Consider not prompting to install tools until the first Go file is opened

[thernstig]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
Many of us are syncing VS Code extensions and settings between machines. Be that private, at work, or other hobby project machines. Not all machines are working on the same kind of projects, like Go.

But the Go extension is the only extension (out of tens and tens) that give this notification when starting a workspace:

The "gopls" command is not available. Run "go get -v golang.org/x/tools/gopls" to install.

This is annoying as I do not work on Go on all machines and do not wish to install the toolchain.

Describe the solution you'd like
I would like the notification to only be shown if/when I open a Golang file. It becomes less obtrusive.

Describe alternatives you've considered

Additional context
As far as I know, no other extension has this obtrusive notification each time i start VS Code.

[findleyr]

Thanks. I think this is related to #2164, but slightly different: we could activate the extension but not prompt to install missing tools until a Go file is opened.

[thernstig]

@findleyr any reason to even activate the extension? I would guess it saves on resources, but more importantly on startup times. And VS Code in general strives to be snappy. Extensions doing their outmost to adhere to this helps all users.

[findleyr]

@thernstig yes I think the simplest solution is #2164: just don't activate the extension.

Most other LSP clients (e.g. for vim or emacs) don't start the LSP session until the first go file is opened, and AFAIK this is fine.

[gopherbot]

Change https://go.dev/cl/545136 mentions this issue: package.json: remove 'workspaceContains' from activation events