Something like Visual Assist for Eclipse

[shimon1981]

Howdy people,

At work I am using Visual Studio 2005 with visual assist which can be
downloaded from http://www.wholetomato.com

Since I am learning Java when home and using Eclipse IDE I was hoping
to find something like VA (Visual Assist) for Eclipse. It's not that
I'm spoiled. I have started programming 13 years ago and had the chance
to build big software projects using norton commander text editor and
watcom compiler. So I know exactly how it feels like working without an
IDE.. But now that I got used to VA at work, I can't imagine my life
without it ;-)
Sure that basic features in Visual Studio 2005 intellisense and in
Eclipse IDE are suffice for making big software. But without VA it's
simply not it. Nuff said.

So if anyone knows of good inellisense for Eclipse, I'd love knowing
about it.

Thanks in advance,
Shimon

 

[Rhino]

Howdy people,

At work I am using Visual Studio 2005 with visual assist which can be
downloaded from http://www.wholetomato.com

Since I am learning Java when home and using Eclipse IDE I was hoping
to find something like VA (Visual Assist) for Eclipse. It's not that
I'm spoiled. I have started programming 13 years ago and had the chance
to build big software projects using norton commander text editor and
watcom compiler. So I know exactly how it feels like working without an
IDE.. But now that I got used to VA at work, I can't imagine my life
without it ;-)
Sure that basic features in Visual Studio 2005 intellisense and in
Eclipse IDE are suffice for making big software. But without VA it's
simply not it. Nuff said.

So if anyone knows of good inellisense for Eclipse, I'd love knowing
about it.

I've never used Visual Assist and I don't have the time to download it and
learn it, just to reply to this post. But if it is doing code completions or
suggesting ways of avoiding compiler warnings, Eclipse already does that
without any plugins.

For example, if you override a method in your Java program and have the
compiler set to flag all potentional problems as warnings, you will get a
warning if you haven't written an @Override annotation for the overridden
method. The offending method will be underlined in yellow and the yellow
"previous problem" and "next problem" arrows will take you to all such lines
of code. If you are anywhere on the offending line of code, you can press
CTRL-1 and Eclipse will offer a variety of suggestions. One suggestion will
be that you add an @Override annotation and if you click on that suggestion,
Eclipse will add the anotation for you.

Why don't you give CTRL-1 a try for whatever lines of code you don't like
and see if it does what Visual Assist does? I'm not sure what versions of
Eclipse have the CTRL-1 functionality but it is certainly available as of
3.1.1, maybe considerably earlier.

 

[Shimon Shvartsbroit]

http://www.wholetomato.com/products/features.html

The problem isn't about errors and warnings. VA enables you to go
quickly through your code, it has automated text. It put {} braces
automatically whenever needed. There are short cuts for many things. It
usually gives you best candidates for what you've written. Imagine
you're calling frequent methods or members, all you need is to type
some (maybe even one) of their letters and it gives you the best
possible choices to choose from.

When doing software developing I find it very usefull to use
descriptive method and member names, doesn't matter how long they are.
Imagine you have function like:
"weAreAboutToTrySomeOfVisualAssistFeatures()". Sometimes I don't even
remember method names, but remember some of their name. That's all I
need for VA to suggest it to me. You could write part of the name or
use acronyms. Few key strokes and viola!! you got it
check also http://www.wholetomato.com/products/features/acronym.html

http://www.codeproject.com/showcase/VisualAssistX.asp is a great page
describing some of most frequent uses of VA.


VA is one of those things that hard to explain to other people. But
once you start using it will be hard to stop.


Shimon

 

[Rhino]

http://www.wholetomato.com/products/features.html

The problem isn't about errors and warnings. VA enables you to go
quickly through your code, it has automated text. It put {} braces
automatically whenever needed. There are short cuts for many things. It
usually gives you best candidates for what you've written. Imagine
you're calling frequent methods or members, all you need is to type
some (maybe even one) of their letters and it gives you the best
possible choices to choose from.

