Version:            (using KDE KDE 3.2.90KDE 1.2)
Installed from:    RedHat RPMsRedHat RPMs
OS:                Linux

I propose a new IDE feature that optionally displays named arguments for every function call for better program text readability. This feature does not involve any substantial change to user source code, because it is just a visualization effect for the source code and provided by the code editor window.

Once the user enter a function name and '(', the IDE displays an embedded graphical table there. The table includes argument names and text fields where the user can view or fill the value or expression for each argument as illustrated below:

  r = myfunc(
        -------------------------------------
        | argname1:  ____argvalue1 here____ |
        | argname2:  ____argvalue2 here____ |
        | argname3:  ____argvalue3 here____ |
        | ...                               |
        -------------------------------------
      )

The argument table can be closed or expanded again.

This feature differs from Microsoft Visual Studio's "IntellSense" feature in that it uses a statically displayed embedded table rather than a dynamic tooltip to prompt the user of the argument list. It also makes it possible to align each argument name with its corresponding value field. This could better improve the code readability.

Further, there could be an argument order customization feature that allows the user to use mouse drag-drop to arrange the order of arguments in the table. The custom order information can be saved as a seperate file included by the user project. This feature is also a visualization one and does not actually modify the user source code.