Browsers (was Re: [enh request]menus of options in popup queries)

Doug Way dway at mat.net
Thu Mar 11 06:26:53 UTC 1999


> On Wed, 10 Mar 1999, Tim Rowledge wrote:
>
> > I've never got around to doing an enhancement that seems like a simple
> > and useful idea. Somebody playing with UI stuff might like to try
> > this:-
> > In popup queries (like the one you get from a Browser whilst adding a
> > new item in the protocol pane) it would be useful to have a popup
> > menu of common options.

The other advantage to this is that it gives hints to beginners on what
the common responses should be, making things easier.  Sounds cool.

On Wed, 10 Mar 1999, Les Tyrrell wrote:
>
> And now I'm looking at the browsers in the VisualWorks 5i beta... oh my.

Anything new and exciting (or disturbing) to report?  I was going to try
to download the beta, but it looks like it's only available to current
owners of VisualWorks.  (Glad to see that they're finally offering a
VisualWorks Personal version for sale now, at least.)

Speaking of browsers, I've been interested in the UI/layout aspects of
code browsing for some time.... I was wondering if there are alternate
browsers out there (for any Smalltalks or other OO languages) that use a
significantly different layout than the tried & true browser with the
separate class list/hierarchy pane, method list pane, and single method
source pane. (plus variables pane, protocols pane, etc.)

I very much liked the variables pane in the Digitalk browser, but other
than that it's still your basic Smalltalk browser layout.  The Refactoring
Browser has a few layout options such as splitting off the method source
pane into a separate window, and aligning the category/class/
protocol/method subpanes vertically versus horizontally. But, I was
wondering if there's any else more different out there...  (while still
browsing text-based source code, not parse trees or anything). 

The only thing that comes to mind is a Dylan language browser I saw once,
which I seem to remember had a method list in which the source of the
methods was expanded directly inside of the list.  This was great if you
wanted to look at the source of a few methods simultaneously, if they
happened to be near enough to each other in the list.  This was not so
good with longer methods, though, plus dealing with a combination
list/text widget can get pretty complicated.

I'd be interested in hearing about any other "different" OO browsers...

- Doug Way
  EAI/Transom Technogies, Ann Arbor, MI
  dway at eai.com, dway at mat.net
  http://www.transom.com

  Smalltalk: Guaranteed Y10K Compliant





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