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Actual IntelliSense for Unity

Discussion in 'Works In Progress - Archive' started by ZimM, Sep 30, 2014.

  1. ZimM

    ZimM

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    Hi everyone,

    since I've first discovered Unity, I was baffled at the absence of IntelliSense code hints. And I'm talking not about auto-completion, but about useful descriptions for types, methods, and method parameters - something every good C# library has:
    _2014-10-01_01-24-10.png
    But with Unity, every time I've forgot the exact meaning of some parameter, or what a particular method returns, the only option is to look into the Scripting Reference, which is the most tedious thing ever - you have to start your browser, open the Scripting Reference, find the type, find the method, and only then you'd be able to get what you've searched. Phew... isn't that way too much work to do every time, when all you really have to do is to hover the cursor over the thing of interest?
    Well, I've got sick of this. And I've wrote a tool that scans the documentation and emits a nice XML file with all required information, that both Visual Studio and MonoDevelop can automatically recognize and use. This ended up being way more complicated to code than I've originally thought it'd be, but now, as it is pretty much finished, I'm very happy at how useful and time-saving it becomes once you actually use it.
    Here are a few examples of this in work, with screenshots captured from Visual Studio:
    _2014-09-30_23-15-49.png
    _2014-09-29_02-04-41.png
    _2014-09-30_23-10-58.png
    I am thinking of putting it on Asset Store for maybe $5 or $10. Does this seems like a fair price?
    It works really well for Unity 4.5, and I'm sure I'll be able to adapt it easily for 4.6. Support for 4.3 and lower is unlikely as that'd pretty much mean writing everything again from scratch, but I'll probably add it if demand is high enough.

    What do you think about this?
     
    Last edited: Oct 2, 2014
    Kirbyrawr and Venryx like this.
  2. theANMATOR2b

    theANMATOR2b

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    I'm not a programmer but I think this looks cool and the price seems reasonable.
    It's like tool tips for your code! Tool tips are always helpful when I begin work in a application I haven't used for a while, or on specific tools I don't use regularly.
     
  3. GarBenjamin

    GarBenjamin

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    It is an excellent idea and very useful add-on. I continually am surprised by the core functionality that is missing in Unity. It's almost like they spend all of their time working on the big "fun wowee zowee" things and just ignore the fundamentals. Lol I'd probably buy it for $10. Definitely for $5.
     
  4. JamesLeeNZ

    JamesLeeNZ

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    that's exactly what they do... but thats what I would do too... so yeah..

    nice plugin. personally wouldnt buy it as I dont really need it, but I can imagine it would be awesome if youre just getting started.
     
  5. User340

    User340

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    Hmm, usually MonoDevelop checks for an xml right next to the assembly. And if it finds the xml, the descriptions/hinting just works for that assembly.
     
  6. virror

    virror

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    Seems VERY useful! Would save quite some time when coding for sure.
     
  7. ZimM

    ZimM

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    Thanks for the opinions everyone :) I'm definitely finishing this and submitting to the Asset Store soon.
    Yeah, the lack of XML documentation especially baffles me, as 90% of my tool is just parsing the documentation, which is not something Unity would have to do if they wanted to implement this themselves, as they have the documentation source and can transform it to whatever form they want.
    Yes, that's how it works. But the point is, there is NO such .xml for Unity assemblies, and that's what my tool is generating.
     
    User340 likes this.
  8. OutSpoken_Gaming

    OutSpoken_Gaming

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  9. ZimM

    ZimM

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    Oh, good point, didn't knew about that. That could still be useful in some relatively rare cases when you want to see the code examples. But again it raises a question why couldn't it just open the page directly instead of making a search. Oh well. Also, apparently this doesn't works in Visual Studio, but that kind of makes sense, as MonoDevelop has a Unity plugin..
     
  10. virror

    virror

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    They are two different things for me, and both are very useful together, having to go to a webpage every time is a timewaster : )
     
  11. ZimM

    ZimM

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    It took quite a while for me to finally finish this, but I have to say I've just pushed it to the Asset Store for review. Hopefully it'll get through soon :)
     
  12. Myhijim

    Myhijim

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    Certainly will buy
     
  13. virror

    virror

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    Awesome : )
     
    Myhijim likes this.
  14. S3dition

    S3dition

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    Big yes from me.
     
  15. BeefSupreme

    BeefSupreme

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    The more I think about this, the more I need it. Having access to this information without disrupting my workflow is going to be mighty nice =)
     
  16. ZimM

    ZimM

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    Thanks for your support everyone :)
     
  17. AthosK

    AthosK

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    Looks nice, I don't really needed either but I guess it's faster than Ctrl+C / Ctrl+'
     
  18. Myhijim

    Myhijim

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    If it releases tomorrow I will be waiting in line for first buy.
     
  19. jtok4j

    jtok4j

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    WOW wow, wow! What a great idea! As a learner for C#, this would be such a time-saver for those moments when I forget the exact syntax, and need a really quick reference.

    Price: Yep, $5, says that people will buy it quick, but $10, means only those who really look at your product page, and need this, would buy it.

    Thank-you for making this. I am awaiting it's arrival in the Asset Store!
     
    ZimM likes this.
  20. ZimM

    ZimM

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    I wish it was tomorrow. In reality, it usually takes a week or more, once I've even had a ridiculous case when it took the vetting team almost a month to approve an asset...
    But I'll update this thread when the approval finally happens, so stay tuned!
     
  21. Teila

    Teila

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    Oh, I know a programmer who would love this! Thanks!
     
  22. virror

    virror

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    Will get this as soon as it gets out : )
    What are your thoughts about supporting this?
    Will you get a new version out for every new Unity release or will we be able to generate this by ourself to make sure its up to date?
     
  23. ZimM

    ZimM

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    It's something in between. You'll be able to generate the data as long as Unity won't change the layout or format of the documentation. And they've just updated it in 4.5, so probably they won't be changing it again for a while now. Sure, there is no guarantee they won't, and in that case - yes, I'll be updating the asset for new versions of Unity. For now, it works on 4.5 and 4.6, and actually mostly works even on Unity 5 beta without me doing anything specific about it, so I am not expecting a lot of difficulties with this in the nearest future :) Probably just small fixes will be required.
     
  24. 2dchaos

    2dchaos

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    Oh please, yes, I hate searching in the script reference. ;o
     
  25. ZimM

    ZimM

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  26. virror

    virror

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    Yay : D