ducasse <ducasse at iam.unibe.ch> wrote:
> I'm not convinced that this is different that any other class in the 
> system.
> Why this empty would help. I doubt about that.


Let me first repost my earlier message, from the thread "Documentation,
more, more" back in September:


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"mwgrant2001" <mwgrant2001 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> I ENVISION MYSELF FALLING INTO A WOODY ALLEN-ESQUE NEUROTIC 
> PARALYSIS, UNABLE TO ACT ON ANY MATTER AS I WORRY OVER WHERE TO PUT 
> ANY CLASSES I MIGHT DEVELOP! 

I wouldn't have thought of that particular problem.  Perhaps we should
add an empty category to the browser and put it at the top of the list. 
It could be called something like "Sandbox".  Every little bit that can
be shaved off of the initial user experience is helpful.

Okay, I've programmed it.  It's in my next message.
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The basic idea is to let people make decisions in whatever order they
like.  I hate the break in flow that comes in Squeak when I am forced to
name a class and put it in a category before I can do anything with it. 
Sometimes my thought is simply "I want an object holding a Foo and a
Bar".  If it's the first class in a project, then I have to think up a
category name as well.  If there is a Sandbox category available, I can
simply stick everything in there until I am ready.  Similarly for the
class and methods.

For newbies, like the person I responded to, the situation is even
worse.  Every step is harder for a newbie, and every step shaved is a
significant saving.

Tutorials should be benefited as well.  Now they have the option of
telling people to stick code right into the Scratch class instead of
having them open a browser, do "add item", create a class, etc.  That's
a lot of little steps when you stop and consider it!

Finally, to help your intuition, please consider what Squeak should look
like if we consider code as the document and the browser as an
application that edits that document.  In most such software, the editor
starts up viewing a scratch document where users can immediately start
scribbling.  Consider word processors, spreadsheets, drawing programs,
music notation generators, movie editors, ....  Consider these programs
both with and without an automatic scratch area, and I think you'll
agree that it is nice to have an automatic scratch area pop up when you
start the program.



Lex Spoon