Abstract: One embodiment of the invention comprises a system and method for increasing a user's ease and efficiency of viewing help text related to a function or method call. An application development environment (ADE) may display a prototype tip for a function in a source code window when the user is currently creating or editing a function call to that function. The prototype tip may include a button or other GUI element which the user may click or operate to cause help text for the function and/or help text for one or more parameters of the function to be displayed. The help text that is displayed in response to the user's request may appear in or appear overlayed on the source code window. The help text may be displayed in a convenient location near the current function call.

Abstract: One embodiment of the invention comprises a system and method for aiding a user in specifying function parameter values in a computer program. An application development environment (ADE) may be operable to display parameter assistant user interfaces for aiding the user in specifying various function parameter values. Another embodiment of the invention comprises a system and method for automatically declaring variables passed as parameters in function calls.