A quick look

First off, this does indeed show a lot of work.  I've barely taken a look.
Some miscellaneous comments and observations:

-- Tip of the day:  Beginner #14, F12 should be F11.  Advanced #2, ALT
should be SHIFT.

-- Dolphin Options / System Folder / defaultFont -- I changed the font to
Arial 9 pt, but most windows still use old font.

-- I installed a package (which pulled in another package that's a wrapper
around an ActiveX control) and got a message that a pool dictionary was
empty, then was prompted, do I want to create an empty one.  I chose ignore.
The pool dictionary was there and everything worked fine.

-- I installed several packages whose apps worked fine with no messages
showing in the transcript.  Even pulled in Ian's Common package (the "old"
one) and I didn't see any glitches (though I don't use a wheel).

-- The windows seem slower, especially when closing.

-- Package Browser:
    -- Having everything selected seems overwhelming at first.
    -- Nice to see pre-requisites in a tabview.
    -- Package comments tab seems to be default.  By design or should it be
the first tab as before?

-- Showing inherited methods is a welcome addition to the CHB.

Finally, and most important, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the one-year old!

-- Louis

Louis

You wrote in message news:[hidden email]...
> First off, this does indeed show a lot of work.  I've barely taken a look.
> Some miscellaneous comments and observations:

Thanks for your bug reports, etc:

>
> -- Tip of the day:  Beginner #14, F12 should be F11.  Advanced #2, ALT
> should be SHIFT.

Defect #461.

>
> -- Dolphin Options / System Folder / defaultFont -- I changed the font to
> Arial 9 pt, but most windows still use old font.

I presume you are referring to the workspace (text) panes. It seems that (on
XP at least) a change in the default font is being ignored by the
RichTextEdit control (again, sigh!). Defect #460.

I note also that the shipped default font is 'MS Sans Serif 8' rather than
'Microsoft Sans Serif 8'. The latter looks much nicer on XP because it
allows for ClearType enhancement.

>
> -- I installed a package (which pulled in another package that's a wrapper
> around an ActiveX control) and got a message that a pool dictionary was
> empty, then was prompted, do I want to create an empty one.  I chose
ignore.
> The pool dictionary was there and everything worked fine.

If you would like to send me the packages then I will investigate.

>
> -- I installed several packages whose apps worked fine with no messages
> showing in the transcript.  Even pulled in Ian's Common package (the "old"
> one) and I didn't see any glitches (though I don't use a wheel).

Ah, well don't uninstall 'IDB Common'.

> -- The windows seem slower, especially when closing.

I've just upgraded from a Dual PII 400 to a Dual AMD MP 1900+, so everything
looks fast to me! However, two things spring to mind:
1) The TreeView's default mode is now to use "callback" mode for getting the
display text. This "virtual" mode has several advantages, but we didn't use
it originally because it was a bit slow on older machines and prior to
improvements in Dolphin's callback execution speed that occurred in D4. With
anything about a PII 400, it shouldn't really be noticeable though. It is
possible this generates more callbacks from the control on shutdown too.
2) Some of the tool windows are more complex, and so inevitably will be a
bit slower to open.

> -- Package Browser:
>     -- Having everything selected seems overwhelming at first.

You may get used to that, but I we should review opinions on that in a few
days.

>     -- Nice to see pre-requisites in a tabview.
>     -- Package comments tab seems to be default.  By design or should it
be
> the first tab as before?

The Classes tab is the default (at least it is in my image), but when you
install a package the comment is displayed on the basis that it might
contain useful information. I'm not really sure about it myself.


> -- Showing inherited methods is a welcome addition to the CHB.
>
> Finally, and most important, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the one-year old!

Thank you very much, you have a good memory.

Regards

Blair

Blair,

> I presume you are referring to the workspace (text) panes. It seems that
(on
> XP at least) a change in the default font is being ignored by the
> RichTextEdit control (again, sigh!). Defect #460.

I think it's because of the new defaultFont property of SmalltalkWorkspace.
The beta was shipped with that set to 'Times New Roman 10pt'; would it be
better for that to be nil by default (as so pick up the overall default
font) ?

