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I wish someone would figure out the right UX for partial autocompletion. e.g. I type "wo" and my phone suggests ("would", "work", "wonder"), there should be an

by imh 8y ago

I wish someone would figure out the right UX for partial autocompletion. e.g. I type "wo" and my phone suggests ("would", "work", "wonder"), there should be an easy way to say I'm trying to type "working" rather than clicking the "work" autocomplete then backspace, then "ing". I'd imaging TabNine has this problem in spades, since it does such long autocompletes. It could suggest "unsigned long long" when I've typed "unsi" and I really want "unsigned long int". Seems like a tough UX problem. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

sz4kerto 8y ago
This can work with camel casing. So you type UnsiLI, then enter.
asdkhadsj 8y ago
Fwiw, if there are competing `unsigned long int` autocompletes, it looks like it will shorten the recommendation to `unsigned long `, which is really neat. This is just based on the site, I've not tried it yet. YMMV
gumby 8y ago
Typing an 'r' is faster than clicking on "work" then backspacing.
- king_phil 8y ago
  Which doesn't have anything to do with the problem decribed. He doesn't want to write "wor" but "working".
- function_seven 8y ago
  That can lead to ("Work", "Worry", "Word") so you'd then have to type the 'k'. Now you could have ("Work", "Worker", "Worked") and still are missing the variant you want. It'd be nice to long press "Work" at step one, get that completed without a space being inserted, then tap 'i' to get ("Working", "Workings", "Workingmen")
  - pbhjpbhj 8y ago
    Whilst they're doing that how about adding caret-placement sensitivity: When I click just after the initial letter (pipe representing caret that would be) eg "w|orking" the chances of me wanting to type "worked" are pretty slim; instead it should offer "Dorking" (a UK placename), "borking" and such; according to my frecency scores. Similarly if I click to place the caret at "work|s" I'm probably after "words" or "worts" (beer stuff), or similar. Again "working|" and I'm probably going to change to a different suffix - works, workers, worked. I'm amazed that gboard (Google's Android keyboard) doesn't already do that? Perhaps I missed a setting.
  - StavrosK 8y ago
    The way I use autocomplete is that I type the entire word I mean really quickly. I get most (or all) of it wrong, but the autocompleter has enough information to substitute that with the correct word. It's much faster than the read-evaluate-correct loop you're describing.
  - gumby 8y ago
    It turns out that iOS prediction will make a provisional guess based on what you typed and will go back and adjust its autocorrections as you type subsequent words. You can see this more clearly if you use dictation, but allegedly it won't do as well if you use the word corrections every time.
    - function_seven 8y ago
      I’ve noticed that. All my work-related jargon is suggested pretty damn well when it’s appropriate. What I fear is that the autocomplete can reveal my NSFW jargon. It’s the same keyboard even when Safari is in Private Mode, right?
gnicholas 8y ago
I feel the same way. Wish I could force/long tap the proper root word and then select the proper 'conjugation'.
mattigames 8y ago
UX-wise holding tab would be the best, meaning tab => use completion (like it works now), holding tab => use this completion but show me further possible completions of that word; if it doesn't have any just keep the caret there (for me to finish it writing manually)
karlding 8y ago
Sounds like what you want is fuzzy searching (say fzf [0]) over autocomplete suggestion results. You could type the prefix, and then fuzzy search by typing the suffix to get your desired word (while letting autocomplete fill in the middle of the word). [0] https://github.com/junegunn/fzf https://github.com/junegunn/fzf
eridius 8y ago
Xcode has handled this for years. In Xcode, when autocompletion is presented, hitting Tab will complete the longest unique prefixed subword for the currently-selected tab item. If this results in only having one completion option left, then it completes the whole thing (e.g. adding method arguments and whatnot). Similarly, hitting Return will just complete the whole entry instead of the longest unique prefixed subword. By that I mean if you have 2 autocompletion options `addDefaultFoo()` and `addDefaultBar()`, and you type `add` to get those options, hitting Tab will fill in `addDefault`, and then hitting Tab again will fill in the rest of the selection.
- mfoy_ 8y ago
  *nix shells typically do something very similar, where hitting tab auto-completes up to the first forking character
  - function_seven 8y ago
    After recently binge-watching The Good Place, this comment rattled me :)
    - ddalex 8y ago
      Lol, I wasn't the only one! Which is The Good Place of computer languages?
      - suvelx 8y ago
        Lisp? Up front appears to be written with one thing in mind: Infuriate you with brackets. Then, once you've worked out how to deal with the brackets, it's pretty forking sweet.
        ZeikJT 8y ago
        Never seen The Good Place so I'm just trying to figure out what the frak you all are taking about.

