Proper tab completion that actually completes.

IPython/frontend/linefrontendbase.py

@@ -23,6 +23,19 b' import IPython'
 from frontendbase import FrontEndBase
 from IPython.kernel.core.interpreter import Interpreter
 
+
+def common_prefix(strings):
+    ref = strings[0]
+    prefix = ''
+    for size in range(len(ref)):
+        test_prefix = ref[:size+1]
+        for string in strings[1:]:
+            if not string.startswith(test_prefix):
+                return prefix
+        prefix = test_prefix
+
+    return prefix
+
 #-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # Base class for the line-oriented front ends
 #-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
@@ -49,20 +62,24 b' class LineFrontEndBase(FrontEndBase):'
                             % IPython.__version__
 
 
-    def complete(self, token):
-        """Complete token in engine's user_ns
+    def complete(self, line):
+        """Complete line in engine's user_ns
         
         Parameters
         ----------
-        token : string
+        line : string
         
         Result
         ------
-        Deferred result of 
-        IPython.kernel.engineservice.IEngineBase.complete
+        The replacement for the line and the list of possible completions.
         """
-        
-        return self.shell.complete(token)
+        completions = self.shell.complete(line)
+        complete_sep =  re.compile('[\s\{\}\[\]\(\)\=]')
+        if completions:
+            prefix = common_prefix(completions) 
+            residual = complete_sep.split(line)[:-1]
+            line = line[:-len(residual)] + prefix
+        return line, completions 
  
 
     def render_result(self, result):

IPython/frontend/wx/console_widget.py

@@ -280,14 +280,30 b' class ConsoleWidget(editwindow.EditWindow):'
 
     def write_completion(self, possibilities, mode=None):
         if mode=='text' or self.autocomplete_mode == 'text':
-            max_len = len(max(possibilities, key=len))
+            # FIXME: This is non Wx specific and needs to be moved into
+            # the base class.
             current_buffer = self.get_current_edit_buffer()
            
             self.write('\n')
+            max_len = len(max(possibilities, key=len))
+            
+            #now we check how much symbol we can put on a line...
+            chars_per_line = self.GetSize()[0]/self.GetCharWidth()
+            symbols_per_line = max(1, chars_per_line/max_len)
+
+            pos = 1
+            buf = []
             for symbol in possibilities:
-                self.write(symbol.ljust(max_len))
+                if pos < symbols_per_line:
+                    buf.append(symbol.ljust(max_len))
+                    pos += 1
+                else:
+                    buf.append(symbol.rstrip() +'\n')
+                    pos = 1
+            self.write(''.join(buf))
             self.new_prompt(self.prompt % (self.last_result['number'] + 1))
             self.replace_current_edit_buffer(current_buffer)
+
         else:
             self.AutoCompSetIgnoreCase(False)
             self.AutoCompSetAutoHide(False)

IPython/frontend/wx/wx_frontend.py

@@ -69,13 +69,13 b' class IPythonWxController(PrefilterFrontEnd, ConsoleWidget):'
             mode can be 'text', 'popup' or 'none' to use default.
         """
         line = self.get_current_edit_buffer()
-        completions = self.complete(line)
-        if len(completions)>0:
+        new_line, completions = self.complete(line)
+        if len(completions)>1:
             self.write_completion(completions, mode=mode)
+        self.replace_current_edit_buffer(new_line)
 
 
     def do_calltip(self):
-        # compute the length ot the last word
         separators = [' ', '(', '[', '{', '\n', '\t']
         symbol = self.get_current_edit_buffer()
         for separator in separators:
@@ -93,6 +93,7 b' class IPythonWxController(PrefilterFrontEnd, ConsoleWidget):'
             symbol = getattr(symbol, name)
         self.CallTipShow(self.GetCurrentPos(), symbol)
 
+
     def update_completion(self):
         line = self.get_current_edit_buffer()
         if self.AutoCompActive() and not line[-1] == '.':