Re: [eclipse-dev] DRAFT 2.2 Plan - Reduce workbench clutter

[Nick_Edgar@xxxxxxxxxx]

David,

These (valid) usability issues that you raise are not specifically about 
workbench clutter.  It would be best to file these as separate bug reports 
against the respective components.
Note that you can add the "usability" keyword too. 

Also, you'll need to supply more details about your experience with cut 
and paste in the PR.

Nick 





David Chase <chase@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent by: eclipse-dev-admin@xxxxxxxxxxx
12/30/02 12:47 PM
Please respond to eclipse-dev

 
        To:     eclipse-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx
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        Subject:        Re: [eclipse-dev] DRAFT 2.2 Plan - Reduce workbench clutter



I've never used Intelli J, so maybe what I'm about to say is irrelevant.

But -- I find that the Eclipse world is moderately tricky to navigate, and
more than once I have found myself forced to ask for help.  The whole
CVS-branching thing seems to have been designed by a dyslexic, so that you
are virtually guaranteed to get it wrong unless you ask for help first.
On the balance between:

- novice users
- experienced users
- Unix-centric users

Eclipse seems to fall into some confusion of the latter two.  CVS
branching is the instructive example here.  As it stands, it is
Unix-centric, and exactly mirrors the non-intuitive choice of operations
that CVS provides.  Making it more intuitive for novice users would
cause some distress for the Unix users (at least, that tiny fraction
of them that is comfortable with CVS branching).

Another example here is the integration with Ant -- because Ant almost
certainly generates new files, a refresh is usually necessary.  A
"refresh after successful build" operation ought to appear prominently
either at the Ant-control-pane level, or on a goal-by-goal basis.
This would (1) make it clear that you might need to do a refresh, and
(2) give you the option to automate it.  That's just one little thing,
but the accumulation of one-little-things adds up to chronic annoyance.

I have recommended Eclipse to several people, but always with the caveat
that "you need a week to get over being mad at its UI, and don't forget
to ask it for help, and don't forget to ask me for help".  I have to 
remind the people to whom I give this lukewarm recommendation that Eclipse
is the only IDE that has successfully peeled me away from Emacs (which
I've been using, in one form or another, since the early 80s).

This is not the way things should be -- RTFM is an abbreviation for
"the user interface has no design, and the default settings were
chosen randomly".  This pretty well describes Unix, but it is not a
good thing.

Speaking of Unix -- my experience with cut and paste (in particular,
of options in the the debugging pane) is horrible.  Is this an Eclipse
problem, or an X problem?

At 03:49 PM 12/30/2002 +0100, Max Rydahl Andersen wrote:
>Yes - please reduce workbench clutter.
>
>From: "Jim Krygowski" <james.krygowski@xxxxxxxxx>
>> I'd like to see a dynamic approach to clutter management more akin to
>> Intelli J.  When I'm coding, I want the maximum amount of screen real
>estate
>> dedicated to my code. 


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