One change to your code editor or IDE that will make your coding life a lot easier 😱
Now comfort is all that matters while coding. Without being comfortable with coding, it is extremely hard to have a grip on it. So the question is, how to get comfortable with coding?
While coding, it is likely to come at a situation where you know what you want the compiler to do but often you are not able to code it down. You have an idea but you don't know how to implement it. So here is where you get uncomfortable with coding. It is not your fault that you don't know how to write a specific code as you are a learner and you might not know everything. Again, the question is, how do I write a specific type of code so that I can make progress in my coding journey?
The simple answer to this is... Autocomplete
Autocomplete nowadays is common in every code editor or IDE that you use. For people who don't know what it is... Autocomplete is a feature in your environment that gives suggestions about what your upcoming line of code can be. It tries to know the line of code that you are trying to write next and gives a suggestion before you even write that piece of code. The environment does not guess blindly what you are about to write next but uses the help of Machine Learning and even Deep Learning to predict what your next sequence of action is.
So how does it even matter to us? It matters because when you are stuck and you don't have autocomplete you are stuck in a place where you don't know what to do. Instead of spending hours on just a small line of code, it's easier and time-saving to let autocomplete help you. And trust me, the time saved is huge.
Now, some might not like to use autocomplete because the reason being that autocompletes decrease our habit to remember coding subjects and makes us dependent on the suggestions all the time. And that is completely true. In coding your grip on your concept is what matters. Your knowledge of concepts is what makes you code complex projects on your own and dependency in this matter can be dangerous only if you are just using the feature blindly without knowing what that code snippet actually does. So it's equally important to learn it while using it.
So I am sure autocomplete does sound tempting to use right? Let's take a look at how you can implement autocomplete in your coding environment.
The autocomplete feature has gotten so popular that you have a couple of options to choose from. Which is Great!. As you can try each and everyone out personally and choose the best one out of it.
Here are some options for autocomplete from which you can choose:
Tabnine: I am sure most of you have heard of this tool by now but haven't given it a try. But trust me this is an autocomplete I think is the best among the rest. Even me a few months ago did not give it much attention. But then I was suggested tabnine by a friend and asked me to give it a try. It did not give good suggestions at the start as it uses deep learning meaning the more you code the more efficient its suggestions get. And it proved it to be true. The suggestion efficiency improved a lot when I started using it more. One more feature that I love about tabnine is its extensibility. Extensibility is everything. Tabnine supports various code editors and IDE's and many languages never leaving a developer alone. You can get the free or the pro version(paid). But even the free one is pretty good.
Kite: Kite is another great autocomplete tool. It is really close to tabnine in terms of suggestion efficiency and extensibility. But tabnine has a slight edge over kite because it supports more environments. But I assure kite is as good and as useful as tabnine.
I think these 2 options are the best right now, even though there are more autocomplete tools, but I feel these 2 are the ideal and best in terms of efficiency, extensibility and I do suggest trying them out.
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