USER CONFIGUREABLE LANGUAGE INDEPENDENT CODE ASSIST METHOD, SYSTEM, ARTICLE OF MANUFACTURE, AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT

• US 20080059948A1
• Filed: 10/31/2007
• Published: 03/06/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/09/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: IMMANENI, Pavan, HAWLEY, Allen
• Granted Patent: US 8,185,866 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/107
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/33 Intelligent editors

Abstract

A code assist function which suggests candidates responsive to a parsing of a partial program instruction statement by determining a current cursor position in the partial program instruction statement; parsing the partial program instruction statement before the current cursor position; generating a list of candidates to be inserted at the current cursor position responsive to the parsing of the partial program instruction statement; applying a user-selected preference to the list of candidates to generate a suggested list of candidates; displaying the list of suggested candidates; allowing a user to select one of the list of suggested candidates; and inserting at the current cursor position the user-selected suggested candidate. User-selectable preferences may be selected such as a longer or shorter list of candidates; a longer or shorter representation keyword candidates; a full syntax or partial syntax representation of a candidate; and a character case representation of a candidate.

Claims

1. An article of manufacture for use in a computer system for providing a code assist function which suggests candidates responsive to a parsing of a partial program instruction statement, said article of manufacture comprising a computer-useable storage medium having a computer program embodied in said medium which causes the computer system to execute method steps comprising:

determining a current cursor position in the partial program instruction statement;

parsing the partial program instruction statement before the current cursor position;

generating a list of candidates to be inserted at the current cursor position responsive to the parsing of the partial program instruction statement;

applying a user-selected preference to the list of candidates to generate a suggested list of candidates;

displaying the list of suggested candidates;

allowing a user to select one of the list of suggested candidates; and

inserting at the current cursor position the user-selected suggested candidate.

2. The article of manufacture of claim 1 wherein the user-selected preference comprises displaying a longer list of suggested candidates in lieu of a shorter list of suggested candidates.

3. The article of manufacture of claim 1 wherein the user-selected preference comprises displaying a shorter list of suggested candidates in lieu of a longer list of suggested candidates.

4. The article of manufacture of claim 1 wherein the user-selected preference comprises displaying a longer representation of a program instruction verb suggested candidate in lieu of a shorter representation of a program instruction verb suggested candidate.

5. The article of manufacture of claim 1 wherein the user-selected preference comprises displaying a full syntax representation of a suggested candidate in lieu of a partial syntax representation of a suggest candidate.

6. The article of manufacture of claim 1 wherein the user-selected preference comprises one from the set comprising displaying a lower-case representation of a program instruction candidate responsive to the parsing of a partial program instruction statement, displaying a upper-case syntax representation of a program instruction verb candidate responsive to the parsing of a partial program instruction statement and displaying a leading upper-case syntax representation of a program instruction verb candidate responsive to the paring of a partial program instruction statement.

7. A method for use in a computer system for providing a code assist function which suggests candidates responsive to a parsing of a partial program instruction statement, said method comprising:

determining a current cursor position in the partial program instruction statement;

parsing the partial program instruction statement before the current cursor position;

generating a list of candidates to be inserted at the current cursor position responsive to the parsing of the partial program instruction statement;

applying a user-selected preference to the list of candidates to generate a suggested list of candidates;

displaying the list of suggested candidates;

allowing a user to select one of the list of suggested candidates; and

inserting at the current cursor position the user-selected suggested candidate.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the user-selected preference comprises displaying a longer list of suggested candidates in lieu of a shorter list of suggested candidates.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein the user-selected preference comprises displaying a shorter list of suggested candidates in lieu of a longer list of suggested candidates

10. The method of claim 7 wherein the user-selected preference comprises displaying a longer representation of a program instruction verb suggested candidate in lieu of a shorter representation of a program instruction verb suggested candidate.

11. The method of claim 7 wherein the user-selected preference comprises displaying a full syntax representation of a suggested candidate in lieu of a partial syntax representation of a suggested candidate.

12. The method of claim 7 where the user-selected preference comprises one from the set comprising displaying a lower-case representation of a program instruction candidate responsive to the parsing of a partial program instruction statement displaying a upper-case syntax representation of a program instruction verb candidate responsive to the parsing of a partial program instruction statement, and displaying a leading upper-case syntax representation of a program instruction verb candidate responsive to the parsing of a partial program instruction statement.

13. A computer system for providing a code assist function which suggests candidates responsive to a parsing of a partial program instruction statement, said computer system comprising:

a current cursor position in the partial program instruction statement;

a parser for parsing the partial program instruction statement before the current cursor position;

a list of candidates to be inserted at the current cursor position responsive to the parsing of the partial program instruction statement;

a user-selected preference applied to the list of candidates to generate a suggested list of candidates;

a displayed list of suggested candidates;

a selection by a user of one of the list of suggested candidates; and

the user-selected suggested candidate inserted at the current cursor position.

14. The computer system of claim 13 wherein the user-selected preference comprises displaying a longer list of suggested candidates in lieu of a shorter list of suggested candidates.

15. The computer system of claim 13 wherein the user-selected preference comprises displaying a shorter list of suggested candidates in lieu of a longer list of suggested candidates.

16. The computer system of claim 13 wherein the user-selected preference comprises displaying a longer representation of a program instruction verb suggested candidate in lieu of a shorter representation of a program instruction verb suggested candidate.

17. The computer system of claim 13 wherein the user-selected preference comprises displaying a full syntax representation of a suggested candidate in lieu of a partial syntax representation of a suggested candidate.

18. The computer system of claim 13 wherein the user-selected preference comprises one from the set comprising displaying a lower-case representation of a program instruction candidate responsive to the parsing of a partial program instruction statement, displaying a upper-case syntax representation of a program instruction verb candidate responsive to the parsing of a partial program instruction statement, and displaying a leading upper-case syntax representation of a program instruction verb candidate responsive to the parsing of a partial program instruction statement.