What does 'Intellisense' refer to?
Is intellisense solely responsible for all feedback that you receive in the IDE? Or do other parts of the IDE (say the compiler for example) detect errors?
I thought of this question because I was having a conversation and referred to the following as being controlled by intellisense:
1. Code autocompletion (like if you type then it will automatically suggest )
2. Error warnings/detection (the squiggly red/green lines under your variables, like say for example but you get a red squiggly line because it doesn't exist in the context (you didn't define it), or because it's used in a way where it should be a nullable and you didn't use int? over int (which produces the green squiggly))
I'm not sure if I was mistaken, like whether intellisense is only in charge of 1) and not 2), or vice versa, or both.
In fact I'm curious as to what scope of activities intellisense controls/governs within the IDE.
Really sorry if my thoughts are all over the place, do ask for clarification on what I'm referring to specifically if you're confused by this post
35 Replies
Intellisense covers a few activities:
1. Completion
2. Quick info
3. Method parameter lists
It does not cover errors/warnings
ah, I see
so which part of the IDE controls 2. in my post?
is it the compiler itself?
Yes
Mostly
In C#, we have the roslyn compiler platform, which users can extend with analyzers to give you extra warnings
Does intellisense/compiler coverage vary by language/IDE?
Intellisense (the term) is a VS feature name
But most languages and IDEs have similar features under different names
oh intelliJ just calls it code completion
huh
so they don't group it
or do they
I'm confused now
They don't afaik
What do Method parameter lists refer to?
When you're typing the arguments to a method, it will show you the method signature
If you highlight your cursor/caret over
-a variable name during debugging, and it shows its value, is it intellisense doing the work or something else?
-a method name and press f12 to navigate to the relevant .cs file's location, what systems goven this use case? Is intellisense involved?
I think you're over-indexing on the word "intellisense"
What are you really trying to understand?
idk, I'm trying to be more precise in my language when I refer to what's helping me in my code in MSVS
Then don't refer to anything as intellisense 🙂
then it will be a verbose set of sentences to refer to literally just one phenomenon
"like when your hover caret over the variable name to see its value"
No, it will be a sentence that refers to the actual thing you're talking about
what actually controls this
The debugger
"like when you hover cursor over method call and press f12 to navigate to the source method"
what actually controls this
For example: if you report a bug in intellisense, the first question the IDE team will ask you is "what part"
Intellisense is too broad a word
I mean I'm getting confused over whether it even concerns intellisense in the first place lol
Isn't this Intellicode not Intellisense?
No
apart from intellisense, debugger and compiler, what other systems play roles in helping MSVS users code
like is there a list
Or: maybe
so I can go into microsoft docs and read
No
wat
so how do I know which is in charge of what
You don't care
is this part of the whole encapsulation thing
user no need know
😳
The user doesn't need to know 🙂
encapsulation in IDE
If the IDE is suggesting a for loop implementation I think that's Intellicode
but how could you tell ):
ðŸ˜
i'm curious men
actually kinda really wanna know
Because it's suggesting an implementation not just showing possible parameters and the like