1   Introduction

BBAutoComplete adds word auto-completion to Affrus, BBEdit, Mailsmith, Microsoft Word, Script Debugger, Smile, Tex-Edit Plus, and TextWrangler. You type the start of a word, press a key, and BBAutoComplete types the letters to complete the word. If BBAutoComplete guessed wrong, you can keep pressing the key to cycle through other possible completions. Other auto-completion utilities need to be taught the abbreviations and expansions that you use; BBAutoComplete avoids this hassle by automatically looking for expansions in the program’s open documents. This means that it always suggests completions that are relevant to your current task.

BBAutoComplete is probably most useful for programmers, who need to remember and type long variable and method names, but it can also help with prose writing. It’s useful any time you need to type long words quickly and accurately.

2   Requirements

BBAutoComplete is a universal binary that runs natively on both PowerPC- and Intel-based Macs using Mac OS X 10.3–10.5. BBAutoComplete works in the following programs:

• Affrus 1.0 and later
• BBEdit 6.0 and later (not BBEdit Lite)
• Mailsmith 1.5 and later
• Microsoft Word from Office 2004
• Script Debugger 3.x (as of version 4.0.4, Script Debugger 4 is not scriptable)
• Smile 2.6.9 and later
• Tex-Edit Plus 4.5 and later
• TextWrangler 1.5 and later

If you know AppleScript, you can hook it up to other scriptable text editors. If you do, please send me your glue script, so that I can include it with the BBAutoComplete distribution.

If you use Mac OS 9 or earlier, you might instead try the Word Completion BBEdit plug-in from FL Package.

At present, I know of no Cocoa applications that are AppleScriptable enough to work with BBAutoComplete. However, Cocoa applications can use TextExtras, which provides a similar auto-completion feature. (It only looks for completions in the front window, and it doesn’t let you choose the word characters.)

3   Installation and Updating

4   Using BBAutoComplete

To use BBAutoComplete, type the first few letters of a long word in one of the supported applications. Then invoke the BBAutoComplete AppleScript from the Scripts menu, or use a keyboard shortcut (Command-/ by default). BBAutoComplete will insert the letters to complete the word. If you aren’t happy with the completion BBAutoComplete chose, invoke the BBAutoComplete AppleScript again. You can do this repeatedly to cycle through possible completions.

The order in which BBAutoComplete suggests completions is deterministic. With a little practice you’ll be able to predict what BBAutoComplete will suggest, and how many completions you’ll need to cycle through to get the one you want. Here are the rules:

• First, BBAutoComplete looks backwards, from the current insertion point to the beginning of the document. That is, the first completion it suggests is the last word you typed (that matches).
• Next, BBAutoComplete looks forwards, from the current insertion point to the end of the document.
• Next, it looks in the other windows, front to back, in layer order. In Mailsmith, BBAutoComplete also looks in the subject, body, and notes fields of message windows; and in the preview panes of the Mail Browser and mail list windows.
• Finally, it uses Mac OS X’s spell checker to find additional completions, if you have that option checked in the preferences.
• Completions are case-sensitive. Letters and numbers are considered word characters; whitespace, punctuation, and other symbols are not. You can add more word characters in the Preferences window.

Note that this auto-completion algorithm is the same as dabbrev-expand (M-/) in GNU Emacs, except for being case-sensitive. If you don’t know what Emacs is, stick with BBEdit; if you do, well, that explains why the auto-completion works differently than, say, Xcode’s.

<key>LSUIElement</key>
<string>0</string>

<key>LSUIElement</key>
<string>1</string>

5   Menus

6   Preferences

foo.html
www.apple.com

f

foo.html

w

www.apple.com

foo.method()

bar.m

bar.method

7   Legal Stuff

Distribution

Please distribute the unmodified BBAutoComplete-1.5.2.dmg file on the Web, LANs, compilation CD-ROMs, etc. You may not charge for it (beyond a reasonable cost for media) or distribute the contents of the disk image file in isolation. You may not distribute your serial number.

Limited Warranty

The software is provided “as is,” without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including but not limited to the warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and noninfringement. In no event shall the authors or copyright holders be liable for any claim, damages or other liability, whether in an action of contract, tort or otherwise, arising from, out of or in connection with the software or the use or other dealings in the software.

