Autocomplete issues

[pintassilgo]

First of all, thanks, CudaText is amazying, I feel I finally found a text editor I'll be comfortably with on Linux. It's really impressive how customizable and powerful it is, it can also handle big minified files that other editors may struggle with.

Not sure if I should post this here or in "Bugs, issues", as it may be just a question. Sorry if I chosen wrong.

My main concern is the autocomplete. I use autocomplete_autoshow_chars = 1. I installed "Complete From Text". Yet, autocomplete wasn't working for JavaScript files, for instance. So I also installed "JS Tern" and now it kinda works. But with some caveats:

I don't know how to make "Complete From Text" to work along with "JS Tern" in JS files. If I add ",JavaScript" to "lexers=" in plugins.ini, only "Complete From Text" works, not "JS Tern". If I restore default "lexers=", then it's the opposite, only "JS Tern" works.

I'm also not satisfied on how JS Tern works. For instance, it doesn't suggest DOM words like "window", "document" and its properties, or even words like "function", unless they were already used in the context of where the cursor is placed. I'm used to simple autocomplete engines that just offer known words for the language and also words present anywhere in the file. Is there an existing plugin or config for that?

One other thing is that the CudaText autocomplete popup is slow to show up. In my past text editors (Notepad++ on Windows and Kate on Linux), I can type with my normal speed (fast) and still I can see the suggestions popup is revealed while I'm in the middle of the word. With CudaText, on the other hand, I need to pause typing to give time for the autocomplete to be displayed. Is there any config about that to turn it almost-instant like the other editors? I guess the current delay is to display the popup, not to process the matches, because once the popup is open, further word filtering is instant while I type more letters. Actually, it's a little strange that autocomplete popup is displayed as a different window in my task bar instead of just a component of main CudaText window.

P.S.: just saying because I'm not sure if you're aware, but it's possible to enable "Discussions" tab in GitHub repo, it works mostly like this forum and it could prevent things such as the "talk" label in Issues tab. It supports markdown, anyone with a Github account can post...

Edit: it would also be interesting if the suggestion popup can be reduced to fit the suggestion size: if there's only one autocomplete suggestion, it should have the height for just one line. It's width could also match just the enough to fit the word.

[main Alexey]

I will read the long post soon.
quick reply:

don't know how to make "Complete From Text" to work along with "JS Tern" in JS files. If I add ",JavaScript" to "lexers=" in plugins.ini, only "Complete From Text" works, not "JS Tern". If I restore default "lexers=", then it's the opposite, only "JS Tern" works.

It's normal as I see. only one of plugins can activate. we don't have the COMBINED results from both (or 3+) plugins! if you enable CompleteFromText via plugins.ini for JS, only CompleteFromTExt will work on JS.

About 'JS Tern'. I did not touch this plugin for years. It's recommended to use 'LSP Client' plugin now. read about LSP workflow in the wiki:
https://wiki.freepascal.org/CudaText_plugins

[pintassilgo]

Thanks. Using LSP Client instead of JS Tern provides better results for autocomplete. But still not as good as the other editors I'm used to. For instance, if I type "document.getE", LSP Client doesn't suggest anything, but should suggest getElementById, getElementsByClassName...

Other issues still remain (autocomplete popup slow to open and covering way more area than it should).

[main Alexey]

I now disabled "show on task bar" flag for the autocomplete popup.
tiny fix.

Using LSP Client instead of JS Tern provides better results for autocomplete. But still not as good as the other editors I'm used to. For instance, if I type "document.getE", LSP Client doesn't suggest anything, but should suggest getElementById, getElementsByClassName...

This must depend on LSP server!
It's not issue of Cud nor of Cud's plugin.
What server do you use, from https://wiki.freepascal.org/CudaText_pl ... .2FReactJS ?
Then ppl with this server will see the same issue in other text editors!

On https://microsoft.github.io/language-se ... s/servers/ , I see 4 servers for JS.
JavaScript
JavaScript Flow
JavaScript Flow (deprecated)
JavaScript-Typescript

please, try other 3 or 2.

[main Alexey]

1) About 'slow appearing of popup'. it is by design, to avoid popup if I type fast and/or use BkSpace. no option.
2) About fitting of popup to line count and to the item width- interesting, which editors, major editors, do that? VSCode, Sublime, top IDEs?

