4 ms·

I agree the property reference tab autocomplete is a pretty powerful feature. It's like autocomplete in a shell, but contextual, since the system already knows

I agree the property reference tab autocomplete is a pretty powerful feature. It's like autocomplete in a shell, but contextual, since the system already knows what you want the first argument to be. And I've seen a video with one of the big functional guys (maybe Brian Beckman?) pining for that feature. I'd point out, though, that is still is only part of the picture. You're holding on to a value and you want to know what you can do with it: widget.<tab> will show you everything of the form widget.someData widget.doSomething() but you're still missing out on other structures like freeFunction(widget) handler.handleWidget(widget) hammer + widget widget[part] // returns a widget, does this one count? widgetFactory.buildWidget() In nearly any language the first two will be common, and where available the others are critical usages, too. I want to be able to tab complete them! It's hard to continue hewing to the tab as activation with these other structures, which may be why IDEs and REPLs don't really try.

taeric 10y ago
That sounds like something that would be an awesome demo, but not really useful. I actually dislike tab complete in usual forms most times. Auto import is nice, but i feel that auto complete is a form of searching the code base. And, when I am coding seems a poor tube to be searching for the answer. When debugging, however, jump to symbol and quickly listing alternative methods helps. And sometimes I am just searching. So, good feature. Just not something i want to rely on.
- bpicolo 10y ago
  In large code bases it can be really hard to keep everything in your head, and that's when a little tab complete can really come in handy. Just forgetting specific method names when you know there's one you want to use can be very handy.
  - taeric 10y ago
    It can help. Often does. But I treat it like spell check. If I need it, I'm probably using the wrong word. And I don't know how to use it to effectively search for words.

taeric 10y ago

That sounds like something that would be an awesome demo, but not really useful. I actually dislike tab complete in usual forms most times. Auto import is nice, but i feel that auto complete is a form of searching the code base. And, when I am coding seems a poor tube to be searching for the answer. When debugging, however, jump to symbol and quickly listing alternative methods helps. And sometimes I am just searching. So, good feature. Just not something i want to rely on.

bpicolo 10y ago
In large code bases it can be really hard to keep everything in your head, and that's when a little tab complete can really come in handy. Just forgetting specific method names when you know there's one you want to use can be very handy.
- taeric 10y ago
  It can help. Often does. But I treat it like spell check. If I need it, I'm probably using the wrong word. And I don't know how to use it to effectively search for words.