[ESS] Help configuring auto-complete

[Vitalie Spinu]

  >> Ista Zahn <istazahn at gmail.com>
  >> on Fri, 15 Jun 2012 15:52:58 -0400 wrote:

  > Hi all,
  > Sorry for resurrecting this old thread. I just wanted to note for
  > future googlers that I finally solved this problem to my complete
  > satisfaction using

  > (define-key ac-completing-map "\t" 'ac-complete)
  > (define-key ac-completing-map "\r" nil)

If you are comfortable with other keys (M-n, M-p) to navigate in AC
menu, then that's indeed a very good idea. TAB is bound to ac-expand to
allow movement thorough the popup menu, but the frustration of
completing RET (especially in iESS buffers) is higher than that. Can you
please put this on ESS ac-completion wiki page? This definitely the way
to go with AC in R.

Also note that the recent versions of AC use [return] and [tab] and it
might be good to also:

  (define-key ac-completing-map [tab] 'ac-complete)
  (define-key ac-completing-map [return] nil)

Vitalie.

  > I had tried this before without succes, but it now works as intended
  > (not sure what the problem was before)

  > This prevents auto-complete from completing when the return key is
  > pressed, and instead uses the tab key for this. Although I don't think
  > I realized it myself when I first opened this thread, that is actually
  > what I want, and I'm now very happy with the way auto-complete is
  > working with ESS.

  > Thanks again,
  > Ista

  > On Tue, May 15, 2012 at 2:01 PM, Vitalie Spinu <spinuvit at gmail.com> wrote:
  >> 
  >>>>>> Ista Zahn <istazahn at gmail.com>
  >>>>>> on Tue, 15 May 2012 13:12:09 -0400 wrote:
  >> 
  >>  > Hi Vitalie,
  >>  > Great, thank you for the comprehensive reply. For now I'm going to
  >>  > disable argument auto-completion using the second method you
  >>  > described.
  >> 
  >> Third method might be better, as you will have arguments completion.
  >> 
  >> 
  >>  > More generally, I like having auto-complete menus popping up all over
  >>  > the place -- for me it really is just this situation (argument
  >>  > completion menu triggered by ",") where it gets in my way.
  >> 
  >> You can place this into ess-mode-hook and ess-post-run-hook:
  >> 
  >> (delete 'ess-smart-comma ac-trigger-commands)
  >> 
  >> Then comma wont trigger the ac menu.
  >> 
  >> Vitalie.
  >> 
  >>  > On Tue, May 15, 2012 at 11:40 AM, Vitalie Spinu <spinuvit at gmail.com> wrote:
  >>  >>
  >>  >>>>>> Ista Zahn <istazahn at gmail.com>
  >>  >>>>>> on Tue, 15 May 2012 09:56:42 -0400 wrote:
  >>  >>
  >>  >>  > c(x = 1,
  >>  >>
  >>  >>  > with the cursor immediately after the comma, the auto-complete menu
  >>  >>  > pops up offering to complete "recursive=".
  >>  >>  > I would really appreciate it if  you can tell me how to disable just
  >>  >>  > this specific feature.
  >>  >>
  >>  >> What feature precisely? disable it inside c() or disable argument
  >>  >> completion altogether?
  >>  >>
  >>  >>  > The manual suggests that I should look at the docstring of
  >>  >>  > ac-use-auto-complete, but I can't seem to find it.
  >>  >>
  >>  >> it should be ess-use-auto-complete, it's a type in new features
  >>  >> section. Thanks.
  >>  >>
  >>  >>
  >>  >>
  >>  >> On a general note, I am still not clear what default ac set-up is the
  >>  >> most meaningful. And user input is highly valuable here. I agree that
  >>  >> the current one is too intrusive. Though auto-popup works fine in elisp
  >>  >> buffers it is pretty annoying in R buffers because most of the names are
  >>  >> short.
  >>  >>
  >>  >> There are three general ways that the user can go about it.
  >>  >>
  >>  >> First, is to deactivate ac auto pop-up by setting ac-auto-show-menu to
  >>  >> nil and make TAB to trigger the menu:
  >>  >>
  >>  >>  (ac-set-trigger-key "TAB").
  >>  >>
  >>  >> Second, is to disable auto-completion of arguments. There are 2 basic R
  >>  >> sources `ac-source-R-objects' and `ac-source-R-args'. The third source
  >>  >> ac-source-R combines conveniently the previous 2 and is activated by
  >>  >> default. Add only one of them to ac-sources variable:
  >>  >>
  >>  >> (defun my-ac-ess-config ()
  >>  >>  (setq ac-souces
  >>  >>        '(ac-source-R-objects ac-source-filename ac-source-words-in-buffer)))
  >>  >>
  >>  >> (add-hook 'ess-mode-hook 'my-ac-ess-config)
  >>  >> (add-hook 'ess-post-run-hook 'my-ac-ess-config)
  >>  >>
  >>  >> Third, you can look at definitions of these souces and redefine
  >>  >> them. Particularly you can configure the prefix parameter to be 1 or
  >>  >> even 2 (instead of the default 0):
  >>  >>
  >>  >> (setq ac-source-R
  >>  >>      '((prefix . ess-ac-start)
  >>  >>       (requires . 2)
  >>  >>       (candidates . ess-ac-candidates)
  >>  >>       (document . ess-ac-help)))
  >>  >>
  >>  >> But then you won't have auto completion of arguments at "(" and
  >>  >> ",". Given the current eldoc functionality I think this last option
  >>  >> should actually be the default.
  >>  >>
  >>  >> Best,
  >>  >> Vitalie.