I've always found auto-complete to be an insanity-inducing feature in my programming text editor. Inevitably, it causes me to type the wrong thing, or hit TAB too many times. Enter-complete I find to be even more infuriating.

But auto-complete, especially in text editors designed for programmers, is often very a elaborate feature. It’s often context-sensitive, often data-type aware, and tries offers suggestions that make sense. This tells me that someone must find these features valuable. So what am I missing?

Are you a programmer who uses your text editor’s auto-complete feature? Please enlighten me. When is it useful, and how do you configure it for optimal productivity? I look forward to your comments below!