When doing software developing I find it very usefull to use
descriptive method and member names, doesn't matter how long they are.
Imagine you have function like:
"weAreAboutToTrySomeOfVisualAssistFeatures()". Sometimes I don't even
remember method names, but remember some of their name. That's all I
need for VA to suggest it to me. You could write part of the name or
use acronyms. Few key strokes and viola!! you got it
check also http://www.wholetomato.com/products/features/acronym.html

http://www.codeproject.com/showcase/VisualAssistX.asp is a great page
describing some of most frequent uses of VA.


VA is one of those things that hard to explain to other people. But
once you start using it will be hard to stop.

Okay, thanks for filling me in.

As I feared, my comments weren't very helpful

 

[Oliver Wong]

http://www.wholetomato.com/products/features.html

Almost everything I saw there, Eclipse has by default.

VA enables you to go
quickly through your code,

Eclipse has this by default.

it has automated text.

Don't know what this means.

It put {} braces
automatically whenever needed.

Eclipse has this by default.

There are short cuts for many things.

Eclipse has this by default.

It
usually gives you best candidates for what you've written.

Eclipse has this by default.

Imagine
you're calling frequent methods or members, all you need is to type
some (maybe even one) of their letters and it gives you the best
possible choices to choose from.

Eclipse has this by default.

When doing software developing I find it very usefull to use
descriptive method and member names, doesn't matter how long they are.
Imagine you have function like:
"weAreAboutToTrySomeOfVisualAssistFeatures()". Sometimes I don't even
remember method names, but remember some of their name. That's all I
need for VA to suggest it to me. You could write part of the name or
use acronyms. Few key strokes and viola!! you got it

Okay, Eclipse doesn't let you type in the acronym, AFAIK. Instead,
you're expected to type in the prefix. So "sb" would not give you a method
called "setBounds", but "se" would.

- Oliver

 

[Shimon Shvartsbroit]

Of course that eclipse has some of the things I've mentioned. I like
Eclipse. But it is not advanced as VA is, IMHO. The fact is, for me at
least, that I still feel "naked" when working without VA. I'm not a
sales man, so it's hard for me to explain all the reasons why Eclipse
fails where VA wins big time The best thing I could say is to try
VA for some projects in C++ and then get back to Eclipse. Only then,
you will see exactly what I mean.

VA gives me the ability to find everyhing I need in big projects in
matter of seconds. I can click on a variable and see it's definition.
If it's a const I can see it's value. I can see that information
without going to definion. VA supplies some kind of a docking window..
Again, there are many features that I find it hard to point my fingure
on them, but they do exist.

And remember, I wouldn't be posting in this forum if I had found
Eclipse features anywhere equal to VA's ;-)

Regards,
Shimon

 

[Jeffrey Schwab]

http://www.wholetomato.com/products/features.html

The problem isn't about errors and warnings. VA enables you to go
quickly through your code, it has automated text. It put {} braces
automatically whenever needed. There are short cuts for many things. It
usually gives you best candidates for what you've written. Imagine
you're calling frequent methods or members, all you need is to type
some (maybe even one) of their letters and it gives you the best
possible choices to choose from.

When doing software developing I find it very usefull to use
descriptive method and member names, doesn't matter how long they are.
Imagine you have function like:
"weAreAboutToTrySomeOfVisualAssistFeatures()". Sometimes I don't even
remember method names, but remember some of their name. That's all I
need for VA to suggest it to me. You could write part of the name or
use acronyms. Few key strokes and viola!! you got it
check also http://www.wholetomato.com/products/features/acronym.html

http://www.codeproject.com/showcase/VisualAssistX.asp is a great page
describing some of most frequent uses of VA.


VA is one of those things that hard to explain to other people. But
once you start using it will be hard to stop.

Sounds like any dedicated file-type mode in Emacs or Vim.

