Talk:IntelliSense

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Contents

[edit] Prior art

  • What about the Borland C++ Builder feature called CodeInsight ? Wasn't this the first use of such an autocomplete feature ? rjb
  • Some people view the IntelliSense technology as an incremental innovation on ideas gathered from free software tools such as GNU Emacs and Vim[citation needed]. However, the crucial difference between IntelliSense™ and the previous autocompletion facilities is that the IntelliSense autocompletion options are based on the semantic (as a C++ class will show only that class' members regardless of how many other similar words exist in the file), rather than textual nature of the material, hence Intelligent Sense.

While I have no doubt that there is some prior art related to Intellisense, this paragraph is the usual "zOMFG M$ doesn't innovate even if they do" claptrap. -- klaus

Unfortunately the statement that the idea originated with Microsoft is not supported by a reference. What about this article from 1983? Thomas Reps, Tim Teitelbaum, Alan Demers. "Incremental Context-Dependent Analysis for Language-Based Editors." ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems. Vol. 5, No. 3, July 1983, 449-477. It seems to be evidence that the idea did not originate with Microsoft. Is there support for the claim in the article? Dpv 22:27, 21 July 2006 (UTC)
I didn't add that specific claim to the article, but I agree that it requires a cite. Having said that, there's ideas and then there's implementations. I do know that intellisense was first implemented by Matthew Curland [1], an ex-Microsoft employee that used to work on the VB team. All other implementations I've seen essentially copy Microsoft's, but then there is prior art for everything out there. Certainly the "ideas that originated with free software" thing is a washout in any case. If we go with your reference whatever form of Emacs that existed in 1983 (Teco?) sure as heck didn't have this feature. Heck, Vim just got autocompletion in version 7. Perhaps the phrase could be re-worded to avoid the implication that the idea originated with Microsoft. -- klaus

Didn't Symbolics Lisp Machines do this? Rsynnott 15:34, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Raving

A bit too much of a pat on the back for such a simple implementation of the general idea of autocompletion. Did a Microsoftie write this? :-) C'mon, let's tone it down a bit.

Even if a Microsoftie did... what happens? Microsoft tries to increase speed in development. Is something bad?

I'm more interested in the the use of the Ctrl-Space shortcut to jump start this feature. --Uncle Ed 03:41, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

I think this reads too much like an advert. "a convenient way to access descriptions of functions, particularly their parameter lists. It speeds up software development by reducing the amount of keyboard input required. It also"

-Wootery

[edit] Origins of IntelliSense

I remember at the VB5 Devcon Paris, 1997 that one of the Microsoft speakers (possibly Matt Curland) said that IntelliSense was originally developed for VB4. But they couldn't get the code to a high enough quality to had to disable it for VB4. This is why the C++ teams managed to get what looked like a head start on the VB teams and ship a finished product before the VB team could. I don't have any other reference for this information other than remembering it being stated.

Rbirkby 08:40, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Too standard

It is worth a mention that lots of IDEs use this now. Dreamweaver, Netbeans... Worth mentioning in the article, or removing this article altogether. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.155.130.233 (talk) 18:06, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

Article looks like advertising Microsoft. Imho, similar feature (although not called "IntelliSense", just "code completion" or smth like that) is present in Borland Delphi, Borland C++ Builder, Zend Development Environment and other tools. The fact that Microsoft were the first, is not a reason to devote article to them only (as for me -- article should be devoted to feature-in-general, however mentioning that MS were the first (if they were, of cource)). So, I agree with 86.155.130.233. Sasha1024 (talk) 19:24, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

I say that, although Microsoft's may not be the first or only implementation of AutoComplete, it is among the best, and so deserves an article. 72.223.56.113 (talk) 14:27, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Not unbiased (and possibly funded)

In order to make this _NOT_ an advert for Microsoft one would have to highlight the problems and bugs with the software.

I can certainly point the author to the lockups in Visual Studio 2005 as a good starting point.
Given the amount of third party additions funded by Microsoft I think it only fair the author makes it clear they are not among them to be credible.

Until the author is prepared to add this I vote it should be marked as advertising, and therefore not an unbiased article and be removed. Grahamatwp (talk) 08:19, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

Hi, and welcome to Wikipedia! This article has had over a hundred authors since it started (as this version) in May 2004. If you'd like to add a criticism section, please do. All we ask is that you provide some reliable sources for the criticisms. If you want to tag it as an advert in the hope someone else will correct it, then you can do that instead, using {{advert}}. ➨ REDVEЯS is always ready to dynamically make tea 08:27, 15 April 2008 (UTC)
Wikipedia is not a bug database. What you are suggesting does not belong in an Wikipedia article. While I agree the article is currently a mess (and would probably require a ground-up rewrite), your suggestion is not a solution.
"Given the amount of third party additions funded by Microsoft" - You have any proof? If you have then present it, if not then quit making such claims. There are people who put in a lot of hard work to make the articles as good as they can, only driven by the desire to be helpful to others and nothing else. If nothing they at least deserve a bit of respect.
"and therefore not an unbiased article and be removed" - I suggest you go through the policies here. Being unbiased isn't a valid reason for removal, it is a reason for fixing the article.
I am not one of the primary authors of this article. You can verify all the contribs made to this article from its history. Check all of them out to your heart's content. Just don't accuse them baselessly. Thats simply disrespectful and deters them from fixing the article (why should they work to bring the article up to standards when they know all they will receive is some wild accusation?) --soum talk 08:37, 15 April 2008 (UTC)
<cough> ➨ REDVEЯS is always ready to dynamically make tea 08:39, 15 April 2008 (UTC)
...and present our ass on a nice dinner plate with nice yummy French dressing only to get bitten? No thank you. I will take the first bite. :-P --soum talk 08:49, 15 April 2008 (UTC)