Suggestion: Always use last auto-completed item

[David_Staab]

I find myself having the same problem with Quick Drop that I do with MS Intellitype: I'm often in such a hurry to type out the name of the thing I want that I misspell it and get the error dialog, ""Index Arry" is not a valid object name.". This can be frustrating, because right up until I forgot to type the 'a', the auto-complete feature knew what I wanted. Now I have to open QD again and very diligently type the correct object name, or make sure to stop the instant the auto-complete catches the thing I want.

This can be doubly frustrating for class method names, which are prefixed with the class name in brackets and  specific whitespace characters. I guess there's a good reason for MS's product being nicknamed "Intellitypo".

I think it'd be cool if QD, when it's unable to find exactly what I typed, would revert to giving me the last thing it successfully auto-completed for me. That would fix my "Index Arry" problem.

I also expect others may not want this behavior, which leads me to another request: Can it be made a checkbox in the (new) Quick Drop page in the "Tools >> Options" window?

[Thoric]

This happens to me sometimes too, and most often the last success auto-complete option was exactly what I wanted. I think this would make a great addition to an already great tool.

As we all know, if QD gives us something we don't want, we can always press Esc to get rid of it, so there's no harm done introducing this feature.

Gets my vote!

[Darren]

I like this idea.  I have filed myself CAR 352459 to look into implementing it in LabVIEW 2013.  One question though...if this were implemented, the 'not a valid object name' dialog would go away, because there would *always* have been something autocompleted at some point prior to Quick Drop's dismissal.  Is that ok?

Also, a side note...for objects I drop a lot (like Index Array), I have left-handed object name shortcuts that I use so that I'm only typing a few characters...for these, misspelling is rarely an issue.  'ndx' is the one I use for Index Array.  Check out the Quick Drop Palette Object Shortcuts for Right-Handed Developers page for a relatively up-to-date list of all the object shortcuts I currently use.

[tst]

Personally, I don't like the auto-complete behavior at all. In the version I use, there is none. Instead, the item to be dropped is the one selected in the list box (which, by default, is always the first item, so it's right near the text box). This has various advantages which I don't feel like discussing at the moment, but if memory serves, Darren said people at LV R&D didn't like the idea.

[David_Staab]

Darren wrote:

...if this were implemented, the 'not a valid object name' dialog would go away, because there would *always* have been something autocompleted at some point prior to Quick Drop's dismissal.  Is that ok?

For me, absolutely. For tst (posted below), not at all. That's why I think this feature merits a checkbox option to enable it. It has strong value to clunky typists, but it gets in the way of some established workflows.

Also, a side note...for objects I drop a lot (like Index Array), I have left-handed object name shortcuts that I use so that I'm only typing a few characters...for these, misspelling is rarely an issue.  'ndx' is the one I use for Index Array.  Check out the Quick Drop Palette Object Shortcuts for Right-Handed Developers page for a relatively up-to-date list of all the object shortcuts I currently use.

Yep, I use some of those and like them a lot. It's when I'm working with LVOOP that the pain becomes real. My "Index Array" example was just a simplified one.

[tst]

DavidStaab wrote:

For tst (posted below), not at all.

Well, to me it wouldn't matter, since I use my own version, which wouldn't be affected by this change, but there probably are those who will mind.

[Darren]

DavidStaab wrote:

For me, absolutely. For tst (posted below), not at all. That's why I think this feature merits a checkbox option to enable it. It has strong value to clunky typists, but it gets in the way of some established workflows.

How does it get in the way of an established workflow?  tst was referring to his own utility that functions similar to Quick Drop.  But for actual Quick Drop, why would you want to disable this functionality?  The past behavior was that you never got an object to drop.  Now, you'll get an object to drop, which is most likely the one you wanted.

[David_Staab]

Makes sense to me. I was just trying to respect anyone who might feel the same as tst but uses the vanilla feature.

[Darren]

I have a prototype for this change that you can try in LabVIEW 2012.  See here and let me know what you think.

[David_Staab]

My current project uses LV 2011 SP1. I may not be able to install this and use it in my work until roughly next year.