GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 55026
autocompletion applied without asking for confirmation
Last modified: 2004-12-22 21:47:04 UTC
Gnumeric offers autocompletion when you enter data in a cell. I find this quite bothersome and would ask that this feature be either turned off by default or the interface must be changed. Let me give an example: I am entering students' grades in the spreadsheet: A- B A as soon as I enter the last A and hit "return" key, it is autocompleted to "A-" - which is not what I want. So, I have to go back and edit it. Or I have to enter "A", then wait until it autoscompletes to A-, delete the '-' and only then press enter. Both are quite inconvenient. Yes, I know that other spreadsheets do the same - which is one of the things I strongly dislike about them. IMHO, the general philosophy of Linux is that all these "autocompletion/autocorrection/..." may be suggested by the app, but are never applied unless the user has asked for it - e.g., by pressing "tab" key (as in bash, emacs, etc). Can you imagine bash completing your command without asking whether you want it or not? So: I think it would be much better if the atucompletion feature were set so that the user has to press some key (you can't make it "tab" or "enter"- they are used for different things in gnumeric) to accept it. And by all means, it should be possible to turn it off completely - which I couldn't find in all the gnumeric menus. Sasha
This is a good idea, that is far more consistent with traditional unix approaches. I doubt I'll get to it for a while. The easiest solution for now is to disable it by editing your .gnome/Gnumeric file Create or edit an area to contain [Editing] AutoComplete=false
I've create an alpha patch for this (not in CVS yet). The big problem really is what key to assign this operation. In fact I personally like the TAB key best because it has the best compatibility with Unix shells, but it's reserved already. If anyone has any ideas on what key to use for this, please tell.
A similar report was filed with the Debian BTS; see http://bugs.debian.org/140988 In it, the reporter also suggests: "(A partial solution to mitigate the possible damage might be to only activate autocompletion after 4 or 5 characters, which would reduce the chance of a collision somewhat.)"
The tab key is reserved already? What does the tab key do while we are editing a cell?
The tab key - as well as right arrow key - completes entering cell content and moves to the cell to the right. I wonder, since we have 2 keys that do the same thing maybe we can use one of them to confirm autocompletion?
Tab is slightly different than right arrow. Tab will move to the next selected cell if more than 1 is selected. Right arrow will always move to the right.
No completions for < 3 characters. We could make this a preference but that seems like overkill