On 3/16/2023 6:55 PM, dn via Python-list wrote:
It is a long, long, time since I've thrown one of these into the
maelstrom of our musings.
(have the nightmares receded?)
Do you make use of your IDE's expansionist tendencies, and if-so, which
ones?
NB this is where vi/emacs enthusiasts start chuckling (polite term for
'insane cackling'). Hence the question's limitation to IDEs, cf 'editors'!
Also: I'm talking 'PyCharm' because of the story, but others use Codium,
Sublime Text, etc - which presumably offer equivalent features.
Was helping a friend install PyCharm. Jumped into the Settings. Isn't it
incredible how many there are?
Idly noted that there are two short-cut or macro-expansion types of
facilities:
- Postfix Completion, (nothing to do with email or polish notation) and
- Live Templates (again, we're not talking about jinja2)
With both, one types an abbreviated-name and the IDE will expand it into
appropriate code. For (LiveTemplate) example, typing compli and pressing
Tab induces PyCharm to add the following to the program[me]:
[ ! for ! in !drop-down menu! if ! ]
It offers further typo-saving through the drop-down menu which lists a
bunch of likely (iterable) candidates from amongst previously-written
code. The action continues after selecting from the menu, by inviting
completion of the other ("!") placeholders, in-turn.
I haven't made use of such a tool, to-date - OK, yes, I have practised a
high typing-speed (and accuracy). Puff, puff...
Also, at the time, I'm thinking in 'code', rather than about what tool
might implement said ideas.
Do you make use of such expansionist-tendencies?
Do you make use of other powerful features within the IDE, or are its
editor functionalities employed at pretty-much the NotePad level?
In general, I don't like a lot of popups and code completions, so I tend
to avoid them. I don't even like automatic parens or brace insertion.
They distract me, and often put the cursor somewhere I don't want it.
Of course, for Python code I do like automatic indentation after a
colon: if the cursor ends up in the right place, then I'm happy.
If I'm using a plain editor, then I usually like EditPlus. It's not
free but the cost is low and it's well worth it (but Windows only). It
knows about file types, and can do various insertions and completions if
you want (as I said, I mostly don't). I also use Notepad++, but I more
often go with EditPlus.
What I find more useful is matching brackets/parens/braces. Not
inserting them but highlighting or (better) jumping to the matching one
when asked.
Otherwise I'm usually working in the Leo Editor, which is hard to
explain in a few words but is a real gift, especially for Python
programmers. It does have an abbreviation capability that I use a
little, but so far mostly for inserting symbols like math and Greek
letters. Leo is written in Python (with a Qt GUI) and you can easily
get access to all its internals, so once you learn something about how
it works, you can create scripts to do almost anything you want.
The Leo Editor is an MIT-licensed project on GitHub (I know I sound very
positive but despite that, it's not my project; it really can grow on
you - if you are willing to climb the learning curve).
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