License

A license for BBAutoComplete is good for one person or one computer. You may install it on one Mac, and everyone sharing that Mac may use it (on that Mac). Alternatively, you may install it and use it on multiple Macs (e.g. your desktop Mac and your laptop); then you (and no one else) may use it on any of those Macs. For multiple users on multiple Macs, you should purchase multiple licenses.

Copyright and Trademarks

BBAutoComplete and this manual are copyright © 2002–2008 by C-Command Software. All rights reserved.

BBAutoComplete is a trademark of C-Command Software. Mac is a registered trademark of Apple Computer. All other products mentioned are trademarks of their respective owners.

Components

The following open-source components are used in BBAutoComplete:

• Regular expression support is provided by the PCRE library package, which is open source software, written by Philip Hazel, and copyright by the University of Cambridge, England.

• Core Foundation is available under the terms of the Apple Public Source License.

• Growl is Copyright © The Growl Project, 2004-2007 All rights reserved.

  Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

  1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
  2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
  3. Neither the name of Growl nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.

  THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

• Thanks to Allan Odgaard for some code snippets that are used in the Software Update installer.

8   Version History

1.5.2—January 9, 2008

• Fixed bug where BBAutoComplete was needlessly logging to the console.
• The software updater is better at handling invalid downloads folders.

1.5.1—November 14, 2007

• Fixed bug where the Apple Help didn’t work on Mac OS X 10.5.
• Fixed bug where the Software Update checker didn’t always re-check for new updates.
• The Software Update feature now checks whether the updated version can run on your installed version of Mac OS X.
• Modernized the crash reporter code.
• Fixed help book icon.

1.5—February 7, 2007

• BBAutoComplete now requires Mac OS X 10.3 or later.
• Now works with Microsoft Word.
• Added Find completions using spell checker option. This is useful when the open documents don’t contain much text, and therefore aren’t very useful for suggesting completions. It can also be used to help type words that you aren’t quite sure how to spell.
• Can now find completions in BBEdit and TextWrangler results browser windows.
• Rewrote the Software Update feature. When a new version is available, it can now show you the release notes. BBAutoComplete now downloads the new version itself, rather than relying on your browser. The Download & Install button will cause BBAutoComplete to auto-update itself to the latest version. Also, the software update checker now works behind HTTP proxies.
• Added keyboard shortcut for Hide Others.
• Improved compatibility with pre-release versions of Mac OS X 10.5.
• Added Danish localization.

1.4.2—January 25, 2006

• BBAutoComplete is now a universal binary.
• Can now look for completions in the preview panes of BBEdit and TextWrangler disk browsers.
• If Path Finder is running, the Show Scripts command reveals the scripts using it instead of the Finder.
• The Software Update alert is now a sheet, so it won’t interfere with auto-completion.
• Improved scaling of the icon.

1.4.1—February 7, 2005

• Now supports TextWrangler 2.0’s documents drawer.
• The Front Only Smile script now works with European keyboards.
• Added example of changing the word characters.

1.4—January 10, 2005

• Now works with Smile.
• Fixed bug where BBAutoComplete sometimes didn’t realize that the front window’s text had changed, and so it returned the wrong completion.

1.3—September 21, 2004

• Now works with Affrus.
• In BBEdit 8, now supports shell worksheets and multiple documents in the same window.
• The AppleScripts are now packaged inside the application; they can be accessed using the Show Scripts command in the BBAutoComplete menu.
• Added software update checker and crash reporter.
• Added Close All Windows and Minimize All Windows commands.
• Now requires Mac OS X 10.2 or later.

1.2—August 13, 2003

• Now works with Script Debugger, Tex-Edit Plus, and TextWrangler.
• Added new icon.
• Refined and updated the interface.
• Added Apple Help.
• Fixed bug in Mailsmith script.
• The Quit script no longer cancels logout.

1.1.2—March 26, 2002

• Now works with Mailsmith 1.5.

1.1.1—March 18, 2002

• Removed profiling code, so no longer creates gmon.out files at root of the boot volume.

1.1—March 16, 2002

• Parsing words is between 20 and 70 times faster than in 1.0.1 (for an 80KB window), with greater improvements on low-memory systems.
• The new word cache further speeds processing.
• BBAutoComplete can optionally ignore background BBEdit windows.
• Includes an Open BBAutoComplete script for BBEdit’s Startup Items folder.

1.0.1—February 27, 2002

• The Quit AppleScript is saved as an application now—so it works.

1.0—February 26, 2002

• First public release.