Comments on: Tab Completion will save your fingers

By: Ken

Ken — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 12:28:41 +0000

Hi Saugata,

There isn’t an Eclipse plugin that I’m aware of.

-Ken

By: Saugata guha

Saugata guha — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 01:39:33 +0000

In reference to Item 17
I have the same question, is Eclipse plugin available?
It was not answered.
Lot of pogrammers now use Eclipse framework, so support for it will be appreciated.

Thanks
Saugata

By: Scott Hirsch

Scott Hirsch — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 12:32:14 +0000

To Daniel and Peter, regarding tab completion on variables defined in files in the editor. This is one of those places where MATLAB’s loose interactivity makes it much harder for MATLAB to figure out your intentions through static analysis. Other languages require that you declare variables before they are used, so it’s fairly trivial to know what’s what.

That said, we’ve got some awfully clever people working on MATLAB. Perhaps if I tell them it can’t be done, we’ll see something soon :)

By: Ken

Ken — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 23:45:53 +0000

Hi Peter,

I can assure you we are working hard on making tab-completion work in the Editor.

We’d love to hear what you think is missing from the MATLAB Editor, as we’re constantly striving to improve it.

Feel free to email Mike or myself (ken.orr@mathworks.com).

-Ken

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 23:28:58 +0000

Peter,

Since M-files are just text files you can edit them anywhere. There may even be someone who has approximated syntax highlighting and if/end completion, etc for eclipse, but the big advantage of the MATLAB editor is cell-mode, publishing, debugging, and execution, which would be difficult to do outside of MATLAB.

I am interested in hearing why you think our editor is not a “real editor,” and what its limitations are within your workflow. You can email me at michael.katz@mathworks.com.

By: Peter

Peter — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 21:11:45 +0000

Hi, I have to agree with Daniel. What’s up with no v7.2+ Editor support for tab completion for variables in the file being edited, but not in the workspace?

Does anyone know of an Eclipse plugin for Matlab, or does Matlab not play well with open source? It would be such a relief to use a real editor.

Sincerely,
Peter

By: Joachim Vandekerckhove

Joachim Vandekerckhove — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 22:52:05 +0000

Hah, clever trick with the bang. I’ll be using that occasionally, thanks.

But I will also submit an enhancement request. Thanks for the reply!

Joachim

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 20:24:24 +0000

Joachim,

MATLAB does not currently have support for users to add tab completion to their files. I suggest you request an enhancement from our web form (requires login):
http://www.mathworks.com/support/service_requests/contact_support.do

If you want to specify a file as an argument, there is a dirty trick you can use in the Command Window. The “!” (bang) operator is shorthand for issuing the system command. You can use this to trick the command window into thinking you are typing a shell command, use the file completion and then go back to the beginning of the line and delete the “!”.

So if you wanted

>>myfun c:\myfiles\file.txt

just use:

>>!myfun c:\....

and so on.

But please, enter the enhancement request, and be specific as possible about your particular use case.

Thanks,
Mike

By: Joachim Vandekerckhove

Joachim Vandekerckhove — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 16:52:48 +0000

Hey guys,

Thanks for this blog :)

Quick question (though suspect I know the answer): Can I somehow tell MATLAB that the input argument to my function is going to be a filename so that it’ll allow me to use tab completion in the Command Window?

Cheers,

Joachim

By: Ken

Ken — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 14:46:30 +0000

Hi Michal,

Thats a great article on tab completion for MATLAB classes. I like your clever workaround to the problem you mentioned above!

-Ken