Xcode Code Completion "flicker" - xcode

I've recently upgraded from Xcode 4.3 to 4.4 and I'm about to bash my screen in with frustration.
The problem I'm having is with the code completion. As I type a variable or method name, the completion window pops up with the suggestions like it's supposed to. But if I attempt to use the cursor keys to scroll between the suggestions, the suggestions disappear and the cursor moves in the code, not between the suggestions. If I press enter to accept the default suggestion, it again dismisses the suggestions and inserts a return into the code taking the cursor to the next line.
This doesn't happen every time I attempt code completion, but it does occur more often than not. For a given name I'm trying to complete, it either works or it doesn't (e.g. if I press escape to get the suggestions back, it will disappear just as quickly as the first time it disappeared for that line/name I was trying to complete). When I get to the next line of code, it's a whole new bet whether it will work or not. It seems that the closer to the actual completion of the name I am, the more likely it is to actually work and accept the suggestion or move between the suggestions. Sometimes, if I act quickly enough, I can move the highlighted suggestion one or two lines before the suggestions disappear. I'm aware that if you don't select a suggestion quickly enough that it's supposed to eventually remove the suggestions (on the order of several seconds), but this behavior is not what I'm describing. I'd be VERY happy at this point if I had a single second to actually respond and select a suggestion from the pop-up.
So far I've tried a clean of the project, deleting all of the project's derived data, and restarting xcode. All of which don't seem to affect the behavior. Any ideas? I've searched stackoverflow and google and haven't found any other people reporting this problem ...
Thanks for any ideas,
Will
UPDATE:
After upgrading to the XCode 4.6 release version (and 4.5 somewhere in the middle there), this problem is still present ... and making edits in the left/main editor window is still a work-around.

I am seeing the same with Xcode 4.4.1. It seems to be related to where the completion window pops up. Debugger pane open or closed does not change anything here.
When in the Assistant Editor trying in the right pane the completion windows flickers. Same line of code in the left window works fine. Single editor works, too.

Try upgrading to Xcode 4.4.1. I used to have this problem, but I don't seem to have it after upgrading.
If this doesn't solve the problem, a crude workaround seems to be to put a lot of blank lines at the bottom of each file - the problem seems to occur from frequently when the file is scrolled all the way to the bottom.

There is a fix (at least Xcode 4.6.3): re-create the affected file by deleting it. Now create a new file and copy the content to it and drag it into the project - done. Fixes the issue here. It seems to be tied to certain files.

Related

Fields in the XAML editor Property window becoming un-responsive

Edit: I see "Silverlight -" is in front of my question, which I realize may have something to do with the alphabetical order of my tabs... really Visual Studio 2013 should be in front, anyone know if that can be changed?
I've been using the newer Visual Studio 2013 for about a week now, and I've found some quirks with it. The one that seems to happen the most is when I'm in the XAML editor working on something, suddenly if I go over to the property window I can't enter anything. I'm not running/debugging. I can type stuff in the regular XAML code editor window.
Even stranger, one of the times, I could get the cursors to appear in the fields. I typed a bunch of junk and just one character from what I types appeared. Another time I couldn't enter values into the properties, but I could double click on an event in the events window and create a new event handler. Just a minute ago I had the opposite, where I couldn't double click in the events window.
I think VS 2013 introduced async handling of more things, could it be related to that? Or perhaps because I'm using Silverlight? Right now my only workaround is to restart VS, does anyone have any knowledge about this? Anyone else experienced this?
I'm going to submit a bug report, but it would be a while before there's a patch, so I'm wondering if maybe someone understand the problem better and has a workaround? Or maybe just confirm that this exists and that I'm not crazy/my computer's haunted.
Edit:
I should mention another weird thing that happened two nights ago. I thought it was some how my doing, but I never figured out how I could have managed it without noticing. I was working on a piece of code, went to run after changing a few lines, and suddenly I had a ton of compiler errors. I go over to a user control I haven't touched in hours and suddenly the main LayoutRoot grid is completely empty. Luckily I'd committed to source control, but still...
I found an easy way to deal with this problem. It happens a lot after debugging so what I did was I created a batch file on my desktop containing this line taskkill /f /im XDesProc.exe and I run it every time the properties start misbehaving. Its the quickest way to reload the designer's functionality. I submitted this bug to microsoft they claim it will be included in the next update.
Me and another guy are developing a silverlight app and having the same exact problem. I accidentally found where the bug lies and how to mess with it to allow you to type "very briefly". Apparently this has something to do with tooltips. If you hover over anything in the property window when this bug is happening and allow a tooltip to popup while your cursor is blinking in a field, for the duration that the tooltip is up you can resume typing normal. As soon as the tooltip times out and disappears you can't type. So the only way you can edit or search properties is while a mouse tooltip is floating active. Very unusual. Can't seem to find any kind of tooltip settings in the program and the situation is very hard to find on google because search results assume your talking about programming tooltips. As far as I know we have had this issue since before release candidate. We are currently on official update 1 with the same problem persisting.

