Saving Idea Spaces

Hello Forum,

The Idea Space is a great feature, but is there any way to save one of these
spaces?  I find myself wanting to save certain exploratory sessions and later
pick up where I left off.

Cheers,

Eric

Eric,

> The Idea Space is a great feature, but is there any way to save one
> of these spaces?  I find myself wanting to save certain exploratory
> sessions and later pick up where I left off.

This has come up a couple of times in past discussions and I can see
how such a feature might be useful. It is currently not possible to
save an IdeaSpace definition so I've added it as an enhancement
request, #2143.

One of the issues will be where you want the definition to be saved. It
would be possible to create an external file with a proprietary format
(perhaps based on STB) that holds these definitions but, frankly, I'm
not keen to introduce yet another file type. Another possibility would
be to write an ST script file that could be filed in to recreate the
IdeaSpace using the normal File In methods.

I guess that most people probably want to have the definition
externalised from the image since this would allow IdeaSpaces to be
moved from one image to another. If this was not a requirement,
however, another possibility might be to save the definition as a new
icon within the Dolphin system folder so it can be re-opened with a
double-click.

Any ideas?

Best regards,

--
Andy Bower
Dolphin Support
www.object-arts.com

Andy,

> I guess that most people probably want to have the definition
> externalised from the image since this would allow IdeaSpaces to be
> moved from one image to another.

Personally, I can't see much point in an external representation.  But then
it's not me asking for the feature.


> another possibility might be to save the definition as a new
> icon within the Dolphin system folder so it can be re-opened with a
> double-click.

I'm not sure, but I think the "trick" you use to preserve the apparent window
setup over image save/restore could easily be extended to allow us to save the
state of all our windows (whether in an IdeaSpace or not) into some sort of
repository.  Then a small tool would show a list of the saved setups, and allow
us restore them at will.  Essentially the same idea as Squeak's "projects".

One problem would be with workspace variables: should they be preserved and how
?  But then I'm not sure how people want them to behave in the
save-an-IdeaSpace scenario either.   Myself, I think it'd be more useful if the
save/restore feature also preserved their state.

Maybe you'll feel that the Squeak-project idea overlaps too much with what's
already provided by IdeaSpaces.  Or maybe it'd would take more much effort that
it's worth.  Still, if you /did/ provide such a thing, then I'd probably use it
(I don't use IdeaSpaces -- nothing against them, they're a good idea, but they
don't fit with my way of working).

    -- chris

Hello Andy,

Thank you for the reply.

Of the three options you suggest--STB, icon in the SF, or an ST script, I
think the latter would be more appropriate.  I definitely understand your
hesitation to create another file type.  Using a scripted approach and considering
Package files as a model, I'm thinking that this might be more in line with
what you are already doing.

But I have another idea.  Since Dolphin targets the Windows platform, perhaps
in the tradition of Windows you could store the information in the registry?
 Using the registry for just such a purpose has become a sort of standard.

Thinking aloud...I suppose the only other design issue would be contending
with elements of an Idea Space that were deleted, moved, or renamed in a
session subsequent to the saving of the space; e.g. you attempt to restore
the CHB to a class that no longer exists.  One solution could be a tab with
"Notices" in red letters in the restored Idea Space, with a list of incongruencies
on the tab page.  I suppose you could even leverage the information in the
Changes file, provided that the information still exists there as well.  
Something like

==============
Notices

Concerning your "Dialog Box Design Considerations" Idea Space, the following
elements of your ideas have changed since you last saved the idea:
1.  According to the change log, on Saturday, May 13, 2006, the class DialogBoxDesignPolicy
was renamed to DialogBoxUIPolicy.
2.  ...
==============

Since ideas may ultimately manifest themselves in the design of the system,
informing the developer in this way could be quite instructive to the design
process.

Anyways, just some thoughts.  I hope I've helped.

By the way, you had asked me to report back with the results of trying your
idea concerning jagged icon edges.  I did respond, but again I was having
news reader problems, so I'm not sure if the post is actually visible to
everyone.  The good news is that Chris Uppal has straightened out my news
reader problems.  Turns out it was the news server.  I'm now using TotallyObjects'
server.  I apologize for any confusion or inconvenience.

Cheers,

Eric