FR: Make Xojo autocomplete work with Dash

General
1

Feature request: <https://xojo.com/issue/43948>

I use the snippet editor in Dash quite a lot. I use the same names as Xojo but add a sharp symbol (#).

So if# automatically expands to

[code]if var1 then

else

end if[/code]

I also have for example MessageDialog# which works great.

However if I type Mess and use autocomplete, then add the # symbol then Dash does not react.

I suspect that Dash inspects the keyboard buffer and never sees MessageDialog# but only Mess# or MessTAB#

Would it be possible to make Xojo work with Dash (by adding the autocomplete to the keyboard buffer) or integrate such a snippet editor into Xojo?

Thanks

Markus

2

<https://xojo.com/issue/8625> :slight_smile:

3

Getting autocomplete to work with Dash seems easier. My guess is that the autocomplete oart needs to be added to the keyborad buffer for Dash to und ecognize it.

4

I am also a Dash User/Fan (same…). :smiley:
AFAIK; DASH is OS X only. :wink:

5

P.S. Norman reipened it (thanks!) and removed the duplicate causing “or integrate snippet editor”.

AFAIK there is something similar for Windows …

6

I use TextExpander (which is available for Windows) and it suffers from the same problem that you are describing with Dash. You have to type out the entire abbreviation for it to work. It will not deal with autocompletion.

If you are running a Mac and own KeyboardMaestro, here is a hack. If you do not own KeyboardMaestro, you should. :slight_smile:

In TextExpander (and perhaps Dash. I know nothing of Dash)

  1. Set up MessageDialog# as a snippet that expands to whatever you want.

  2. Create a Keyboard Maestro shortcut

Trigger The Hot Key F12 is pressed

  1. Type the ?3 Keystroke (i.e. Type #)
  2. Type the ?Left Arrow Keystroke
  3. Type the ?Down Arrow Keystroke
  4. Cut
  5. Insert Text by Typing %CurrentClipboard%

You type out Mess and Xojo offers to auto expand to MessageDialog and you accept (hit Tab). Now you have MessageDialog at the end of your line of text.
Then you fire off the Keyboard Maestro shortcut.
In the above example, the Keyboard Maestro shortcut is fired off by hitting the F12 function key (obviously this is customizable)
Keyboard Maestro goes into action.
Step 1 types the # so you now have MessageDialog# at the end of the line
Step 2 and Step 3 act to highlight the text of the line
Step 4 cuts the line after copying the line to the clipboard
Step 5 effectively “manually” retypes the line using the contents of the Clipboard. When it gets to the # then TextExpander detects this and does the expansion.

7

Zeal https://zealdocs.org
Velocity https://velocity.silverlakesoftware.com

8

Please excuse my ignorance but how do you use Dash to autocomplete?

I have a full Dash licence and use it extensively for code snippets but I cannot find a way to use an autocomplete feature. A pointer would be very helpful.

Thanks.

Simon.

9

Make a snippet called if# (you could use other symbols but that is easy to remember)

Don’t forget that you can use placeholders for variables in the snippet like this:

If var1 then
var2
Else
var3
End if

In Xojo type if# and enjoy the magic :wink:

BUT: it doesn’t work if you use Xojo’s autocomplete. See the link.

10

Perfect, thank you, Markus.

Simon.