On Dec 8, 2004, at 11:56 PM, Richard A. O'Keefe wrote:

> On Dec 8, 2004, at 7:57 PM, Aaron Gray wrote:
>> It would be nice if Squeaks browsers had backwards and forwards 
>> buttons
>> like on most internet browsers.
>
> On Wed, 8 Dec 2004 20:26:58 -0500, Colin Putney <cputney at wiresong.ca>
> [basically agreed]
>
> "Yar Hwee Boon" <hboon at motionobj.com>
> [said that Dolphin has something similar]
>
> There are two questions:
>  (a) Would such a feature be a good idea?
>      Probably not; I *hate* having to go clickety clickety through 
> every
>      page I've looked at in the last couple of hours just to get to one
>      particular one.  A rather simpler thing would be to keep a list of
>      (Classname[ class][>>method]) places visited, and on request put 
> up
>      a list where you could click directly on the one you want.

Well, I basically agreed that some way to get back to recent places 
visited would be good. My worry about having a simple back button is 
the same as yours: in browsing around the system, I tend to visit lots 
of uninteresting places, and I want a way to jump directly back to the 
interesting ones. There's an add-on to the VW browser that does this 
pretty well, and I'm interested in Jon's stack idea. Avi brought up the 
idea (off-list) of having a separate browser that maintains a ring 
buffer of recently edited methods, which would be another way to go 
about it.

I'd love to hear about other variations on this theme, as I think 
implementing several variations and trying them out is the only way to 
really get a feel for their effect. On the other hand, I don't want to 
get into flame wars over this; OB 1.1 is months away, and there will be 
plenty of time to argue the merits of different approaches when we have 
implementations to experiment with.

>  (b) What do we do NOW?
>
>     And this is where Squeak has for a long time had something I find 
> better
>     that << >> buttons.
>
>     You are NOT restricted to having a single browser open.

Yup, and no matter what window-clutter reducing feature we may add, 
this option will always remain available. Personally, I don't like 
having many, many browsers open, but far be it from me to stand in the 
way of those who do.

Colin