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Dealing with Notepad†† native auto complete

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Oleg Shilo edited this page May 9, 2017 · 1 revision

CS-Script for Notepad++ offers a complete true Intellisense for solution fr C#/VB code. Thus any additional codding assistance from the editor isn't really required. Particularly because any context nonspecific solution (e.g. Notepad++ auto-completion) can hardly compete with rich context based codding assistance tools typically found in the top shelf IDEs (e.g. Visual Studio Intellisense) .

Notepad++ auto-completion is a feature logically consistent with Intellisense user experience. It is a popup suggestion list where the user can select the suggestion to auto-complete partially typed word instead of completing it manually (by typing). However as opposite to Intellisesne auto-completion suggestion list mainly consist of pre-configured (hard-codded) frequently used words and does not reflect the nature of the object, whose member is being completed.

Notepad++ auto-completion popup can be triggered in two ways:

  • Automatically: by user making some specific typing input
  • Manually: by user pressing dedicated shortcut (Ctrl+Space) Both Notepad++ auto-completion and CS-Script Intellisense do not directly conflict with each other but having them active together for *.cs files compromises user experience as they will "compete" for your attention.

That is why CS-Script plugin intercepts Ctrl-Space keystrokes for {"*.cs"} files so Notepad++ auto-completion doesn't popup and user interaction with Intellisense remains uninterrupted.

While manual triggering of Notepad++ auto-completion is suppressed for {"*.cs"} files an unintended automatic triggering is still possible. Because it doesn't rely on Ctrl-Space keystroke event.

Do a simple experiment:

  • Ensure you have the following configuration for this experiment:

  • Open any *.cs file and type type character 'C'. The suggestion list will immediately popup:

This behavior cannot be prevented for specific document types (e.g. *.cs) as Notepad++ controls it via the editor global settings. Meaning that if you want to have uninterrupted C# Intellisense experience you may want to disable automatic triggering of the Notepad++ auto-complete from the configuration:

Note: this will not disable auto-completion for other languages but only disable its automatic triggering. The auto-completion can be triggered at any time manually by pressing Ctrl+Space key combination.

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