Content assist

The EGL content assist is a tool that you can use to complete programming statements without having to type the entire statement. It provides a way to quickly insert an EGL keyword, function, variable, property, or code template.

When you initiate the content assist, it presents all of the available keywords that are legal at that position, which may be a long list. However, you can control the amount of information that is displayed when you initiate the content assist. You can filter the displayed information by entering the beginning characters of the function that you want to insert and then initiate the content assist. For example, if you are looking for program, type pr and press Ctrl+Space. The displayed list will contain those commands, templates, and code statements that begin with pr. You can narrow the list more by increasing the number of characters that you type for the search argument (for example, type progr).

To use the content assist, do the following steps:
  1. Within an EGL source file, press Ctrl + Space. The content assist displays a list of EGL keywords and code templates legal at your current position.

    To reduce the number of items in the list, type at least one character of the keyword or template you are searching for before or after activating the content assist.

  2. Select the desired code from the list by doing one of the following:
    • Use the arrow keys to select an option and press Enter.
    • Click on an option in the list.
  3. The code is inserted into the current location of the cursor. You can then modify the inserted code.
  4. If you inserted a code template with variables rather than a single keyword, those variables are highlighted in the inserted code temporarily. Press the Tab key to move to a highlighted variable.
The content assist is context-sensitive. For example, if you are in a set-value block for a program, the content assist offers only properties that are valid for programs. You can use the content assist to add additional properties as follows:
  1. Type a comma (,) after the last property-value pair.
  2. Position the cursor after the comma and press Ctrl+Space to initiate the content assist. The resulting list shows properties that are both valid for the program and not yet included in the program.
  3. Select the desired code as described above.
Note: A menu button is added to disable content assist, whether the content assist process is working or not. You can also press the keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+6) to disable it. When the workspace is too large, and causes slow performance of the content assist, this function can be useful.

To enable the content assist, click the button or press the keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+6) again.