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4.6. Source Assistant

The Source Assistant tool (in Wing IDE Professional and higher) can be used while viewing or editing source code to display additional information about the point of definition of source constructs located near the insertion caret's position.

The display will include links to the point of definition of a selection symbol, a guess at the symbol's type (when available) and a link to the type's point of definition, and docstrings and call signature when available.

Note that the source assistant is also integrated with the auto-completer, and will show information as you scroll through the completion list. Similarly, it will updated as focus moves into the Project and Source Browser tools.

When working in the editor, auto-completer, project view, or source browser, the source assistant is fueled by Wing's static Python source code analysis engine. Because of Python's dynamic nature, Wing cannot determine the types of all arguments or return values, but presents as much information as it can glean from the source code. For hints on helping Wing produce a more complete analysis of your source code, see Source Code Analysis and Helping Wing Analyze Code.

When working in the Python Shell and Debug Probe, the source assistant will also update while the auto-completer is active. In this case, the information shown is "live" data extracted from the running environment and will cover cases that Wing's static analysis engine cannot.