If textpad is gonna have an autocomplete/intellisense feature, IT SHOULD BE DONE PROPERLY!! What i've read here based on matching syntax-files and stuff, just seems to be really weak. (I don't want an autocomplete-feature to match the keywords of my language!! :-) ) If you have to do it, why not do it right the first time?
If intellisense should be in textpad it must be intelligent... It should be able to figure out what is legal, and only suggest legal stuff.
That would mean it should be possible doing some kind of script for each language (i.e. for each document class).
For example a Java autocomplete-script should be able to autocomplete method/class-names from other (open) files, in an intelligent way. So, like if you type "MyClass.doSo" it will know it should look in the file "MyClass.java" for a public method/field that starts with "doSo". (and maybe suggest "MyClass.doSomething" and "MyClass.doSodomy") If you type "My" it should suggest "MyClass".
It should also be able to autocomplete public library-methods/classes, ofcause. (So if i type "Integer.pa" it should suggest "parseInt" even though i haven't got the "Interger.java"-file opened)
I admit i haven't really used an editor with autocompletion before and i've only thought about it for 5 minutes, but it would seem to me that this is (atleast) what a script like this should be allowed to do:
- autocomplete matches from other OPEN files (intelligently)
- autocomplete library functions (static stuff that doesn't depend on open files (it can allways autocomplete this))
- <whatever i'm missing>
I guess the problem (except it would maybe take some time to code it and figure out the details :) ) would be to find a clever way, so the scripts wouldn't be too slow if there're lots of files opened...
(or maybe it doesn't really matter if they're slow and it takes a little while for the autocomplete-box to pop up) But... Well... Since microsoft can do it pretty fast, why shouldn't helios? :)
Auto-Complete
Moderators: AmigoJack, bbadmin, helios, Bob Hansen, MudGuard
Hello,
auto-completion is great when creating LaTeX, ConTeXt (and other *TeX based) files.
At least a simple list of keywords would be enough; and begin-of-word detection is very easy - as each keyword starts by '\' in this case.
I vote for the auto-completion as this is [almost the only one] feature whose absence makes me experiment with an other editor time-to-time.
auto-completion is great when creating LaTeX, ConTeXt (and other *TeX based) files.
At least a simple list of keywords would be enough; and begin-of-word detection is very easy - as each keyword starts by '\' in this case.
I vote for the auto-completion as this is [almost the only one] feature whose absence makes me experiment with an other editor time-to-time.