Can I make Intelliprompt work like Visual Studio when typing an open paren

Hi Mike,

What works better here is if you simplify your member list items to not include parens.  Then watch events like the one that fires when a member list completes and in there you can see if there are parens in the text already or if some should be added.  And use the view's InsertSurroundingText feature in that case.

I had tried using the OnSyntaxEditorIntelliPromptMemberListClosed function but I don't see a parameter or variable in the MemberList or IntelliPrompt classes that tells me what the trigger character was that the user typed.

I managed to get it using
    Dim c As String = editor.Document.GetSubstring(editor.Caret.Offset - 1, 1)
but I'm hoping there is an easier/safer way to get it.

I then used
    editor.SelectedView.InsertSurroundingText("(", ")")
to add the parens. So far so good...

But after the member list item is inserted I need to make the "(" keypress trigger fire.
I thought the InsertSurroundingText would fire the trigger but I guess it really does apply only to keypresses.

So rather than use this can I use Commands to tell it to insert the ")", than backspace, then insert the "(" AS A KEYPRESS?

For example if I insert
    MAX()
I want the carat to be between the parens and for my "(" trigger to fire. (No matter whether the user typed a "(", space or enter.)

Thanks

Hi Mike,

It shouldn't really matter what the last typed character was.  You should examine the characters by the caret instead (with range checking of course so you don't pass -1, etc.).

But anyway, you can mimic a key type if you do:

editor.SelectedView.PerformInsertTyping('(');

 Perhaps that will fire the trigger.

I definately need to know the last character typed since the logic varies based on that.

At the time fires the intelliPrompt member item has been inserted into the document but the typed character has not.
If the user typed an "(" then I must NOT insert another "("
but if they typed anything else then I MUST insert the "(".

I solved this by adding a lastTypedCharvariable to my language class and setting this variable in the OnSyntaxEditorKeyTyping() function.
That should be a minor overhead even if it does get executed with every keypress.

So now in OnSyntaxEditorIntelliPromptMemberListClosed() I can use:

    Dim itm As IntelliPromptMemberListItem = editor.IntelliPrompt.MemberList.SelectedItem
    If itm IsNot Nothing AndAlso itm.AutoCompletePostText = ")" AndAlso lastTypedChar <> "(" Then
        editor.SelectedView.PerformInsertTyping("(")

This works great.

Note that when creating the IntelliPromptMemberListItem I have to set the PreText to the function name and the PostText to ')', since otherwise I don't know which items require the parens.
I was unable to set PostText without providing the PreText also (in the constructor).
I tried specifying Nothing and also "" but both of those resulted in no text at all being inserted before the carat.

Mike

I still don't thnk the parens should be part of the member list.  You can store data in the member list item's Tag field so you know which need parens.

What's the difference (internally) between storing the ")" in the PostText field or in the Tag field?

If I store it in the post text field then Syntax Editor inserts it for me.
If store it in the tag field I have to cast it to a string (or Char) and insert it manually, then back up one position before 'typing' the "(".

So what is the disadvantage of using the PostText field that makes up for having to do all that manual work?

Hi Mike,

The idea is that then you make the determination of whether or not to insert parens after the member list auto-completes by looking at the tokens that are in the editor.  But if what you have is working fine for you, then go with it.