by imh 8y ago

sz4kerto 8y ago

This can work with camel casing. So you type UnsiLI, then enter.

asdkhadsj 8y ago

Fwiw, if there are competing `unsigned long int` autocompletes, it looks like it will shorten the recommendation to `unsigned long `, which is really neat. This is just based on the site, I've not tried it yet. YMMV

gumby 8y ago

Typing an 'r' is faster than clicking on "work" then backspacing.

king_phil 8y ago
Which doesn't have anything to do with the problem decribed. He doesn't want to write "wor" but "working".
function_seven 8y ago
That can lead to ("Work", "Worry", "Word") so you'd then have to type the 'k'. Now you could have ("Work", "Worker", "Worked") and still are missing the variant you want. It'd be nice to long press "Work" at step one, get that completed without a space being inserted, then tap 'i' to get ("Working", "Workings", "Workingmen")
- pbhjpbhj 8y ago
  Whilst they're doing that how about adding caret-placement sensitivity: When I click just after the initial letter (pipe representing caret that would be) eg "w|orking" the chances of me wanting to type "worked" are pretty slim; instead it should offer "Dorking" (a UK placename), "borking" and such; according to my frecency scores. Similarly if I click to place the caret at "work|s" I'm probably after "words" or "worts" (beer stuff), or similar. Again "working|" and I'm probably going to change to a different suffix - works, workers, worked. I'm amazed that gboard (Google's Android keyboard) doesn't already do that? Perhaps I missed a setting.
- StavrosK 8y ago
  The way I use autocomplete is that I type the entire word I mean really quickly. I get most (or all) of it wrong, but the autocompleter has enough information to substitute that with the correct word. It's much faster than the read-evaluate-correct loop you're describing.
- gumby 8y ago
  It turns out that iOS prediction will make a provisional guess based on what you typed and will go back and adjust its autocorrections as you type subsequent words. You can see this more clearly if you use dictation, but allegedly it won't do as well if you use the word corrections every time.
  - function_seven 8y ago
    I’ve noticed that. All my work-related jargon is suggested pretty damn well when it’s appropriate. What I fear is that the autocomplete can reveal my NSFW jargon. It’s the same keyboard even when Safari is in Private Mode, right?

gnicholas 8y ago

I feel the same way. Wish I could force/long tap the proper root word and then select the proper 'conjugation'.

mattigames 8y ago

UX-wise holding tab would be the best, meaning tab => use completion (like it works now), holding tab => use this completion but show me further possible completions of that word; if it doesn't have any just keep the caret there (for me to finish it writing manually)

karlding 8y ago

Sounds like what you want is fuzzy searching (say fzf [0]) over autocomplete suggestion results. You could type the prefix, and then fuzzy search by typing the suffix to get your desired word (while letting autocomplete fill in the middle of the word). [0] https://github.com/junegunn/fzf https://github.com/junegunn/fzf

eridius 8y ago

Xcode has handled this for years. In Xcode, when autocompletion is presented, hitting Tab will complete the longest unique prefixed subword for the currently-selected tab item. If this results in only having one completion option left, then it completes the whole thing (e.g. adding method arguments and whatnot). Similarly, hitting Return will just complete the whole entry instead of the longest unique prefixed subword. By that I mean if you have 2 autocompletion options `addDefaultFoo()` and `addDefaultBar()`, and you type `add` to get those options, hitting Tab will fill in `addDefault`, and then hitting Tab again will fill in the rest of the selection.

mfoy_ 8y ago
*nix shells typically do something very similar, where hitting tab auto-completes up to the first forking character
- function_seven 8y ago
  After recently binge-watching The Good Place, this comment rattled me :)
  - ddalex 8y ago
    Lol, I wasn't the only one! Which is The Good Place of computer languages?
    - suvelx 8y ago
      Lisp? Up front appears to be written with one thing in mind: Infuriate you with brackets. Then, once you've worked out how to deal with the brackets, it's pretty forking sweet.
      - ZeikJT 8y ago
        Never seen The Good Place so I'm just trying to figure out what the frak you all are taking about.