IEx auto-complete on __functions__

[thibaut...@gmail.com]

Hi!

Today during a session I was caught a bit off-guard by the fact that completion doesn't tell you about __schema__ on an Ecto module.

(although the behaviour is clearly documented in IEx https://github.com/elixir-lang/elixir/blob/1bc8bc5e76e20c6b0180e024e9d280ab5fc0af94/lib/iex/lib/iex.ex#L22-L26).

I feel this is a bit sad in terms of "discoverability" for newcomers to Ecto in that case, since __schema__ is a public API of Ecto (https://hexdocs.pm/ecto/Ecto.Schema.html#module-reflection).

I wonder if this is an isolated example or if there are more cases that could affect newcomers to a given Elixir library, and how we could make this more approchable for newcomers?

Let me know what you think!

-- Thibaut

[Austin Ziegler]

`__schema__` is only a partially-public API. For it to show up in documentation and iex, a PR would need to be accepted to Ecto that would add a `@doc` attribute to the generated `def __schema__(…)` code.

I just did the following test, and iex acts exactly as it should:

```

defmodule TestApp do

  def __test__, do: :test

end

```

In iex, `TestApp.<tab>` does not complete.

```

defmodule TestApp do

  @doc "The secret __test__ function"

  def __test__, do: :test

end

```

In iex, `TestApp.<tab>` completes to `TestApp.__test__`.

-a

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[Thibaut Barrère]

> `__schema__` is only a partially-public API.

I believe it is indeed the culprit ; it is displayed as public on the website, but "technically" not public.

> For it to show up in documentation and iex, a PR would need to be accepted

> to Ecto that would add a `@doc` attribute to the generated `def __schema__(…)` code.

This is a good suggestion - I'll open an issue over there.

Thanks!

-- Thibaut