Re: [ide-dev] Inconsistent Eclipse user experience

[Miles Parker <miles.parker@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Right. This is what I think of as the “right-click” problem. Supposedly the Eclipse context menu is “contextualized”, but that when you right click on an editor and there are 37 items on the menu, it’s clear the context isn’t refined enough! When “Paste” is the 15th item on that list, it’s evidence for even the most casual user noone is in a position to force a disciplined high-level design for the overall product. That’s why efforts like EasyEclipse are important. You need someone who cares about the typical end user — (and who makes money -- maybe not 1% money, but *some* money -- by caring) — to be able to make the hard choices about what get’s in by default and what doesn’t. But even with that effort, without providing tools to support deeper contextualization, we lose the advantage as soon as people start using plugin-ins, which is after all one of the strongest features of the Eclipse ecosystem.

The basic dilemma of Ux design is the same design conundrum as with all technologies from babylon on — how to give maximum information and control with minimum effort and cognitive load? One answer is to contextualize (the most extreme example being the original iPod scroll wheel).  Mylyn has gone a long way toward addressing the issue of content-based contextualization, but the community hasn't effectively addressed the issue of role or activity-based contextualization. The closest thing we have for that in Eclipse-land is Perspectives and that’s far too coarse grained and cognitively disruptive. But the great thing about Eclipse is that all of the underlying technologies to make a truly contextualized experience are all there. It’s “just” a matter of developing some approaches (and metaphors?) that support transparent, fluid and user-guided role contextualization and filtering UI and execution elements based on that.


On Mar 9, 2014, at 8:58 PM, Andrew Eisenberg <andrew@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> I wouldn't be surprised if uninstalling Groovy-Eclipse could address some of his problems, but the post shows a larger problem with the IDE work we are (or at least I am) doing.  Too often features are implemented so that a handful of vocal users are happy, but the silent 99% don't have their needs fully met.
> 
> As a simple example, consider this statement: "Sometimes, selecting a launch configuration with arrow keys and hitting enter twice to run it works. Sometimes, it runs a previous launch configuration. Using the mouse is fully reliable but less efficient." I'm pretty sure it's because sometimes he has the editor active and the expected thing runs, but sometimes some other view is active. This makes sense to power users and the behavior is consistent with the rest of Eclipse, but it is probably non-intuitive for new users.
> 
> The problem is that determining and implementing the most intuitive workflow for new users that doesn't annoy power users is not a cheap or easy process. It involves something like user studies and active engagement with all of the community (not just the 1% (no, not *that* 1%)).  I admit that this is something that I have failed to do enough of.
> 
> 
> 
> On Sat, Mar 8, 2014 at 11:32 PM, Max Rydahl Andersen <manderse@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I think it's worth noticing he mentions groovy eclipse which to make it work "hot patches" the JDT.
> 
> Pretty sure he should try uninstall groovy eclipse and see if that doesn't improve his eclipse experience.
> 
> This shows how great it would be if jdt could be better at allowing other javavm based languages to integrate better so tricks like hot patching aren't needed.
> 
> /max (sent from my phone)
> 
> 
> > On 09/03/2014, at 06.02, Doug Schaefer <dschaefer@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> >
> > Interesting post. I'd love if we could find some way to enforce consistency in the IDE. There's lots of things we can override. I wonder if it's enough. Food for thought.
> >
> > I love the comparison with netbeans and intellij. Eclipse has so much to offer. We just need to find a way to manage the product as a whole to make it great.
> >
> > Thanks for this Stephan.
> >
> > Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone on the Rogers network.
> >  Original Message
> > From: Stephan Herrmann
> > Sent: Saturday, March 8, 2014 8:35 PM
> > To: ide-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx
> > Reply To: Discussions about the IDE
> > Subject: Re: [ide-dev] Inconsistent Eclipse user experience
> >
> >
> > Have you guys seen this:
> >
> >   http://www.eclipse.org/forums/index.php/mv/msg/668948/1267143/#msg_1267143
> >
> > Sounds like another client for this group :)
> >
> > best,
> > Stephan
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