On smart semicolon insertion
Sometimes, you just stare up at the sky and wonder:
Why doesn’t Eclipse enable the smart semicolon insertion typing feature by default?
It was introduced in May 2003 and was enabled by default . It was a work in progress at that point so I’m not surprised it was disabled. Later it was moved into WorkInProgressPreferencePage where that page was eventually removed.
It was proposed at Bug 363231 but denied for being a fairly “advanced” feature, and the perception that users prefer a minimalistic typing environment.
On the last discussion of this feature, it was considered for default enablement along with the auto-insertion of braces at Bug 505816. The only remaining issue mentioned that applies today is Bug 506148 (support for wrapped statements), and I can confirm it exists.
So basically it comes down to, either :
- Ignore the last issue and enable by default because it’s good enough
- Fix Bug 506148 and then enable the feature by default
- Do nothing
In my experience, if a feature isn’t enabled by default, most won’t see it so it’s a shame to see this disabled for so long.