XCode 4 Cursor Jumps To First Line When Auto Suggesting

I have a problem in XCode 4.2 when I have the autosuggest feature turned on. Whenever an autosuggest (autocomplete) pops up, the cursor will jump to the top of the file, to the second character of the first line. This happens regardless of whether or not I select the autosuggest or take any other action. As soon as I turn off the autosuggest feature, this behavior stops happening.
I have turned off all key binding associated with jumping to the top of the page and have deleted all derived data for the project as per some suggestions I have heard, but have not been able to solve the problem.
Anybody have a solution?
I had similar problem Xcode cursor jumped randomly. It was triggered by an editor theme using an italic font. I changed the font to a regular one, and the problem was resolved.
Simple solution (or workaround):
Open Preferences.
Open Fonts & Colors tab.
Select Basic theme.
I got the hint from this page.
Just in case there is a bounty awarded :) let me repeat my "solution" from above: I suggest moving aside your /Developer folder and re-installing Xcode. Simply running the installer w/o removing the old /Developer folder may not replace all the necessary files. Good luck.
I have had a similar problem where the cursor jumped to the top and I couldn't scroll down. I don't know if it is the same problem that you have but there is no real solution. Its just one of Xcode's bugs there are a lot more. Open another file in the project and go back to the file you were working on, close and reopen the project or restart Xcode. Thats the only solutions I found.
If thats not working, then you can always re-install Xcode

Xcode find in document stuck in case-sensitive

When in Xcode editing code for my objective C files, I often press Command-F to bring up the little Find-In-Document banner across the top. Sometimes this gets stuck in case-sensitive search, and when it does that it also won't loop through the entire document and sometimes won't even display the selected found string.
I can't find any options to turn off the case sensitivity, and I never intentionally turned it on. I've restarted xcode several times hoping that would be it but it's changed nothing.
Slightly off-topic, but this was the best place I could think of to ask this question. Thanks for any response!
EDIT: I've also tried restarting the computer. Still no dice. Also this happens on any project I open in xcode and is not specific to one project.
Anna's comment is the correct answer: When you press Cmd-F, clicking on the little magnifying glass next to the search input brings up a menu where you can check/uncheck Ignore Case.
You can set parameters for search by clicking on magnifier placed in left-side of search-bar.
There is provision to select/de-select "Match Case" i.e. case-sensitive search on pop-up shown.
Below is screenshot for the same.

How can you go forward/backward at the file level with Xcode 3.2?

Xcode 3.2 has implemented cursor-level history for the "Go Forward", "Go Backward" commands. Previously these worked at the file level, so you could navigate back and forth through recent files you've been editing. Now they navigate at a more fine-grained level, through the places within files where you have been editing.
The downside to this is if you navigate backwards through the files and make a minor edit, all of your forward history is wiped out, whereas in the past it used to be easy to return to the file you were working on. It also means issuing a lot more commands if you just want to move through files, since you have to skip through all the edit points within each file.
I can't find anything in the release notes or documentation about this new behavior, so does anyone know if it's possible to get the old 'go back/forward by file' commands in 3.2? If not, does anyone have any tips on other ways of easily navigating recent files in Xcode?
Hold down the option key while you click the forward/backward arrows at the top of the code view, this will use the Xcode 3.0 behavior and go back a file at a time.
I had the same question as well and and Rob's answer on holding Option while clicking the forward/backward arrows works well.
I needed a keyboard shortcut though and I've found that Shift-Option-Cmd-left/right works.
From the comments on this blog entry:
Hold down the Option key to get the old file-based Go Forward/Go Back behavior. We rarely change established behavior like this when adding new options, but in this case, the majority of users considered file-level navigation Broken and location-based navigation Correct, based on their experience in browsers and other IDEs. We chose to give what more people considered the “obvious” behavior the pride of place on the keyboard shortcut, but the old way is still there.
-- Chris Espinosa
But like you guys have said, after every keyboard edit, the forward file history is lost. This is incredibly frustrating to me, as this is a feature I have heavily relied on for years, which is now broken. Is there still no fix?
There are Next File and Previous File commands, however their history is also wiped out after an edit. That seems like a bug to me.
This is plain stupid! What's the reason for suddenly change this ? Shift-Option-Cmd-left/right... great, more stupid shortcuts from Apple. I guess I soon have to use Shift-Option-Cmd-Left-Alt-Enter-N for something I use all the time. Can't they just implement a recent file list on ctrl-tab or something, like the Cmd-tab and the app switcher. Why would I want to grab for the mouse when I'm coding ? Still I have to use it lots in Xcode.
Sorry for my rant :)

Xcode Editor Messing Up

I'm having some trouble with Xcode. A lot of times I'll just be typing code in, and then something will suddenly happen that screws up how the text displays on the page. Sometimes it will cut off the first characters of some lines. Other times, especially when I'm typing near the bottom (I notice it occurs when it tries to do some autocomplete but I type over it) it will not display the bottom text (like the #end) and won't take anymore text input properly.
If I quit and restart, the file displays properly again until it happens another time. Does anyone have any ideas how to fix this? I just tried reinstalling Xcode, but even after doing that I still have the same problem.
This problem is really annoying because I often have to quit and restart constantly, and sometimes it's scary because it looks like I've lost the code that I've typed in.
A couple of suggestions:
make sure you're using the latest version of Xcode (3.2.1)
rather than quit and restart, try just saving and closing the file's window and then re-open it
The real solution to this problem is close quick help.
Turns out "Quick Help" causes alot of issues with codesense.
If you close it your troubles are gone. It will work fine once you reopen it... for a while. Then it will begin messing up again.
I used to leave quick help up 24/7 so this happened frequently. I have seen other reports of this being the cause on a few other sites. Aven on this very same site. (stackoverflow)

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