GTG

Autocomplete for tags

Bug #343673 reported by Duncan Lock
50
This bug affects 9 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
GTG
Fix Released
Low
Unassigned

Bug Description

When typing @tags into a task, existing matching tags should be suggested for auto-completion. The simplest way to do this would be the same way OpenOffice does it for long words that you're typing - it completes the rest of the word for you but leaves your cursor where it is, with the auto-completed part of the word selected.
This way, if you carry on typing, the selected part will be replaced - so if it's got the autocomplete wrong, the user doesn't even notice. If it's got it right, you can press enter to accept the suggestion and it'll place the cursor at the end of the word, ready for you to carry on typing.

I think I would prefer tab for accepting the suggestion rather than enter but these are implementation details really - some form of auto-complete for @tags would be nice.

Tags: editor
Revision history for this message
Lionel Dricot (ploum-deactivatedaccount) wrote :

I like the idea a lot (simple, efficient and no new UI needed)

Changed in gtg:
importance: Undecided → Low
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Bertrand Rousseau (bertrand-rousseau) wrote : Re: [Bug 343673] Re: Autocomplete for tags

Careful, this approach has also some drawbacks: if you hit enter while
you're typing a tag because you actually want to go to next line, it
insert a matching tag instead, which could not be the one you were
entering. Using could maybe avoid this.

Also, OO.o tends to suggest the longest known word, which is a pity
since it should instead be the most frequently used word or at least
the longest common subword of all the possibilities. If you enter a
tag which is similar to another, if the suggestion is wrong you end up
entering the whole word.

A special shortcut could also be provided to "cycle" through suggestions maybe.

On Mon, Mar 16, 2009 at 3:30 PM, Lionel Dricot <email address hidden> wrote:
> I like the idea a lot (simple, efficient and no new UI needed)
>
> ** Changed in: gtg
>   Importance: Undecided => Low
>       Status: New => Confirmed
>
> --
> Autocomplete for tags
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/343673
> You received this bug notification because you are a member of Gtg
> developers, which is the registrant for gtg.
>
> Status in Getting Things Gnome!: Confirmed
>
> Bug description:
> When typing @tags into a task, existing matching tags should be suggested for auto-completion. The simplest way to do this would be the same way OpenOffice does it for long words that you're typing - it completes the rest of the word for you but leaves your cursor where it is, with the auto-completed part of the word selected.
> This way, if you carry on typing, the selected part will be replaced - so if it's got the autocomplete wrong, the user doesn't even notice. If it's got it right, you can press enter to accept the suggestion and it'll place the cursor at the end of the word, ready for you to carry on typing.
>
> I think I would prefer tab for accepting the suggestion rather than enter but these are implementation details really - some form of auto-complete for @tags would be nice.
>

--
Bertrand Rousseau
Place communale 1, 1450 Chastre, Belgium
e-mail : <email address hidden>
tel : +32 485 96 69 86

Revision history for this message
Lionel Dricot (ploum-deactivatedaccount) wrote :

I believe I would prefer a menu like in Gedit or eclipse with displays the propositions. Of course, the OpenOffice is the worst approach, as usual.

Revision history for this message
Bertrand Rousseau (bertrand-rousseau) wrote :

On Mon, Mar 16, 2009 at 4:00 PM, Lionel Dricot <email address hidden> wrote:
> I believe I would prefer a menu like in Gedit or eclipse with displays
> the propositions. Of course, the OpenOffice is the worst approach, as
> usual.

When you have several possibilities, I think it's the best approach.
However it's not the simplest to implement (but we're not afraid, are
we? ;-) ).

> --
> Autocomplete for tags
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/343673
> You received this bug notification because you are a member of Gtg
> developers, which is the registrant for gtg.
>
> Status in Getting Things Gnome!: Confirmed
>
> Bug description:
> When typing @tags into a task, existing matching tags should be suggested for auto-completion. The simplest way to do this would be the same way OpenOffice does it for long words that you're typing - it completes the rest of the word for you but leaves your cursor where it is, with the auto-completed part of the word selected.
> This way, if you carry on typing, the selected part will be replaced - so if it's got the autocomplete wrong, the user doesn't even notice. If it's got it right, you can press enter to accept the suggestion and it'll place the cursor at the end of the word, ready for you to carry on typing.
>
> I think I would prefer tab for accepting the suggestion rather than enter but these are implementation details really - some form of auto-complete for @tags would be nice.
>

--
Bertrand Rousseau
Place communale 1, 1450 Chastre, Belgium
e-mail : <email address hidden>
tel : +32 485 96 69 86

Revision history for this message
Duncan Lock (dunc) wrote :

Yeah, I wasn't holding up OpenOffice as a paragon of anything! It's just
that GTG's got a nice keyboard interface for tagging already, so it seemed
like a natural extension of that. I also think that OOo has a much harder
time that GTG would - OOo has a lot more words to choose from and no fixed
trigger. I GTG, you'd only have a known short(-sh) list of words to match
against and a simple trigger - @.

As I said, I think probably Tab or maybe ctrl+Enter would be better for
accepting suggestions, for the reasons Betrand mentioned. I'm agnostic on a
menu - you could easily do both or you could display the menu if the user
pauses typing, or presses the down arrow or something.

Dunc

2009/3/16 Lionel Dricot <email address hidden>

> I believe I would prefer a menu like in Gedit or eclipse with displays
> the propositions. Of course, the OpenOffice is the worst approach, as
> usual.
>
> --
> Autocomplete for tags
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/343673
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
>

Revision history for this message
Pititjo (jonathan-barnoud) wrote :

I think the menu is the good way. In my opinion, OO.o way is the worst one : user can't choose what completion the software will use and can't see the other possibilities. It also not clear if the proposal is write or not.

Izidor Matušov (izidor)
Changed in gtg:
milestone: none → 0.4
tags: added: editor
Jeff Fortin Tam (kiddo)
Changed in gtg:
status: Confirmed → Fix Released
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