Content assistants

Wow... lot's of things happening in the plugin.

- I've upgraded my local Python to 2.4 and therefore it's support should be better now;

- Addressed some bugs on code completion;

- Decided to allow the user to change colors for decorators -- otherwise, they just don't seem right to me in the screen;

- Added brackets matching, so that they will highlight its pair;

- Added 2 new content assistants that can use the code completion things:

One happens on lines that have the keyword 'class' and that override some other class.

E.g. class Foo(Bar): | Ctrl+1 - gives you option to override all the public interface of Bar. By that, I mean all methods that don't have '_' in the beggining.

Maybe with this one, I'll start to use some Python interface system. I gave a small look at PyProtocols, but still am not sure about it... All I know is that I really miss some of the static checking from Java as the project I'm working on is growing... Not really because of the language, but because of the tools, more specifically, refactoring... Bycicle Repair Man is dead right now, and I don't see any other project doing it for Python... I'm thinking I should roll my own on that, but I want to put PyDev in a state where that's the only thing missing (for me) before doing it...

The other one is in lines with 'def', to override a specific method of a superclass.

E.g.
class Foo(Bar):
def m| Ctrl+1 - brings all methods from Bar that start with m and provides the completion and a little stub with its arguments and a docstring.

So, keep 'tuned', I think a release should be coming shortly...

Fabio

Step-by-step

Today I spent a little time at the code, most specifically code completion...

Well, basically, after staring at it for a while, I decided to refactor it a bit... Thing is, no unit-tests... Damn, yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking, how does someone write without them? Fool!

Well, what can I say, I use unit-tests all the time, and discovered that they're really useful. -- TDD is a wonderful way of doing things --, that is, if the system is going to grow and you're going to mess a lot with it, as for PyDev, really, it started only as a hobby! Sometimes I messed a little with it, Aleks had done most of the work at that time, and didn't care much about unit-testing for PyDev too... just a for fun project anyway right?!?

Thing is, it is growing... and I'm starting to be concerned in messing with some code areas, as I know that lot's of people are already using it... So, I decided to add some unit-testing to it... Weird how things seem to evolve much better like that hum?!?

Anyway, that got me thinking, is PyDev still only a hobby for me? Do hobbies really require all that much effort? Right now, I cannot see a long distance between it and my job (only that my job pays a lot better)... got me thinking you know...

I guess I really like coding, and getting new stuff to work, hell, what I like most is seeing a project grow, especially in a sustainable way, as I think PyDev is growing until now...

Is there a point in this? Maybe, maybe not, I'm not sure... I guess I just wanted to ramble a little...

Release 0.9.1 is out

Just released the new PyDev... This one had many improvements, as I commented before, even thought my time to mess around PyDev is getting shorter...

Anyway, version 1.0 seems always closer... I think there are still some annoying things in it. Namely:

- PYTHONPATH: I'm not happy with how this is managed... And that's the major source of support requests and errors because of user misconfiguration... I added a huge FAQ explaining it, because it is really non-intuitive right now.

- Code completion: This is really good for me right now, but it seems the more I do, the more I think it should have ;-)


I also saw a nice proverb today...
"People always make time to do the things they really want to do."

I guess that's why I keep developing PyDev...
Note that I'm also trying to gather some funding, so, I could do more of what I like ;-)

-- Anyone, any suggestions on how doing it with? --

Pydev improvements

Well, I'm in the midst of trying to make a new build for pydev, but I think I will only be able to get it out next week, anyway, I just wanted to share some things with you, since I believe many improvements are in the way...

Code completion keeps getting better... sure, there are some improvements to do, but even not being perfect, it is almost reaching the place I wanted when I started it (sure... now that I'm in the middle of it, I can see many other things, but that's the natural order of things right??)

Some 'sweet' improvements have been added... a little code formatter for commas and parentesis is on the way (Ctrl+Shift+F), as is a formatter for the global imports (Ctrl+Shift+O - also used for sorting any selected text).

PyLint integration is always getting better too (now it does not block the interface when running)... and I've been getting a great support from Sylvain from logilab too!! (It has been very handy for doing changes in my code and getting things in order... I belive some people call that SW quality control ;-) )

Content assistant just got nicer (Icons make a lot of diference)!

Scott Schleiser also got me a patch to the editor preferences for the colors... also, much better then it was before...

Well, that's it... latest news straight from the 'bakery'!!!

Hope you all enjoy it when it comes out... hope I can get some time to do it next week!...

Release 0.9.0 and some updates

Hi All...

Release 0.9.0 has been out for 2 weeks now... I think (not that I'm not impartial) that it is becoming a heck on an IDE...

Code completion has been slightly improved and the new PyLint version had great improvements over its last version. Still, code completion does not seem to work with 2.4 sometimes... I will have to take a look at it later on...

As for PyLint, I find it very helpful to discover many simple errors... it still needs some work when working with compiled modules, but it has improved greatly in the overall - if you want to enforce some coding standards it is also a great tool.

Yesterday I updated the homepage. Mostly because I wanted to put a 'sponsors section', because I would not be able to keep on with PyDev if I hadn't the support of my current employer and I'm also looking for more support to keep the project going... I think the Python community is growing a lot, and I believe my chances in suceeding in this are very good...

Fabio