Pharo 1.1. impressions and suggestions

> Dear Pharoers,
>
> I just finished syncing new Aida from VW on new Pharo 1.1 and during
> that I collect few impressions and also suggestions, how to proceed.
> Please find them as a kind of "concrete congratulation" to your work :)
>
> Impressions:
> ===========
>
> - design is nice and polished, default font looks professional
> - responsiveness and speed of browsing seems now fast enough
> - very nice and simple Word menu
> - nicely enhanced Inspector
> - nice Google-like search in browser
> - Aida is among few projects on DEVImageWorkspace, thanks guys!
> - Settings browser is a real progress forward, nicely organized, but
>  with still too much choices. I suppose many settings are never or
>  really rarely used, those should be put outside this Settings browser.
> - Help system also looks very promising! With an introduction of
>  context help also (like ? icons elsewhere) we can come close to ideal
>  help. Of course we need also good docs writers to write a really good
>  help, nicely balanced between a newcomer than expert viewpoint.
>
> Suggestions:
> ===========
>
> - some Start button? Maybe named World? Not just ProfStef's 'go
>  evaluation' (which is much better than nothing of course). At least a
>  right click to come to a Word menu must be explained somewhere at the
>  start, otherwise one is lost how to proceed.
>
> - window buttons on Linux and Windows are on the wrong side. This is
>  very dangerous thing, user can quickly make en error and accidentialy
>  close a window. In any case it is very very annoying! A real
>  showstopper for me!
>
> - System browser has no package view, just categories. This is
>  confusing to newcomers, what are packages, what categories? Having
>  packages also in a category view will be more understandable.
>
> - back button in browser, like on web browsers!
>
> - why hierarchy button opens a new browser, why rather not toggle
>  hierarchy/category view in the same window?
>
> - in general: avoid opening new windows, rather "reuse" the same one.
>  This is the current usability trend elsewhere.
>
> - What about introducing tabs in browser? This is very very useful and
>  handy, mostly because we are used of tabs from web browsers.
>
> - Browser opens just too small size. It should open in a size
>  recomendable for further development (like for encouraging the 10
>  lines per method rule)
>
> - What if we introduce "add class", "add method" etc. dialogs in menu
>  too? Yes yes I know, but look from a newcomer perspective..
>
> - Search line on the top of browser should have a 'Search:' at the
>  start, to find it easily with an eye. What if it ignore the
>  upper/lowercase by default. Users are used of ignore-case search from
>  elsewhere, like Google.
>
> - Inspector and explorer still two different but very similar things.
>  Inspector is now much better than before, having tree view of
>  inspected object do we still need to add confusion with additional
>  explorer?
>
> - Help needs a search field. API docs hierarchy is quite deep and
>  without a search near to unusable. Also, in a System browser there
>  need to be a link to the corresponding help text. And vice versa,
>  link to the class in browser from help.
>
> - Still no breakpoints! Please introduce them, Squeak/Pharo seems
>  nowadays the only Smalltalk without breakpoints!
>
> - why isn't a class comment visible below the class definition in the
>  same pane, as was once?
>
> - Undocumented classes should have a special mark to encourage
>  commenting them. Maybe that question mark button (?) in red color?
>
> - Popup menu in method pane is too large, some choices not really so
>  important to be there (like paste..., explore it, do again(redo?) )
> - Popup menu: choices find, find again, extended search should be
>  joined in one find...
> - Popup menu: set breakpoint, clear breakpoint
>
>
> Best regards
> Janko
>
>
> --
> Janko Mivšek
> Svetovalec za informatiko
> Eranova d.o.o.
> Ljubljana, Slovenija
> www.eranova.si
> tel:  01 514 22 55
> faks: 01 514 22 56
> gsm: 031 674 565
>
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