[Lazarus] Extending the editor's hinting functionality

[Reenen Laurie]

That is an AWESOME idea...

I'd love to have a bit more information that just the syntax, (which doesn't
always even fit into the box that pops up) but I don't know how one would
modify the pop-up to do it...

Maybe only show the comment once you've settled on a specific
command/variable... and then make it popup as a hint?

It would be really cool if it could work for both variables and
functions/procedures.

Regards,
-Reenen

On Thu, Oct 2, 2008 at 9:45 AM, Tom Verhoeff <T.Verhoeff at tue.nl> wrote:

> I would like to throw up a suggestion for extending the editor's hinting
> functionality.
>
> We use Lazarus in a first-year introductory programming course.
> One of the rules in our coding standard is that every variable
> declaration needs to be accompanied by an explanatory comment.
>
> It would be nice if the editor could show the comment associated with the
> variable's declaration when you enter/point at an occurrence of that
> variable.
>
> This resembles the functionality where you get the routine prototype
> when entering/pointing at a routine invocation.
>
> Of course, this could apply to other names as well (constants, types,
> routines).  In fact, for routines, the prototype only shows you the
> _syntactic_ specifics of that routine.  _Semantic_ specifics are typically
> addressed in a comment.
>
> It might be necessary to use a special marker (cf. Javadoc) to
> help the editor recognize such comments-to-be-used-for-hinting.
>
> This functionality would further increase the value of adding comments
> to definitions and declarations.
>
> By the way, I hired a student (Thorstin Crijns) to do some work on
> improving Lazarus for educational use.  This should benefit all Lazarus
> users, both aspiring beginners and experienced users.
>
> You'll be hearing more from Thorstin in the future.
>
> I have asked him to start with the built-in help facility and
> documentation.  Other items on the list are the built-in debugger support,
> and template support.  Editor features could be another thing, but he
> will need more help there.
>
> Best regards,
>
>        Tom Verhoeff
> --
> E-MAIL: T.Verhoeff @ TUE.NL     | Dept. of Math. & Comp. Science
> PHONE:  +31 40 247 41 25        | Technische Universiteit Eindhoven
> FAX:    +31 40 247 54 04        | PO Box 513, NL-5600 MB Eindhoven
> http://www.win.tue.nl/~wstomv/ <http://www.win.tue.nl/%7Ewstomv/>  | The
> Netherlands
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