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Re: SchemeScript and code completion
Helmut Eller wrote:
* Per Bothner [2007-11-07 06:38+0100] writes:
Since I write lot of Scheme code that interfaces with Java, the Java
method completion is quite useful. Actually, If possible, Schemeway
should do it even better, such as completing not only static method
names, but also normal method names as in
(let
((l :: <java.util.List> (make <java.util.LinkedList>)))
(l:add 42))
in this case, the l:add could be autocompleted.
That requires integrating the compiler (specifically
type checking) to be integrated with the IDE, which
is difficult.
Could you explain why that is difficult? Is it difficult because the
internals of the compiler aren't prepared for such use or perhaps
because Scheme/Kawa is hard to analyze?
Basically, both.
My naive approach to perform the above completion would be to parse
the source file --with something like kawa.lang.CompileFile:read,
ignoring non-parseable source for the moment--, then use the current
cursor position to find the corresponding node in the syntax tree, and
finally enumerate (somehow) all method/variable names accessible in that
node. What do you think of such an approach?
The problem is the last step. That requires macro expansion, resolving
names to declarations, and type propagation. I.e. most of the compiler
(before you get to optimization and code generation).
You really want to use the compiler for this, rather than half-heartedly
trying to duplicate the compiler's logic. I'm sure this is doable, but
I think it's more complicated than a weekend hack.
--
--Per Bothner
per@bothner.com http://per.bothner.com/