 

[Oliver Wong]

Of course that eclipse has some of the things I've mentioned. I like
Eclipse. But it is not advanced as VA is, IMHO. The fact is, for me at
least, that I still feel "naked" when working without VA. I'm not a
sales man, so it's hard for me to explain all the reasons why Eclipse
fails where VA wins big time The best thing I could say is to try
VA for some projects in C++ and then get back to Eclipse. Only then,
you will see exactly what I mean.

I don't program in C++, so I don't expect this to happen any time soon,
unfortunately.

VA gives me the ability to find everyhing I need in big projects in
matter of seconds. I can click on a variable and see it's definition.

CTRL-click to do that in Eclipse.

If it's a const I can see it's value.

Not sure that this will always work in Java. Consider the following
code:

final int = Random.nextInt();

However, I could see a case made for compiler-time constant propagation
analysis being built into JDT so that if the value of an expression was
known at compile time, it could be displayed somewhere, somehow.

I can see that information
without going to definion. VA supplies some kind of a docking window..

Eclipse has docking windows too. They're called "views".

Again, there are many features that I find it hard to point my fingure
on them, but they do exist.

And remember, I wouldn't be posting in this forum if I had found
Eclipse features anywhere equal to VA's ;-)

Right, fair enough. I was just making sure this wasn't a case of the
features already being present, but that you did not know about them.

- Oliver

 

[dimitar]

For what it's worth, you might want to try IDEA as well. It's not free,
but it's not very expensive either.

Last time I've used VA was 2004 and I didn't notice any functionality
that was missing in IDEA.

I don't want to start a flame war, so please do not post in this thread
if what you have to say is not relevant to the thread topic.

 

[Dale King]

Of course that eclipse has some of the things I've mentioned. I like
Eclipse. But it is not advanced as VA is, IMHO. The fact is, for me at
least, that I still feel "naked" when working without VA. I'm not a
sales man, so it's hard for me to explain all the reasons why Eclipse
fails where VA wins big time The best thing I could say is to try
VA for some projects in C++ and then get back to Eclipse. Only then,
you will see exactly what I mean.

You have to be more specific than that.

VA gives me the ability to find everyhing I need in big projects in
matter of seconds.

So does Eclipse (at least for Java, I've had less successful results in
C/C++). F3 for open declaration is handy. F4 for open hierarchy is good
too. Ctrl-shift-G finds all references in the workspace.

I can click on a variable and see it's definition.
If it's a const I can see it's value. I can see that information
without going to definion. VA supplies some kind of a docking window..

Sounds exactly like the Declaration View in Eclipse. Try Windows -> Show

Again, there are many features that I find it hard to point my fingure
on them, but they do exist.

And remember, I wouldn't be posting in this forum if I had found
Eclipse features anywhere equal to VA's ;-)

I suspect that it is more that you haven't found the features rather
than they are not equal.

I'm not saying that VA may have some better features, but if it does we
would like to know what they are so they can be suggested to the Eclipse
team which is very good about adding things.

 

[Shimon Shvartsbroit]

Dimitar, thanks for the reference. I will give IDEA a shot.
Dale, I've been already familiar with most features that you have
mentioned, except ALT+SHIFT+Q, which is handy. I bet I still have
plenty to learn about proper and effecient usage of Eclipse. I also
think that the best suggestion would be to reference Eclipse team to
links about VA and ask them to try it out. I'm sure they will say
"ohh.. that's so cool! we must must add this feature to eclipse".

Thank you all for the posts.

Shimon

 

[Dale King]

Dimitar, thanks for the reference. I will give IDEA a shot.
Dale, I've been already familiar with most features that you have
mentioned, except ALT+SHIFT+Q, which is handy. I bet I still have
plenty to learn about proper and effecient usage of Eclipse. I also
think that the best suggestion would be to reference Eclipse team to
links about VA and ask them to try it out. I'm sure they will say
"ohh.. that's so cool! we must must add this feature to eclipse".

I doubt that you get much traction, just saying go check this out. You
would get much better reaction if you talked about specific features and
how they fit into Eclipse and making sure that Eclipse doesn't already
have something similar, which is why I told you to be more specific.

