Patent ID: 7373634

Claim:
A method for use in a computer system for providing a code assist function which suggests candidates responsive to a parsing of a partial program instruction statement, said method comprising: determining a current cursor position in the partial program instruction statement; parsing the partial program instruction statement before the current cursor position; generating a list of candidates to be inserted at the current cursor position responsive to the parsing of the partial program instruction statement; applying a user-selected preference to the list of candidates to generate a first list of suggested candidates, wherein the user-selected preference provides an indication to display the first list of suggested candidates in lieu of a second list of suggested candidates, wherein candidates in the first list of suggested candidates are different from candidates in the second list of suggested candidates, wherein the first list of suggested candidates comprises a longer list of suggested candidates in comparison to the second list of suggested candidates, wherein the first list of suggested candidates comprises longer representations of program instruction verbs in comparison to shorter representations of program instruction verbs in the second list of suggested candidates, and wherein the first list of suggested candidates comprises full syntax representations in comparison to partial syntax representations in the second list of suggested candidates; displaying the first list of suggested candidates; allowing a user to select one candidate of the first list of suggested candidates; and inserting at the current cursor position the user-selected suggested candidate.