Squeakers, Here's a random idea for a new kind of browser. Each method is a page in a book, the variable definitions are on a page, the class comments, etc. The pages are formatted to suit their contents. Any page may be edited, which affects the associated method, variable def, inheritance relation, etc.
Pages may be annotated (like margin notes) by attaching text or graphics (or hyperlinks) to page elements or page locations. These annotations, unlike margin notes, can be switched on or off as desired. This is similar to a comment system Ken Auer and I once developed for a ST80-based graphical CASE tool. But back to the book metaphor.
A class is like a section in a book. Small books my contain only a single class, larger books might represent families of classes like collections or frameworks like PWS or MVC. A book might also represent a collection of code fragments and objects, like a collection of workspaces. Other bookish concepts might be exploited such as tables of contents, index, bibliography, book shelves, libraries, archives, trilogies, encyclopedia, etc.
The metaphor is stretched a bit when you think of multiple copies of the same book being open to the same page and then a change in one book affects them all. but hey, no metaphor is perfect.
Anyway, this sounded like a straightforward hack using BookMorphs with connections back to the Browser models. My current tasks have kept me away from active Squeaking, so I thought some of your Morphic experimenters might like to take this on.
Regards, Sam
Sam S. Adams, Distinguished Engineer, IBM Network Computing Software Division tie line 444-0736, outside 919-254-0736, email: ssadams@us.ibm.com <<Hebrews 11:6, Proverbs 3:5-6, Romans 1:16-17, I Corinthians 1:10>>
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