Musings on the PackageBrowser

I do like the new PackageBrowser, a definite advantage over the old one.
Some observations though -

- The new folder/package views do seem to lead to a bit of excessive
clicking with the mouse.

What I "think" I would like is ...

PackageBrowser start. $ selected and all package names visible but no
selected package.

Select a folder. Package list shows packages in selected folder. No package
selection.

Select a package. Contents view filled with the information for the current
tab and selected package.  Folder selection stays as before, $ if no
intermediate folder selected.

Install a package. Folder list is expanded to correct place and folder
selected. Installed package is selected. Contents view filled as
appropriate.

New package. As install.

With folder $ selected double clicking a package would open the folder tree
to the appropriate folder and reselect the package.

Whilst the multiple selection of packages is definitely useful I think it
should only be done at _my_ discretion. Having _automatic_ selection of
multiple packages seems to occasionally lead to a bit of confusion.

- The above probably goes for the new SystemBrowser as well. Although I can
see that automatically selecting all the packages in a folder can be more
useful here I'm still not sure that it should be the default.

- The old PackageBrowser was useful for loose methods contained within a
Package. You could easily step through them one at a time without having to
open a browser on each.  I can't see a way (?) of doing something similar in
the new browser.

I did wonder if it might be possible for the classes view in the
SystemBrowser to have two tabs, one to show defined class as it does now and
the other to show the classes of loose methods defined in the package.
Selecting one of these classes would then show the selectors of methods
defined in the package for that class in a different way (normal colour?) to
the classes methods defined in other packages (purple?) - inherited methods,
if selected, would show as faded.

It might be more trouble, and cause more confusion, than it's worth though.

Just some thoughts anyway

Regards
    Ian

Ian,

I've lost some time to my startup problem, so a few things you've said don't
sound familiar - that's probably just because I haven't gotten there yet.  A
few things resonated immediately:

> - The new folder/package views do seem to lead to a bit of excessive
> clicking with the mouse.
>
> What I "think" I would like is ...
>
> PackageBrowser start. $ selected and all package names visible but no
> selected package.

Sounds great!


> Select a folder. Package list shows packages in selected folder. No
package
> selection.

Ditto.

> Whilst the multiple selection of packages is definitely useful I think it
> should only be done at _my_ discretion. Having _automatic_ selection of
> multiple packages seems to occasionally lead to a bit of confusion.

Agreed.  I was already going to suggest a "select all" button (or maybe just
a context menu item) to make it easy to restore the "default" selection.
Now that you mention it, I think it might be better to defer the selection.
One other thought: there was a comment re "slower windows".  I haven't yet
had a chance to time anything (anybody???); but, given the amount of
selecting that the package manager does on its own, could that be the issue?

My real interest in time to open a window is centered on my end user apps.
If a CHB that does more takes a little longer to load, that's not a big deal
because it helps me and doesn't affect my users.

Have a good one,

Bill

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

Hi Andy and Blair.

Dolphin 5 looks great, thanks for your hard work!

Adding my 2c on the new Package Browser, I would find it useful if the
Prerequistes pane also contained a list of dependent packages, and an
indication of whether a cyclic prerequisite exists.

Thanks,
Steve Waring