id
			set pid to ""
			
			repeat 10 times
				set pid to do shell script "ps -c -t " & dev & " | awk '$4==\"" & runtimeName & "\" { print $1 }'"
				
				if pid ≠ "" then
					exit repeat
				end if
				
				delay 0.5
			end repeat
			
			if pid ≠ "" then
				do shell script "echo " & pid
			end if
		end if
	end tell
end run

With the original TerminalHelper.scpt, I would get the following output in the Developer Tools Console when attempting to run any Node.js script:

waiting for v8 protocol on stdout/stderr
setexceptionbreak error: not connected
/Applications/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Resources/app/client/vs/workbench/contrib/debug/bin/TerminalHelper.scpt
Terminal got an error: AppleEvent handler failed. (-10000)
LaunchInTerminal.pid: Input string was not in a correct format.

I start debugging things by looking at Node.js invocation command being generated. It was fine so I moved on. The next thing I noticed was that focus was being given to Terminal.app but nothing was ever executed. After playing around with TerminalHelper.scpt, I found what appeared to be a latency related issue with how the script was locating the window to run the script in. (My Terminal.app is a fullscreen application so there is a delay when activating it, based on testing.) After adding a delay, things still did not work. If I removed the window resolution code and just used the current window, things worked so I rewrote this logic.

So in my version, I have the proper delays in place. I also use tabs instead of windows when it comes to where to run the script. Comments are in place to let you know what I'm doing and all changes I made are between line 59 and line 84.

Major props! I had the same issue and I swapped this out and I am now able to debug. To improve discoverability for this gist, the exact error I was seeing in the app was "could not launch 'node' in debug mode". Hopefully MS gets this fixed for the next release.

EDIT: I should note for any others coming across this page, I had to replace all of the 'not equals' signs with 'is not equal to', as they didn't come over nicely from the gist.

EDIT: Issue logged https://code.visualstudio.com/issues/detail/16834