> i posit that nobody wants autocomplete-style live DB lookups. They don't fit the mold that autocomplete fits in. 1. I live-code an example in about:blank wit

> i posit that nobody wants autocomplete-style live DB lookups. They don't fit the mold that autocomplete fits in. 1. I live-code an example in about:blank with devTools window open. 2. I roll my own little jQuery-like closure for the sake of convenience. 3. It works. 4. I close the browser and forget about the thing. 5. Later, I decide I wanna test out a feature of the Web Animation API, so I open my browser to about:blank again. 6. I remember that I used a little closure last time-- as I type the var name Chromium pops up an "autocomplete-style live DB lookup" menu. At the bottom is My Little Closure from last time! 7. I move the mouse down to the relevant line in the menu. Or, I use keyboard arrows to navigate to it. Or I keep typing and narrow down the menu options. Useful? Check. Discoverable? Check? Obtrusive? Negative-- in the case that I don't every want previously typed expression, that menu option is put at the bottom out of the way of the more common JS internals and DOM methods. Default settings in a terminal (or terminal-based GUI) generally require the user to either type something to get into a history mode, or type tab to do completion. But both of those options are less discoverable-- they require me to know ahead of time that I want to retrieve something. With devTools it shows me what can be retrieved so that I know what's available even if I'm a neophyte.