An Ideal System Browser

Richard A. O'Keefe ok at atlas.otago.ac.nz
Fri Nov 30 00:25:26 UTC 2001


Jerry Balzano <gjbalzano at ucsd.edu> wrote:
	Not that I'd presume to know what that is at my stage of (Squeak)
	development, but it occurred to me as I was browsing around through various
	classes and instances and methods that the Squeak System Browser lacks a
	feature that we take for granted on all our web browsers and that most of
	us would be lost without -- a "back" button!  Is it possible that nobody
	has found the need for such a function?  'Cause I'd be looking at a method
	and I'd find a word I didn't understand or some such, or just say "I wonder
	about" some other class, method, or whatnot, and go there, then say to
	myself, "OK, that's great, (or "that's complicated" or whatever) now I'm
	ready to resume what I was doing."  But if what I was doing was in some
	totally separate class with lots of methods to paw (OK, scroll) through,
	well you get the idea -- what a pain!  and how wasteful of my time and
	energy.
	
I can't think what I'd do with a "back" button.
Every time I visit something new, I get a new window.
All my recent viewing history is right there visible on the screen.
I see a class name I'd like to follow up, I select it, I type Cmd-b,
and I get an additional window.
I see a method name, and do Cmd-n or Cmd-m, and I get an additional
window.
To make assurance doubly sure, in Morphic, I can duplicate things using
the [][] green icon at the top right of the halo; that way I can copy
an entire browser window.

In fact, I tend to end up with way too many windows all over the place,
and periodically have to go around closing them.

How does one use Squeak so that a "back" button would be useful?





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