RE: [h-e-w] c++ editing , variable name completion

[Jeremy Bowen]

From: Paul Kinnucan [mailto:address@hidden
Sent: 24 July 2002 07:09
>Jeremy Bowen writes:
> > From: john ware [mailto:address@hidden
> > Sent: 22 July 2002 19:33
> > >    Is there a mode which will perform variable name and function name 
> > > completion for C++.
> > >
> > >    By this I mean, if you type in the the beginning of a variable name

> > > and hit the proper key combination then a list of all possible symbols

> > > which are valid in the scope are displayed. I know that the JDEE mode 
> > > will do this for java code, but alas, I am back working with C++.
> > 
> > I quite like dabbrev mode. Look in Info under the topic "Emacs->Abbrevs"
> > 
> > It doesn't "display" all completions but it does cycle through the 
> > available ones it knows about. It is very light-weight but this might be

> > good enough. 
> > 
> > I think it works out of the box. You can try it with simply M-/ after 
> > typing the first few letters of the variable/function name.
> > 
>
>I cringe whenever I read a post recommending dabbrev as Emacs' answer
>to Microsoft's Intellisense completion facility. 

You don't need to cringe (but maybe some remedial reading lessons wouldn't 
go astray :-)

1) No-one mentioned "Intellisense". I was not suggesting dabbrev as 
an "answer" to some M$ facility I've never even heard of.

>Comparing dabbrev to Intellisense is like comparing a brain-damaged
>nonprogrammer having only short-term memory to a programmer with total
>recall 
[snip]

2) You're the one comparing dabbrev with intellisense. That's apples and
oranges. I made no comparisons of any kind.

>It blindly cycles through every
>symbol in memory that might complete the text at point, regardless of
>context. If the symbol you want to complete is not in memory, you're
>out of luck. 

3) I did say it was light-weight. Do you have anything better ?

>Eric Ludlam and I are working on providing a true syntax-, context,

....ahhh vapour-ware :-)

>and type-aware field and method completion facility for C++, Java, C
>and other languages, using parse databases generated by
>Eric's semantic package. We hope to have it ready for at least
>C, C++, and Java in the very near future.

4) I'd like to think my post was at least partiallly helpful. I can
see no value in your reply other than to hype your "yet to be 
released" package.

Chill

Jeremy