    -- chris

Chris

You wrote in message news:[hidden email]...
>
> > I presume you are referring to the workspace (text) panes. It seems that
> (on
> > XP at least) a change in the default font is being ignored by the
> > RichTextEdit control (again, sigh!). Defect #460.
>
> I think it's because of the new defaultFont property of
SmalltalkWorkspace.
> The beta was shipped with that set to 'Times New Roman 10pt'; would it be
> better for that to be nil by default (as so pick up the overall default
> font) ?

Ah yes, I remember now. This was a deliberate change, the reason being that
we chose a sans serif font as the overall default. Apart from being too
small for the source panes, serif'd fonts are more readable for larger
bodies of text (I know this is a subjective thing, but I understand that
this is generally accepted to be true in the publishing industry).

Anyway this defect is therefore "by design", and if one wants the old
"default font" option to change everything one needs to first nil the
default associated with Workspace. Although this is more awkward than
before, we found that using the same font for everything is too much of a
compromise as the font which offers the best compromise between compactness,
looks, and readability for the various lists and tree views is not
necessarily the best choice for the text panes.

Regards

Blair

Blair,

> > I think it's because of the new defaultFont property of
> SmalltalkWorkspace.
> > The beta was shipped with that set to 'Times New Roman 10pt'; would it
be
> > better for that to be nil by default (as so pick up the overall default
> > font) ?
>
> Ah yes, I remember now. This was a deliberate change, the reason being
that
> we chose a sans serif font as the overall default. Apart from being too
> small for the source panes, serif'd fonts are more readable for larger
> bodies of text (I know this is a subjective thing, but I understand that
> this is generally accepted to be true in the publishing industry).

I'm not trying to start an argument, this is just for interest.  Apparently
it depends on what research you look at.  Investigations conducted in the US
tend to find that serif fonts are more readable, whereas European readers
find no difference -- it seems to be because the Americans have tended to
avoid sans-serif tyefaces, and so their readers aren't used to them.  Europe
has a longish tradition of using sans typefaces, and so people here are
happy with them.

> Anyway this defect is therefore "by design", and if one wants the old
> "default font" option to change everything one needs to first nil the
> default associated with Workspace. Although this is more awkward than
> before, we found that using the same font for everything is too much of a
> compromise as the font which offers the best compromise between
compactness,
> looks, and readability for the various lists and tree views is not
> necessarily the best choice for the text panes.

Sorry, I didn't mean to suggest that it was a bug.  I think that splitting
the configuration was a good idea.

BTW, the main problem with using MS Sans 8 for the source text is that it is
completely unintelligable in italic form, so for anyone who (like me)
prefers to use a small sans font even for the main text, I suggest
evaluating:

     Compiler syntaxColorAt:  #Comment put:  '\cf4 '.

which turns off the use of italics for comments.

> Blair

    -- chris

Chris, Blair,

> I'm not trying to start an argument, this is just for interest.
Apparently
> it depends on what research you look at.  Investigations conducted in the
US
> tend to find that serif fonts are more readable, whereas European readers
> find no difference -- it seems to be because the Americans have tended to
> avoid sans-serif tyefaces, and so their readers aren't used to them.
Europe
> has a longish tradition of using sans typefaces, and so people here are
> happy with them.

That's interesting.  I've used Courier New 8 for a long time.  Until D5, it
was one of the first changes that I made; now I don't feel the need to
change it, at least not nearly as much as before.  The smaller font size was
(obviously) to get more stuff to show up on the screen.  A mono-spaced font
allows me to align things the way I want, which can be helpful at times.


> BTW, the main problem with using MS Sans 8 for the source text is that it
is
> completely unintelligable in italic form, so for anyone who (like me)
> prefers to use a small sans font even for the main text, I suggest
> evaluating:
>
>      Compiler syntaxColorAt:  #Comment put:  '\cf4 '.

Thanks, I'll give that a try.  I've also sometimes changed the "error"
color.  IMHO, there's no point in having a workspace full of uniformly
bright red text; the symbol color works just as well, and is a lot easier to
look at long enough to find out why it's all one color.  Anyway, this kind
of stuff might make a good page for Wiki.

Have a good one,

Bill

--
Wilhelm K. Schwab, Ph.D.
[hidden email]