bugGNUstep - Bugs: bug #17802, Classes view needs improvement

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bug #17802: Classes view needs improvement

Submitter:  Richard Frith-Macdonald <CaS>
Submitted:  Tue 19 Sep 2006 10:50:32 AM UTC
   
 
Category:  Gorm Severity:  3 - Normal
Item Group:  Change Request Status:  Fixed
Privacy:  Public Assigned to:  gcasa
Open/Closed:  Closed
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Thu 05 Oct 2006 05:25:41 PM UTC, comment #7: 

All of the points in Richard's comment below have been addressed:

1) the search and drop down are now only in the classes view
2) the default pulldown says "operations"
3) search is case insensitive
4) search finds incomplete matches
5) the drop down aligns with the classes view and resizes as described in comment #5 below.

I'm now closing this bug.   Any further issues should be written up  separately.

Thanks, GJC


Gregory John Casamento <gcasa>
Group administrator
Fri 29 Sep 2006 01:15:14 PM UTC, comment #6: 

Richard,

These are all good suggestions.   I don't consider it griping. :)

One thing I was thinking about with respect to the Search and Operations menu is that, for a number of other views, it could apply to them as well. 

For sounds and images, it should be possible to load and delete them.   For classes it should be possible to instantiate, subclass, delete, load classes and save classes.  And, for all views, except the file view, it should be possible to search.  This is why I made it show universally, since I was toying with this idea.

If it turns out that it's too confusing for some, I will restrict it to the classes view.

GJC

Gregory John Casamento <gcasa>
Group administrator
Fri 29 Sep 2006 04:04:08 AM UTC, comment #5: 

Thanks very much.  The alphabetical ordering of the items is great for finding them via browser or outline view, and seems to be working perfectly.

But ... (sorry to gripe) ... there are some issues with the search facility and the menu to perform class operations.

1. The search textfield and menu are in the wrong view, so they appear all the time (ie if the panel is showing 'Objects', or 'Images' or 'Sounds'  or 'File' information, not just when it is displayin 'Classes'.  I think that looks a bit wierd and probably confusng for some people.

2. The default item in the pulldown menu should probably be one which doesn't do anything, so that if you click on the menu and change your mind, you don't end up creating a subclass you then need to delete.  NeXTstep used 'Operations' for this.

3. I think the search is case sensistive ... perhaps it would be better if it wasn't.

4. it might also be even better if the search handled incomplete matches, so typing 'nsm' would jump to  NSMenu.

5. Getting really, really picky now ... could the right hand end of the menu line up with the right hand side of ther outline/borowser view, and could the menu width stay constant when the panel is resized, so only the search textfield grows/shrinks?

Thanks for all the work you have done on this.

Richard Frith-Macdonald <CaS>
Group Member
Fri 29 Sep 2006 12:43:11 AM UTC, comment #4: 

Richard,

I have implemented a number of the suggestions in this Change Request.   I believe it addresses many of the concerns expressed here.

Thanks, GJC

Gregory John Casamento <gcasa>
Group administrator
Wed 20 Sep 2006 05:12:39 AM UTC, comment #3: 

Richard,

Currently the classes are displayed hierachically, but they are not sorted.  I agree the class names should be sorted, since this would make it easier to navigate.  

I also think that, in some cases, it might be a good idea to emphasize custom classes such as displaying them in bold or something.

Later, GJC

Gregory John Casamento <gcasa>
Group administrator
Wed 20 Sep 2006 05:01:47 AM UTC, comment #2: 

I didn't know about the browser view preference ... I just tried it, and it also suffers from the 'unsorted' problem (at least on my system).
ie. the classes are not ordered alphabetically .
I would expect that, all the direct descendents of NSObject would appear in one browser column orrdered alphabetically.
ie with FirstResponder at the top of the column and NSTableColumn at the bottom.

Richard Frith-Macdonald <CaS>
Group Member
Wed 20 Sep 2006 04:54:25 AM UTC, comment #1: 

There is a NSBrowser based view for this.   If you go to the preferences and select "General" and select the classes view type as "Browser".

I've been considering getting rid of or totally revamping the outline based view for some time now.   This bug strengthens that feeling.

Also, I agree with the idea of having a search textfield.   These are all excellent suggestions which I think can only improve it.

Thanks... GJC

Gregory John Casamento <gcasa>
Group administrator
Tue 19 Sep 2006 10:50:32 AM UTC, original submission:  

I put this in as a change request rather than a bug, but it feels like it shoiuld be considered a bug.

Mostly I do hard-coded gui stuff, but I decided to try using ProjectCenter and Gorm on a new program and find that the classes view (the outline view with the mustard colored background) is a constant pain in the ass to use.
The problem is it's hard to find anything in it ... you really need to remember exactly where things are in the class hierarchy and there's no way to jump to them quickly.

This view is modelled on a very early MacOS-X version of interface Builder... and the current MacOS-X implementation instead uses a view which is almost identical to the original Gorm and NeXT implementations ... an aslphabetically ordered browser with a search facility so that you can jump to the correct class instantly.

I would like to suggest reverting to the original NeXT style of this view ... which is IMO slightly bettere than the current MacOS-X implementation and much, much more usable than the current Gorm view.
That is to say, the view should contain a text field for searches, a pull down menu to select class operations *(more convenient than the classes submenu of the main menu), and a browser to locate.view class names.

Richard Frith-Macdonald <CaS>
Group Member

 

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Follow 5 latest changes.

Date Changed by Updated Field Previous Value => Replaced by
2006-10-05 gcasa Open/ClosedIn Test Closed
2006-09-29 gcasa StatusIn Progress Fixed
2006-09-29 gcasa Open/ClosedOpen In Test
2006-09-28 gcasa StatusNone In Progress
2006-09-20 gcasa Assigned toNone gcasa

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