Initial documentation for the plugin package

pkg/analyzer_plugin/doc/tutorial/assists.md

+# Providing Quick Assists
+
+A quick assist is used by clients to provide a set of possible changes to code
+that are based on the structure of the code. Quick assists are intended to help
+users safely make local changes to code when those changes do not require any
+user interaction. (Modifications that require interaction with users or that
+touch multiple files are usually implemented as refactorings.)
+
+For example, if the user has a function whose body consists of a single return
+statement in a block, server will provide an assist to convert the function body
+from a block to an expression (`=>`).
+
+Assists have a priority associated with them. The priority allows the client to
+display the assists that are most likely to be of use closer to the top of the
+list when there are multiple assists available.
+
+## Implementation details
+
+When appropriate, the analysis server will send your plugin an `edit.getAssists`
+request. The request includes the `file`, `offset` and `length` associated with
+the selected region of code.
+
+When an `edit.getAssists` request is received, the method `handleEditGetAssists`
+will be invoked. This method is responsible for returning a response that
+contains the available assists.
+
+The easiest way to implement this method is by adding the classes `AssistsMixin`
+and `DartAssistsMixin` (from `package:analyzer_plugin/plugin/assist_mixin.dart`)
+to the list of mixins for your subclass of `ServerPlugin`. This will leave you
+with one abstract method that you need to implement: `getAssistContributors`.
+That method is responsible for returning a list of `AssistContributor`s. It is
+the assist contributors that produce the actual assists. (Most plugins will only
+need a single assist contributor.)
+
+To write an assist contributor, create a class that implements
+`AssistContributor`. The interface defines a single method named
+`computeAssists`. The method has two arguments: an `AssistRequest` that
+describes the location at which assists were requested and an `AssistCollector`
+through which assists are to be added.
+
+The class `AssistContributorMixin` defines a support method that makes it easier
+to implement `computeAssists`.
+
+## Example
+
+Start by creating a class that implements `AssistContributor` and that mixes in
+the class `AssistContributorMixin`, then implement the method `computeAssists`.
+This method is typically implemented as a sequence of invocations of methods
+that check to see whether a given assist is appropriate in the context of the
+request 
+
+To learn about the support available for creating the edits, see
+[Creating Edits][creatingEdits].
+
+For example, your contributor might look something like the following:
+
+```dart
+class MyAssistContributor extends Object
+    with AssistContributorMixin
+    implements AssistContributor {
+  static AssistKind wrapInIf =
+      new AssistKind('wrapInIf', 100, "Wrap in an 'if' statement");
+
+  DartAssistRequest request;
+
+  AssistCollector collector;
+
+  AnalysisSession get session => request.result.session;
+
+  @override
+  void computeAssists(DartAssistRequest request, AssistCollector collector) {
+    this.request = request;
+    this.collector = collector;
+    _wrapInIf();
+    _wrapInWhile();
+    // ...
+  }
+
+  void _wrapInIf() {
+    ChangeBuilder builder = new DartChangeBuilder(session);
+    // TODO Build the edit to wrap the selection in a 'if' statement.
+    addAssist(wrapInIf, builder);
+  }
+
+  void _wrapInWhile() {
+    // ...
+  }
+}
+```
+
+Given a contributor like the one above, you can implement your plugin similar to
+the following:
+
+```dart
+class MyPlugin extends ServerPlugin with AssistsMixin, DartAssistsMixin {
+  // ...
+
+  @override
+  List<AssistContributor> getAssistContributors(
+      covariant AnalysisDriver driver) {

[mfairhurst, 2017/07/07 13:45:46]

I think in this case "covariant" is not needed

+    return <AssistContributor>[new MyAssistContributor()];
+  }
+}
+```
+
+[creatingEdits]: creating_edits.md