Which IDE / code editor was the first to introduce a code completion feature?

Question

I am trying to identify the point in time where code completion (autocomplete/intellisense/whatever) was first introduced in IDEs and would appreciate any pointers.

By code completion here I mean a feature within the editor that suggests methods or functions based on the code that was already typed, and I am interested in programming language related completions (not word processor style completion).

I remember seeing it in Visual Studio and Microsoft Office in the early-nineties, and I don't remember at what point it was introduced, or whether it was actually available in DOS-based IDEs like Turbo Pascal or Turbo C++. On a hunch, I would guess that this was probably introduced in Smalltalk.

For those wondering, I need this information for a research paper and wasn't able to find a credible answer online.

Answer 1

The first IDE that comes on my mind is the IDE of Visual Basic

Answer 2

The Wikipedia article on IntelliSense has a history section and indicates that the first use was in 1996.

Answer 3

I am quite sure Turbo Pascal had some of these features, and that was even before Windows existed.

Answer 4

VB, Smalltalk, Emacs, Think Pascal, Sun's Forte.

Maybe it worked in some of the early Xerox stuff who knows.

Answer 5

Turbo Pascal had auto-indent (woo!) but nothing you'd call auto-complete I don't think.

The first time I ever witnessed auto-complete was circa 1985. It was another pascal development system, with a strange name—maybe it was Alice—at any rate I think it was a woman's name. The editor did auto-indent, auto-completion of control structures (no more typing BEGIN and END), and even some form of syntax coloring. It might have been the first time I saw colors in a code editor.

The screen was stunning! Bland code was suddenly vibrant.

Alas, the product disappeared pretty quick. It was real buggy and drove everybody nuts. It seemed like nothing like it showed up until many years after that.