 

[Shimon Shvartsbroit]

I doubt that you get much traction, just saying go check this out. You
would get much better reaction if you talked about specific features and
how they fit into Eclipse and making sure that Eclipse doesn't already
have something similar, which is why I told you to be more specific.

Dale,

I would love doing so. But, as a new java developer I am not aware of
which features are already available in Eclipse or external plugins.
Other than that, I may not be aware of java development needs. Thus I
don't think I'm the right man for the job. That's why I encourage you,
the people who work with java much more than I do, maybe even you work
with java on daily basis, to check the links I've given and hopefully
to imrpove the development in java for all of us.

Best regards,
Shimon

 

[Dale King]

I would love doing so. But, as a new java developer I am not aware of
which features are already available in Eclipse or external plugins.
Other than that, I may not be aware of java development needs. Thus I
don't think I'm the right man for the job. That's why I encourage you,
the people who work with java much more than I do, maybe even you work
with java on daily basis, to check the links I've given and hopefully
to imrpove the development in java for all of us.

So full time java developers are supposed to go check out a C++ tool?

One feature that is worthy of suggesting to Eclipse is the use of
acronyms in code assist. It would be nice to use npe to look up
NullPointerException or more importantly use iae to look up
IllegalArgumentException which has many others with common prefix.

Another thing I just recently stumbled onto that seems similar to a VA
feature is pressing ctrl-O which pops up a quick overview of the class.
It also provides a handy way to navigate around the class when the
editor is maximized.

Looking through the VA features, I don't really see anything else that
is not already in Eclipse although not necessarily as automated as in VA
(You have to hit ctrl-space to see completions).

 

[Oliver Wong]

Shimon Shvartsbroit wrote:
I also
think that the best suggestion would be to reference Eclipse team to
links about VA and ask them to try it out. I'm sure they will say
"ohh.. that's so cool! we must must add this feature to eclipse". [...]
You
would get much better reaction if you talked about specific features and
how they fit into Eclipse and making sure that Eclipse doesn't already
have something similar, which is why I told you to be more specific.

[...]
I encourage you,
the people who work with java much more than I do, maybe even you work
with java on daily basis, to check the links I've given and hopefully
to imrpove the development in java for all of us.

So full time java developers are supposed to go check out a C++ tool?

And possibly learn C++ in the process, so that they can actually realize
the significance of the features that VA is providing.

Our only hope is to find someone who works with both C++ and Java, who
has used both Eclipse and VA, and who can tell us what the differences are.
(Actually, this sounds a lot like a description of the OP.)

As much as I love Eclipse, and would love to see it have all the latest
and greatest features, I'm not willing to spend a few years learning C++ to
the same level to which I know Java, and then spend actual money to buy a
license to use VA, and then play around with VA, all to submit a few RFEs to
the Eclipse team. I suspect many other Eclipse users are in my position as
well.

- Oliver

 

[Dale King]

Dale King wrote:
Shimon Shvartsbroit wrote:
I also
think that the best suggestion would be to reference Eclipse team to
links about VA and ask them to try it out. I'm sure they will say
"ohh.. that's so cool! we must must add this feature to eclipse". [...]
You
would get much better reaction if you talked about specific features
and
how they fit into Eclipse and making sure that Eclipse doesn't already
have something similar, which is why I told you to be more specific.
[...]
I encourage you,
the people who work with java much more than I do, maybe even you work
with java on daily basis, to check the links I've given and hopefully
to imrpove the development in java for all of us.

So full time java developers are supposed to go check out a C++ tool?

And possibly learn C++ in the process, so that they can actually
realize the significance of the features that VA is providing.

Our only hope is to find someone who works with both C++ and Java,
who has used both Eclipse and VA, and who can tell us what the
differences are. (Actually, this sounds a lot like a description of the
OP.)

