Formatter Breaks \author Command with Optional Arguments in Elsevier Template

[edodeso]

Hi,

I'm experiencing an issue with Overleaf Workshop where the formatter incorrectly modifies LaTeX commands that include optional arguments, particularly the \author command.

I am using the following document class:

\documentclass[final, 5p, times, twocolumn]{elsarticle}

Additionally, I am working with the Elsevier article template, available here [https://www.overleaf.com/latex/templates/elsevier-article-elsarticle-template/vdzfjgjbckgz].

For example, the following line:
\author[label1]{John Doe}
is reformatted as:
\author{[}label1]{John Doe}

This breaks the syntax and prevents successful compilation of the document.

Steps to Reproduce
Use Overleaf Workshop with formatting enabled in VS Code.
Add the Elsevier document class and the \author command with an optional argument, as shown above.
Save the file or trigger the formatter.

Expected Behaviour
The formatter should preserve the syntax of the \author command, including its optional arguments, without modification.

Actual Behaviour
The formatter incorrectly splits or modifies the command, resulting in invalid syntax.

Question
Is there a way to configure the formatter in Overleaf Workshop to handle optional arguments in commands properly, or to skip formatting specific commands like \author?

Thank you for your help!

[edodeso]

@iamhyc Do you have any solution regarding this issue? Thanks!

[iamhyc]

Nope. Maybe @QianrenLi can help look at it.

[QianrenLi]

Since the formatter is basically using the one in unified-latex (by the way, great project), solution to this problem might be modifying the parsing rule.
Skipping the specfic commands is a good point, however, I believe it is worth to take a bit of time to see how to fix this.