[CS] workspace bindings viewer

Lex Spoon lex at cc.gatech.edu
Fri Mar 5 16:30:15 UTC 2004


ducasse <ducasse at iam.unibe.ch> wrote:
> Now I would like to let the user decide:
> 	- proposing a menu for flushing variables
> 	- passing in variable declaration
> 	- passing in no declaration
> Could you send me your own extensions because I do not remember what 
> you had and
> may be this could complement each other.

Here's the changeset I sent around before.  It had modules-style class
definitions, so I guess that was a while ago!  When you load it, you get
to reuse the normal DictionaryInspector to view your workspace
variables.  So you can modify variables, clear them, or even define new
ones, using the regular inspector menus.  (See, my laziness is a feature
-- it's reuse!)

To expand and retract the viewer, there is a menu item underneath that
little button just beside the X button of a workspace.

I'm sure better UI's and functionalities are possible, but this kind of
thing seems like a good idea.  Workspace variables are a very useful
tool that many people seem to overlook, and so adding a UI will
hopefully help.  Also, it seems silly that I occasionally end up
inspecting my workspace in order to hack its bindings; this should be in
the UI.

Two other ideas have been floating around that I think are very
interesting.

First, maybe workspaces can be tied to a class somehow, so that
workspace variables become instance variables?  Or, maybe browsers can
end up being workspaces, as has been proposed elsewhere.

Second, drag and drop is under-utilized in Squeak's workspaces and
inspectors.  Right now it's a pain to get something from an inspector
over into a workspace to play with it -- you have to set it in a global
variable and then retrieve it.  It would be great if drag and drop
worked between inspectors and workspaces.  (And note that with my lazy
ahem my reuse, if you make it work between inspectors, then you will get
workspaces for free.)

Anyway, there are many possibilities in this area, and Squeak is well
suited for hacking on development tools.  I look forward to what people
come up with!


-Lex
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