robotframework
Wrong argument hint color when using inline keyword arguments
The most prominent issue with highlighting I am running into now concerns operator keywords. Binary operator keywords are placed in between its arguments for readability. The highlighting expects additional arguments at the end that are already processed. In practise this means that my test cases are now cluttered with red cells, as in this basic example:
I typically use this natural language extension (robotnl) in Robot framework tests. It allows me to rewrite a basic construction like
In the more natural form
This method does however lean heavily on using inline keyword arguments. In a recent update argument highlighting changed. It now also highlights arguments for inline keyword arguments, where previously only the first keyword was considered. There are however some issues with determining which argument belongs to which keyword. See also this discussion on Robot framework issue 3187
I do like the idea of having hints for all keywords, but for now it might be safer to not support inline keyword argument highlighting. In my opinion showing too much red is worse than missing a hint in some complex situations.
Optional arguments with a single inline keyword argument also presents some issues:
def Keyword_with_optional_arguments(self, number, arg2=None, arg3=None, arg4=None):
The first two lines have correct highlighting The third line uses the keyword twelve inline (takes no arguments). Optional arguments for primary keyword are not shown in light grey. The last line uses an inline kw argument, but also the optional arguments for the primary keyword. Now the optional arguments are falsely marked red.