WTH doesn't autocomplete replace the full entity name?

[blunova (Ariana)]

I love autocomplete. It’s amazing. But it doesn’t work the way I would expect when I am trying to change an entity name from one thing to another.

Here’s an example. I have this code:

And now I want to change “living_room_front_door_status” to “living_room_sliding_door_status”. I click to highlight the word “front” and start typing in “slid…” At that point, the auto-complete kicks in and gives me the entity name I want. Cool!

I get excited. I click on the auto-complete option because I’m lazy and it’s faster than finishing typing out the full entity name.

But then, instead of replacing the entity i’m “typing in” with the auto-complete option, it crams the auto-complete option into the previous entity name, leaving me with the wrong entity name!

Arrrgh!

So basically, I have to select and delete the entire entity before trying to use auto-complete. It’s ok, but I feel it could be better.

[petro]

I haven’t found an auto-complete in any IDE or coding language that doesn’t do this. Typically they have a function called “Rename” or something along those lines which gives the IDE the intention that you’re replacing the whole thing. Otherwise it has to guess what your intentions are.

[Black_Fox]

ZSH shell allows autocomplete from the middle of the word (see the COMPLETE_IN_WORD part): Z-Shell Frequently-Asked Questions