[main Alexey]

Will be in update:

* change: auto-completion listbox height is now determined by maximal items count, ie new option: "ui_listbox_complete_items"
+ autocompletion listbox height is decreased if listbox has less items

[pintassilgo]

I now disabled "show on task bar" flag for the autocomplete popup.
tiny fix.

Thanks.

This must depend on LSP server!
It's not issue of Cud nor of Cud's plugin.
What server do you use, from https://wiki.freepascal.org/CudaText_pl ... .2FReactJS ?
Then ppl with this server will see the same issue in other text editors!

I don't use LSP on other editors, I use the default autocomplete of them, not such thing as an external server, and they are good enough for me. I can't say for sure, but I guess the issue is CudaText not having a JavaScript.acp or similar in ./data/autocomplete/. I saw from GitHub history that this file was deleted in 2020, don't no why. But it wasn't complete either, it wasn't able to complete the word "function" for instance.

Regarding LSP in CudaText, as you suggested previously I followed instructions from the Wiki which recommends "typescript-language-server", despite I not being sure it's the best option for me because I only write pure JavaScript, not TypeScript. I don't know how to try others, installed the "JavaScript" which is quick-lint-js, then replaced "typescript-language-server" in lsp_js.json under "cmd_unix" by
"quick-lint-js",
"--lsp-server",
restarted CudaText but this broke autocomplete at all.

1) About 'slow appearing of popup'. it is by design, to avoid popup if I type fast and/or use BkSpace. no option.

OK. Unfortunately it doesn't match the behavior of other popular editors such as Notepad++ or Kate that display autocomplete popup instantly even if I type superfast. If the delay in CudaText is not a limitation but a feature purposefully added in the code, I think it would be interesting to have a option to change that.

2) About fitting of popup to line count and to the item width- interesting, which editors, major editors, do that? VSCode, Sublime, top IDEs?

The other two I ever used: Notepad++ and Kate.

* change: auto-completion listbox height is now determined by maximal items count, ie new option: "ui_listbox_complete_items"
+ autocompletion listbox height is decreased if listbox has less items

Thanks, but from what I understood from the commit, it produces a relevant regression of no longer displaying scrollbar in autocomplete popup, forcing suggestion count be limited to a tiny amount (12 by default). I'd rather prefer the previously behavior of big popup, but scrollable and up to 500 suggestions, than the new one. The optimal solution, in my opinion, would be to fit height for up to X items count (like 12), and if there are more items than that the scrollbar would appear. That's how other editors work.

[pintassilgo]

I guess the LSP thing is almost fixed here, I'm fine with how it's working except that it's not filling words from the text. Example:

let arr1 = ['apples', 'bananas'];
let arr2 = ['app

The content above should open suggestion for autocomplete apples, but it doesn't.

Other than that, my remaining issues from autocomplete is the delay to open and the new regression of not showing scrollbar in popup, forcing a low maximum if items.

[main Alexey]

>I don't use LSP on other editors, I use the default autocomplete of them, not such thing as an external server, and they are good enough for me.

Here is the case we need to compare with Sublime Text and VSCode.
let us make the bugreport to the bugtracker of LSP server?
its homepage-- https://github.com/typescript-language- ... age-server
can you post to 'Issues' page, please?

>but I guess the issue is CudaText not having a JavaScript.acp or similar in ./data/autocomplete/. I saw from GitHub history that this file was deleted in 2020, don't no why. But it wasn't complete either, it wasn't able to complete the word "function" for instance.

It was list of fixed words. static list. not considering the objectname before dot. poor.

> I don't know how to try others, installed the "JavaScript" which is quick-lint-js, then replaced "typescript-language-server" in lsp_js.json

I did not try others, sorry, I don';t know how to setup them.

>If the delay in CudaText is not a limitation but a feature purposefully added in the code, I think it would be interesting to have a option to change that.

I will try to change it.

>it produces a relevant regression of no longer displaying scrollbar in autocomplete popup

No, scrollbar remains. only height of popup is limited now. no regression.

[main Alexey]

>If the delay in CudaText is not a limitation but a feature purposefully added in the code, I think it would be interesting to have a option to change that.

Pls, test the Linux beta,
https://github.com/Alexey-T/CudaText/issues/4875