This will probably be denied, but I had opportunity to edit some code on emacs setup with auto completion. I think this works pretty well and would like to see the option in VAX. Basically:
std::string s;
s.r // this would popup 'resize' and 'reserve', etc
Pressing TAB here would choose 'reserve' under the current behavior. The suggestion is that pressing TAB *again* would choose the next completion and again the next, etc.. until you press the space bar.
Never having used Emacs, what is the advantage? This reminds me of the completion system in VIM 6, which had to work without the ability to show a listbox.
In VA you can have a listbox that shrinks and filters as you type, so you can select the item you want with only a few key presses.
The other question here is how do you add a tab after the inserted word? There are times when this is useful, mainly when lining up several assignment statements.
The advantage is when you have multiple completions that start the same.. e.g.:
int defaultTimeoutSeconds int defaultTimeoutMillisecs
If you want to use the one that is not highlighted by default, it is a lot of typing. The abbreviations only help if there is not something else the resolves to 'dtm' or 'dts'. If there is, you still have to reach over to the arrow keys to move down to the appropriate one.
This enhancement would make the TAB key act like the down arrow.
AFA what do you do with TAB insertions, you should insert normally when there is no completion. This means that the current completion has to be accepted with Enter or Space before a tab can be inserted. For me this is good behavior because I never insert TAB chars only spaces.
The number of key presses is going to depend on the exact situation, but here I do not see a clear advantage to the Emacs mode. Use "dtsd" as the filter, and you will get Seconds, or use "dtmi" and you will get millisecs.
If these are members of the same type (e.g. a class) them personally I would have just typed "sec" or "mil" to filter the list, ignoring the duplicate part and focussing on the unique part to begin with.
emulate emacs completion mode?
Posted - May 02 2008 : 1:47:51 PM
