TITLE OF PAPER: A multi-language code intelligence engine for code browsing support in a commercial IDE
ALT TITLE: Code Intelligence in Komodo
URL OF PRESENTATION: _URL_of_powerpoint_presentation_
PRESENTED BY: Trevor Mick
REPRESENTING: ActiveState

CONFERENCE: PyCON 2004
DATE: 20040324
LOCATION: _venue_and_room_in_venue_

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REAL-TIME NOTES / ANNOTATIONS OF THE PAPER:
{If you've contributed, add your name, e-mail & URL at the bottom}

Code Browsing
- code browser
- autocomplete

Goals
- Code browser
- Autocomplete - Little things to speed up the coding process
- Call tips

Database
- SQLite
- Multi-language issues
  - separate files and modules not needed for Python, but useful with
    other languages.
  - scanners for files (look for COM objects, Python classes, etc.)
  - store information about the program using an XML description format 
    known as CIX.
    - language-agnostic
    - storable/distributable - pre-generated files for standard libs, 
      binary packages, etc.

Language engines
- for "interesting" language-specific stuff
- (Python) analyze source code using the compiler module --> AST
- (PHP) examples of attributes on functions and classes, interfaces
- (Perl) tough to parse -- Perl can do it; scintilla comes close
- (Tcl) Tcl code can parse Tcl; used TclWrap to generate a standalone
  executable to do this.
- (XSLT) missed this...

Scheduler (multi-threaded code)
- Asynchronous update of info must not interfere with editing.
- Scheduler manages small pool of scanner threads that are scanning code.
- Example: code browser updates when typing ceases briefly.
- Uses the Queue module from the Python standard library -- modified 
  queue that collapses multiple like events.

Autocomplete/call tips
- Type inferencing
- Automatic triggering (language dependent)
  - Easy in Python, Perl (e.g. foo. in Python)
  - Tough in PHP, since it's all about builtins
    Solution: wait for three characters to be typed

Future Possibilities
- Open it to the community once it's stable
- Debugging is very language-specific 
- DBTP is their debugging API (?), available as open source
- Other language engines
- Distributing CIX files for binary packages
- User-specific data in the database, e.g. method frequency tracking.
  Visual Studio does this now.

Questions
Q: What would you like to see changed in Python to make this easier?
A: Extract the real Python parser into an accessible piece.
Q: Can this stuff be accessed separately from Komodo?
A: Yes, it's pretty separable.
Q: How do you deal with errors etc.?
A: We don't update information until the code is syntactically correct.
Q: How easy is it to write plugins (e.g. finding binding occurrences of
   your variables -- language agnostic)?
A: No plugins yet. Maybe regex-based approach. Maybe open CIX spec and
   let users write (extend?) language engines.
Q: (something about methods that are swapped)
A: Ask me later.
Q: How does XSLT fit into the Python, Perl, Tcl group?
A: It's not exactly the same form as those languages, but some aspects of
   it can still be usefully inspected. (someone clarify?)
Q: How many lines of JavaScript are there in Komodo (which is built on
   top of Mozilla)?
A: We'll piecemeal convert our code into Python as Python scripting in 
   Mozilla becomes available.

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REFERENCES: {as documents / sites are referenced add them below}

komodo:           http://www.activestate.com/Products/Komodo/
ms intellisense:  http://tinyurl.com/32fgq
scintilla:        http://www.scintilla.org/

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CONTRIBUTORS: {add your name, e-mail address and URL below}
Abhay Saxena, ark3@email.com
Bob Kuehne, rpk@blue-newt.com, http://www.blue-newt.com

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E-MAIL BOUNCEBACK: {add your e-mail address separated by commas }



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