The Trunk: System-mha.167.mcz

Michael Haupt uploaded a new version of System to project The Trunk:
http://source.squeak.org/trunk/System-mha.167.mcz

==================== Summary ====================

Name: System-mha.167
Author: mha
Time: 15 November 2009, 1:58:09 am
UUID: 1b8c84fa-b87c-46df-aa6f-0b21013cbf59
Ancestors: System-dtl.166

convenience: in case the "update" button dies somehow, a new one can be created easily by doing this:

Utilities openUpdateButton

... which will create the button and open it in the hand

=============== Diff against System-dtl.166 ===============

Item was added:
+ ----- Method: Utilities class>>openUpdateButton (in category 'user interface') -----
+ openUpdateButton
+ PluggableButtonMorph new
+ label: 'Load Code Updates';
+ model: Utilities;
+ action: #updateFromServer;
+ openInHand!

On 15.11.2009, at 13:58, [hidden email] wrote:

Why would we need such a method, when you can just copy the "update code from server" menu item to create a button?

- Bert -

Hi Bert,

On Sun, Nov 15, 2009 at 2:25 PM, Bert Freudenberg <[hidden email]> wrote:
> Why would we need such a method, when you can just copy the "update code from server" menu item to create a button?

obviously, we wouldn't need that. I didn't know such a menu item
existed - where is that? (Not in my world menu, anyway.)

Best,

Michael

On 15.11.2009, at 14:47, Michael Haupt wrote:

In the Help menu.

- Bert -

Hi Bert,

On Sun, Nov 15, 2009 at 3:49 PM, Bert Freudenberg <[hidden email]> wrote:
>> obviously, we wouldn't need that. I didn't know such a menu item
>> existed - where is that? (Not in my world menu, anyway.)
>
> In the Help menu.

now that obviously makes utter sense. :-/

Honestly, who would expect to find the "update the system"
functionality in the "help" menu?! There should be a sensible default
location of this item. I'd expect it either in the top World menu, or
in "Preferences and Services".

OK. I volunteer to take care of this, but the decision is not up to
me. My personal opinion is that this should be in the World menu
itself. Any other opinions?

Best,

Michael

On 15.11.2009, at 16:01, Michael Haupt wrote:
The help menu is for users who look for help. Updating often solves problems. So it doesn't seem as unusual to me. Some others do agree:

http://www.google.com/search?q=help-menu+updates

E.g., Firefox's update check is in its help menu:




- Bert -

Hi,

On Sun, Nov 15, 2009 at 4:47 PM, Bert Freudenberg <[hidden email]> wrote:
> The help menu is for users who look for help. Updating often solves problems. So it doesn't seem as unusual to me. Some others do agree:
>
> http://www.google.com/search?q=help-menu+updates
>
> E.g., Firefox's update check is in its help menu:

ach whatever. I don't think it makes sense. The Firefox developers
(and others) have a different opinion. I always let Firefox find the
updates by itself, so I've never actively looked for the update menu
item. (I wouldn't have started in "Help".)

Mac OS X has the update menu item in the Apple menu. OmniFocus has it
in the "OmniFocus" menu. There are probably more counter-examples, I'm
just too lazy to fire up all those third-party applications right now.
:-)

So I'll stick with the button opener in Utilities. If anyone wants to
remove it from the Trunk, no problem.

Best,

Michael

On 15.11.2009, at 16:59, Michael Haupt wrote:

Hey, I'm not saying we can't move it to the World menu :)

It just does not sound that unusual to me, that's all. But I wouldn't object.

- Bert -

Hi again,

On Sun, Nov 15, 2009 at 5:07 PM, Bert Freudenberg <[hidden email]> wrote:
> Hey, I'm not saying we can't move it to the World menu :)
>
> It just does not sound that unusual to me, that's all. But I wouldn't object.

sorry, I mistook you there.

Best,

Michael

And hello again,

On Sun, Nov 15, 2009 at 5:07 PM, Bert Freudenberg <[hidden email]> wrote:
> Hey, I'm not saying we can't move it to the World menu :)

all right. To make a concrete proposal ... having discussed this with
colleagues, I'd suggest to put it under "Preferences & Services". If
there are no objections, I will commit that change tomorrow, and also
remove the Utilities method I added earlier.

Best,

Michael

Hi,

so, I uploaded two packages to the Inbox, playing safe. ;-)

On the one hand, the update menu item has been moved from the Help
sub-menu to the Common Requests sub-menu ("do ...").

