Reminder of why people use IDEs

Was unhappy about the order of suggestions for completion in Pycharm, more current stuff I can remember than arguments to a function I don’t.

Started looking for ways to order them, but then realized that I ACTUALLY want documentation for the thing under the cursor - that I have in vim/jedi and use but somehow not in pycharm.

Code reference information | PyCharm:

1. <Ctrl-Shift-I> does this “Quick definition”
2. The “Ctrl-click” “go to source” bit - if you don’t click but just hover you also get a tooltip.

“View -> Quick type definition” exists too! Can be bound to a key, but available though the menu.

That menu has A LOT of stuff that is going to be transformative for the way I code. Describing here in full to remember it, it’s worth it.

My understanding is:

• “Quick definition”: short “what” and the closest “where”
  • short “what”: “it’s a function: def ou()..”, “It’s a variable the function got through this part of the signature: a: str,”
  • <C-S-i> by default
• “Quick documentation” - a bit of everything
  • signature, docstring, everything I usually need
  • <Alt-K> for me, default <Ctrl-P>,
  • if pressed twice opens a separate static window that shows the documentation of everything under the cursor as it moves!
• “Type info” - “it’s a str!”
  • Tells you the type information - prolly type hints but not necessarily
  • <Alt-P> for me, default <Ctrl-Shift-P>
• “Quick type definition”: Function or classes signatures
  • This thing is a duck. Ducks are birds that ….. If the duck is a str - well now I know that a str has a long definition. No default shortcut.
• “Context info” - info about current thing from off-screen
  • <Alt-q>
  • First the name of the function being edited, then the name of the class it’s in, etc.
  • Repeat calls make it go higher

Changes to my shortcuts

• <Alt-K> is now quick documentation
• <Alt-P> is now type info

Onwards!