Impressions

I've been a professional programmer since 1984 and I've never enjoyed
programming as much as I have the last month with Dolphin Smalltalk. I've
used a Smalltalk-like language extensively before, so it's not just the
language. The environment is a real joy to use.

The System Browser is great because it's the first browser I've used that
can only show me "my" classes, yet easily navigate to their superclasses.
It's a beautiful example of a useful tree-list-tree-list-list-tabbed pane.
The Forward and Back buttons are incredibly powerful. SUnit Browser is
great. I especially like the "eye candy" of class icons. And so on...

Here's what I'd like to see:

1) Key to move between debugger callstack and the method pane. Usually,
exactly what I want to be highlighted down there is already highlighted, but
the selection goes away when I click in the method pane.

2) Keys to save the image, save the view (in VC), and "save the packages I'm
working on" (toughish).

3) Editing: Indent block, multiple undo, auto-indent, delete word shouldn't
delete closing string tick.

4) Support mouse back button.

5) In the System Browser, I kept wanting to browser the package by
right-clicking it in the Packages pane and selecting Browse Package, but you
have to do this from this Class List pane (or click the Package Browser
butcon).

I understand that I could/should add some/all of this myself, but I'm just
expressing what I felt was "missing," when I was a brand-new user.

When I was deciding which Smalltalk to buy, I was worried about that one
critical post, (which seemed fairly reasonable to me and not trolling). Here
are a few of my responses to it:

> In dolphin there's no syntax highlighting

There is, but only after you save.

> completion (I'm quite sure that it's possible to implement in 99% of
cases)

I miss this from VC++.

> almost no keyboard support

I'd like to see more shortcuts.

> the necessity not to forget to save an image & to save package
> sources periodically drives me crazy (should I again develop a
> forgotten instinct?)

As I expressed in my exchange with Ian, I used to consider this a drawback,
too, until I understood the change log.

> and many other frustrating things.

I always find frustrating things when starting with a new IDE and/or
language. For example, it was difficult to get used compiling each method
before moving away from it. The prompt about saving changes was confusing,
since in any other Windows app, answering yes would actually save those
changes. There'd also be a Cancel button. And the business about saving
changes to the clipboard seems really bizarre. Couldn't I please just cancel
and forget the whole thing? :) But little things like this just take getting
used to.

Dolphin is just fantastic, and I can't imagine willingly writing another
program in C++! :)

Mark,

> 3) Editing: Indent block, multiple undo, auto-indent, delete word
> shouldn't delete closing string tick.

OA were talking about changing the internal editor in Dolphin 6 so,
depending on their current thinking, these might be available in the
next version.

Probably pointless observations ....
(indent) I had a goodie for D4 that did indent/outdent and which should
still work.  I dropped it because of the reformatter but I do miss it
sometimes in Workspaces.
(undo) Multiple undo is available in later versions of RichEdit.
(auto) Smalltalk methods are usually short enough that a save and
reformat is just as easy (IMHO)
(string) The string related oddity that annoys me is the most when you
double click on the last word in a quoted string and only the quote
itself is selected.

> 4) Support mouse back button.

que?

> 5) In the System Browser, I kept wanting to browser the package by
> right-clicking it in the Packages pane and selecting Browse Package,
> but you have to do this from this Class List pane (or click the
> Package Browser butcon).

<aol>me to</aol>  Not being able to open the PackageBrowser by double
clicking on a package in the SystemBrowser still fools me _every_ time.

--
Ian

"Ian Bartholomew" <[hidden email]> wrote in message
news:5Scma.6048$[hidden email]...

> (indent) I had a goodie for D4 that did indent/outdent and which should
> still work.  I dropped it because of the reformatter

Ah, good point. Since you have to live with the reformatter to use the
refactoring browser, I've got it set to auto-format on accept, anyway. Which
means doing my own formatting is pretty silly, I guess.

In fact, when I first started with Dolphin, I'd sometimes just type
everything in on one line. I think I'll try start doing that again.

Thanks again, Ian, for gently pointing out that my request, while
reasonable, rather misses the point (same with auto-indent).

> > 4) Support mouse back button.
>
> que?

My mouse has a button for the thumb that generally performs a "browse back"
command (it's from Barcelona).

> > 5) In the System Browser, I kept wanting to browser the package by
> > right-clicking it in the Packages pane and selecting Browse Package,
> > but you have to do this from this Class List pane (or click the
> > Package Browser butcon).
>
> <aol>me to</aol>  Not being able to open the PackageBrowser by double
> clicking on a package in the SystemBrowser still fools me _every_ time.

That too! I feel better, then. :)

Mark Wilden wrote:

> Here's what I'd like to see:
>
> 1) Key to move between debugger callstack and the method pane. Usually,
> exactly what I want to be highlighted down there is already highlighted, but
> the selection goes away when I click in the method pane.

Yes!

> 2) Keys to save the image,

Alt-F,V will do it from many windows. But it does lose utility by not being
universally available. (Personally, I use the camera icon - but again, it's not
always present on the active window).

> save the view (in VC),

Alt-F,S works quite nicely here.

regards,
-Bill

-------------------------------------------
Bill Dargel            [hidden email]
Shoshana Technologies
100 West Joy Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48105  USA

"Bill Dargel" <[hidden email]> wrote in message
news:[hidden email]...
>
> > 2) Keys to save the image,
>
> Alt-F,V will do it from many windows. But it does lose utility by not
being
> universally available. (Personally, I use the camera icon - but again,
it's not
> always present on the active window).

Some of the notes I made were rather old. Nowadays I find I don't save the
image very often. About the only time is if I have a nice window layout and
I expect to have to Panic soon.

> > save the view (in VC),
>
> Alt-F,S works quite nicely here.

Sounds so crazy, it just might work!

Thanks, Bill. :)