As much as I love Eclipse, and would love to see it have all the
latest and greatest features, I'm not willing to spend a few years
learning C++ to the same level to which I know Java, and then spend
actual money to buy a license to use VA, and then play around with VA,
all to submit a few RFEs to the Eclipse team. I suspect many other
Eclipse users are in my position as well.

I didn't go quite that far. I only perused the feature list for VA. The
only really valuable thing I saw there was the use of acronyms. I have
submitted an RFE to Eclipse to add the feature.

 

[Shimon Shvartsbroit]

So full time java developers are supposed to go check out a C++ tool?

You are right. I've had a hidden assumption that some of developers
here are familiar with C++ at have some experience with C++ IDE. I
wouldn't expect full time java developers without prior experience in
C++ to check VA features in C++ IDE.

One feature that is worthy of suggesting to Eclipse is the use of
acronyms in code assist. It would be nice to use npe to look up
NullPointerException or more importantly use iae to look up
IllegalArgumentException which has many others with common prefix.

For what it's worth I can list the VA features I use heavily in C++
development at work:
1). listboxes - you don't have to press ctrl+space. you get the list
automatically. You can type in insensetive chars and with acronyms.
Using that I find name of classes, symbols or methods in no time.

2). you can mark local symbols in bold.

3). you can select text.. if you press "/" it will comment it..
pressing again uncomments in.. you could also press on "*" to make
C-style commenting or uncommenting.

4). you can copy multiple texts into clipboard.. and select via
alt+shift+v the one you want to paste..

The most vaulable feature for me is the auto-suggestions it does while
I am typing.
Let's say I have a class "Widget". In order to use it I need to type
"wi" and enter. Of course it deepends on number of classes that are
within current namespace/package. Remember, no ctrl+space invoved.

It's possible to apply filtering on list-boxes.. ie, see only public,
protected methods and more..

Another thing I just recently stumbled onto that seems similar to a VA
feature is pressing ctrl-O which pops up a quick overview of the class.
It also provides a handy way to navigate around the class when the
editor is maximized.

Looking through the VA features, I don't really see anything else that
is not already in Eclipse although not necessarily as automated as in VA
(You have to hit ctrl-space to see completions).

Again, the question is ctrl-space or not ctrl-space.. I personally
prefer the suggestion to be done automatically without pressing on
special keys, like on ctrl-space.

Shimon

 

[Chris Uppal]

2). you can mark local symbols in bold.

That's a good idea. VA makers are to be commended.


For some reason IDE designers seem to think that we'll be better programmers if
we have it pointed out to us that
23
is a constant, thus preventing confusion with variables like:
ageInMonths
But they never even /try/ to help us distinguish between the things that
matter: local vs. non-local; constant vs. variable; static vs. non-static; and
so on. So the screen ends up a bewildering Technicolor mess, but hardly
includes any more useful information than would be conveyed by simple black and
white.

Why /do/ IDE designers copy each others' worst ideas ? Who came up with the
idea of using italics for comments ?

Pfah !

-- chris

 

[jmcgill]

Pfah !

#1. Eclipse is open source.
#2. Sounds like you have an itch that needs scratching.

 

[Dale King]

That's a good idea. VA makers are to be commended.


For some reason IDE designers seem to think that we'll be better programmers if
we have it pointed out to us that
23
is a constant, thus preventing confusion with variables like:
ageInMonths
But they never even /try/ to help us distinguish between the things that
matter: local vs. non-local; constant vs. variable; static vs. non-static; and
so on. So the screen ends up a bewildering Technicolor mess, but hardly
includes any more useful information than would be conveyed by simple black and
white.

Why /do/ IDE designers copy each others' worst ideas ? Who came up with the
idea of using italics for comments ?

Pfah !

Because most people want them. And all that is customizable in Eclipse.
Go to Java->Editor->Syntax Coloring and you will see that you have a
great deal of flexibility.

Eclipse has some nice ones that I like, such as highlighting static
field and method references differently and using strikethrough for
deprecated items.