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[feedback wanted] New ways to indicate proposal relevance [message #1064816]

Fri, 21 June 2013 04:33

Eclipse User

>> Posting this in the name of Johannes, as he cannot create posts with pictures in it <<

Hi,

I'm working on our Hippie Completion Plugin.
If you haven't tried it yet, go to http://www.codetrails.com/crowd-recommendation-tools and install it. It's awesome!

Anyway, i was working on a way to visualize how often specific proposals were applied before.
So far, we're doing this by simply appending a "m/n" String, showing how often a specific method(m) was applied out of all applied proposals(n). This works OK for a small number of proposals, but looks silly for larger values. e.g. "".substring() 2223/39643.

My idea is to use a color coded heatmap instead, where the color suggests how important a proposal is.
Two approaches here: 1) color the background of the entire proposal. 2) append a colored box to the proposal.
Here are two screenshots:

Keep in mind, the color scheme is just temporary.

I see some cons for both:

Option 1:
- The background color only applies to the String not to the entire line. Looks strange.
- Harder to read (can be improved with a better color scheme)
index.php/fa/15331/0/

Option 2:
- The color information gets lost, if the completion popup window is smaller than the proposal. User has to scroll to see it.
index.php/fa/15330/0/

What do you like better? Any ideas how to improve these approaches? Do you have a different idea?

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[Updated on: Fri, 21 June 2013 04:38] by Moderator

Re: [feedback wanted] New ways to indicate proposal relevance [message #1064824 is a reply to message #1064816]

Fri, 21 June 2013 04:48

Eclipse User

I think you mixed up the screenshots. Description 2 seems to belong to the upper image.

In a first reaction, I prefer the solution from the second screen shot in which the colour information is placed next to the numbers.
Another option could be to use the colour as a background for the XXX/YYY numbers instead of using it for the entire string.

Just my two cents.

Uwe

Re: [feedback wanted] New ways to indicate proposal relevance [message #1064834 is a reply to message #1064824]

Fri, 21 June 2013 05:57

Eclipse User

I fixed the ordering. Thanks.

Uwe, how do you feel about the numbers at all? In a real setting we have significantly larger numbers like for StringBuffer:
index.php/fa/15339/0/

Do you find these large numbers disturbing (or maybe you like them because they tell you how many people used the methods before)?

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[Updated on: Fri, 21 June 2013 10:53] by Moderator

Re: [feedback wanted] New ways to indicate proposal relevance [message #1064837 is a reply to message #1064834]

Fri, 21 June 2013 06:16

Eclipse User

I also prefer the second solution (screenshot option 2).
I also like the suggestion from Uwe: use the colour as background for n/m.

Maybe another option would be to use bold font instead of colours?

<< Do you find these large numbers disturbing (or maybe you like them because they tell you how many people used the methods before)? >>
Hm .. I'm not sure, the large numbers are cool but on the other side it distract me.

Re: [feedback wanted] New ways to indicate proposal relevance [message #1064859 is a reply to message #1064834]

Fri, 21 June 2013 08:27

Eclipse User

Large numbers are always good when you want to impress your manager. Wink

I think the main goal of his type of code recommendation is to prioritise the list of methods. A developer wants to see how often a method is used in comparison to the other available methods. Absolute numbers don't matter as much as relative numbers, I think. So it might be sufficient to show percentages and/or colour codes.
In addition to that, you could offer a preference setting to switch between absolute numbers and relative numbers. It could be fun to see some big absolute numbers from time to time. Smile

Uwe

Re: [feedback wanted] New ways to indicate proposal relevance [message #1064985 is a reply to message #1064859]

Sat, 22 June 2013 10:32

Eclipse User

Uwe San wrote on Fri, 21 June 2013 08:27

In addition to that, you could offer a preference setting to switch between absolute numbers and relative numbers. It could be fun to see some big absolute numbers from time to time.

Uwe

Oh yes, I think that's a nice idea!
Maybe the same functionality for the colour problem.

Re: [feedback wanted] New ways to indicate proposal relevance [message #1064989 is a reply to message #1064816]

Sat, 22 June 2013 11:42

Eclipse User

Quote:

Option 1:
- The background color only applies to the String not to the entire line. Looks strange.
- Harder to read (can be improved with a better color scheme)

IMHO, the Mylyn project has found a nice solution to this problem, using font weight and gray-scale text to convey relevance. (Also, many Eclipse users are already familiar with it.)

Granted, the original Mylyn scheme doesn't give you 256 different shades, but you don't want to distinguish that many levels anyway. (I mean, who really wants 50 Shades of Grey, let alone 256? Wink

)

Re: [feedback wanted] New ways to indicate proposal relevance [message #1065008 is a reply to message #1064985]

Sun, 23 June 2013 00:07

Eclipse User

sounds like we want to have different strategies for this. But I wonder how we learn about which settings people actually prefer.

We may need some service that let's us know which settings people actually use. I've seen a nice talk by Max Andersen how to use Google Analytics for this. Maybe it's worth looking at this Smile

Thanks so far for the feedback. I think we'll come up with different and configurable strategies next.
Marcel

[Updated on: Tue, 25 June 2013 13:32] by Moderator

Re: [feedback wanted] New ways to indicate proposal relevance [message #1065368 is a reply to message #1065008]

Tue, 25 June 2013 09:14

Eclipse User

Thank you all for your feedback.
If you want to try this for yourself, there is an updated version of the hippie plugin on our update site.
You can switch between the simple m/n method used before and a heatmap relevance indicator. Simply go to the Code Recommenders/Hippie preference page.

Please continue the discussion; this is not necessarily the final version.

Re: [feedback wanted] New ways to indicate proposal relevance [message #1065440 is a reply to message #1065368]

Tue, 25 June 2013 13:27

Eclipse User

I think I like it Wink

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