Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Kevin Pilch-Bisson

Karen Liu

Cyrus Najmabadi

Dustin R Campbell

Matthew J Warren

Avner Y Aharoni

Mads Torgersen

David N Schach

Peter H Golde

Jared Porter Parsons

Aleksey V Tsingauz

Neal M Gafter

Renaud Paquay

David J Poeschl

Matt Warren

Jason Malinowski

Vladimir Reshetnikov

Heejae Chang

Daniel O Rathbone

Efficient immutable syntax representation with parent pointers under incremental change is enabled by creating a data structure comprising at least one tree structure that allows both upward and downward references in the tree and a tree structure that is immutable (read-only), and allows parts of itself to be re-used in other data structures. The data structure described enables tools to search and target particular sub trees. The fragment of the tree representing the targeted sub tree is produced as it is used. The rest of the tree is not produced. The read-only tree retains relative information, allowing it to be reassembled and shared.

Efficient immutable syntax representation with incremental change

When writing code, data structures that include inferred symbols are created based on usage of undefined symbols. As the user continues writing code, code model can be updated to represent updated information based on a learning model. Data structures including inferred symbols can be used by software development tools to provide developer help for symbols that are not yet created or are not yet bound. Inferred symbols can be visually distinguishable making the appearance of the inferred symbol information differ from actual symbol information. The appearance of information based on inferred symbols can be included within tools by activating a particular mode in a programming environment. Conversion of the inferred symbol to a real symbol may trigger the automatic compiler-generation of additional source code by a background compiler. Inferred symbols may be converted to actual symbols by activation of an option to make an inferred symbol a real symbol.

Creating inferred symbols from code usage

An automated programming tool can receive program source code and can expand portions of the program source code to make to make identifiers explicit, insert sets of parenthesis and so on. Expansions can be kept track of so that reductions after refactoring can be confined to altered portions of the program source code.

Expansion and reduction of source code for code refactoring

A workspace model generates a component of a solution from an immutable object representing the solution at a given point in time. A component may be requested by an extension to an integrated development environment for the extension's use. The workspace model determines a sequence of operations needed to construct the requested component at the time the component is requested using the state of the solution represented through the immutable object. The immutable object allows the extension to access the requested component while the integrated development environment is used to alter the solution.

Workspace model for interrelated projects

A tabular completion list displays customizable rows and columns including information such as but not limited to return types of methods, types of local variables and properties, parameters for methods, a namespace in which a type is defined, an assembly in which a type is defined, accessibility, or a type from which members are inherited. The context of the tabular completion list may be preserved by persisting the completion list display or by transferring the context of a selected row of field in a row of the tabular completion list to a different feature. User interaction options with the tabular completion list may include: selection of the columns that are displayed in the completion list, persisting the completion list display, transferring the context of the completion list window to other features and sorting of the rows of tabular information according to different columns.

Tabular completion lists

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Kevin Pilch-Bisson