On the other hand, there is now a preference to toggle displaying a
menu item for updating from the server at the top level of the World
menu, just above all the Save and Quit items.

The postscript in the System package should properly initialise the
preference and Common Requests infrastructure, but someone with more
experience in Monticello things should verify this. Playing safe. ;-)

Best,

Michael

Michael Haupt wrote:
> On the other hand, there is now a preference to toggle displaying a
> menu item for updating from the server at the top level of the World
> menu, just above all the Save and Quit items.

Two comments on that: First, preferences are a bane. The update menu
should be either in one place or another, but not depending on
preference, day of the week, or phase of the moon ;-) (personally I
think we should redo the entire desktop menu but that's just me)

Secondly, instead of continuing to create new dependencies to
Preferences which are hard to initialize, maintain and remove, you might
want to use a pragma instead. To do this, add a class var (say
IncludeUpdateInHelpMenu) and then these two methods:

TheWorldMenuClass>>includeUpdateInHelpMenu
     <preference: 'Update menu in Help'
       category: 'morphic'
       description: 'Governs whether the update button is shown in the
help menu'
       type: #Boolean>
     ^IncludeUpdateInHelpMenu ifNil:[false] "or true"

TheWorldMenuClass>>includeUpdateInHelpMenu: aBoolean
    "Preference setter"
     IncludeUpdateInHelpMenu := aBoolean

Voila, the pain of creating, initializing removing preferences is gone.
You can find other examples by browsing the senders of
preference:category:description:type:

Cheers,
   - Andreas

2009/11/18 Andreas Raab <[hidden email]>:
--    ^IncludeUpdateInHelpMenu ifNil:[false] "or true"
++  ^IncludeUpdateInHelpMenu ==  true

:)


--
Best regards,
Igor Stasenko AKA sig.

Hi Andreas,

On Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 5:25 AM, Andreas Raab <[hidden email]> wrote:
> Two comments on that: First, preferences are a bane. The update menu should
> be either in one place or another, but not depending on preference, day of
> the week, or phase of the moon ;-)

ha well, as a developer I have different interests in what should be
in the menu than as a user not interested in development ... there
should be some configurability.

> (personally I think we should redo the entire desktop menu but that's just me)

I'm with you. Let's do this. I'll come up with a proposal later today.
BTW is anyone actually using the custom world menu?

> Secondly, instead of continuing to create new dependencies to Preferences
> which are hard to initialize, maintain and remove, you might want to use a
> pragma instead. ...

Thanks for this!

Best,

Michael

2009/11/18 Michael Haupt <[hidden email]>:
i don't know what you are calling custom world menu..
i can see 4 different menus, when clicking on world
- with left mouse button
- with right button
- Ctrl+left button
- Shift+left button



--
Best regards,
Igor Stasenko AKA sig.

Hi Igor,

On Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 8:47 AM, Igor Stasenko <[hidden email]> wrote:
>> BTW is anyone actually using the custom world menu?
>
> i don't know what you are calling custom world menu..
> i can see 4 different menus, when clicking on world
> - with left mouse button
> - with right button
> - Ctrl+left button
> - Shift+left button

sorry, I meant the "personalized" world menu, and the question
actually is whether anybody is using this feature.

Best,

Michael

2009/11/18 Michael Haupt <[hidden email]>:
sorry, but question remains same. i don't know which of the 4 above is
"personalized" menu,
neither i have any idea how it can be personalized. I never looked at
that code, mostly because of disgust.

As to me, there can be as many menus as we want to, but:
 - each menu should contain unique items, not repeated in others
 - each having a distinct name/title, instead of 'world' or 'World' to
clearly indicate its function

> Best,
>
> Michael
>
>



--
Best regards,
Igor Stasenko AKA sig.

Hi Igor,

On Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 9:24 AM, Igor Stasenko <[hidden email]> wrote:
> sorry, but question remains same. i don't know which of the 4 above is
> "personalized" menu,
> neither i have any idea how it can be personalized. I never looked at
> that code, mostly because of disgust.

same here.

> As to me, there can be as many menus as we want to, but:
>  - each menu should contain unique items, not repeated in others
>  - each having a distinct name/title, instead of 'world' or 'World' to
> clearly indicate its function

I completely agree.

Best,

Michael

Righto.

Here's an idea. It's not about a structure proposal for the entire
world menu, as I rarely use many of the entries ...

But regarding the structure, what about having something like this.

Browser
Workspace
Transcript
Test Runner
more tools ...
-----
...
-----
Save
Save as ...
Save as new version
Save and quit
Quit

I know, this doesn't look much different from what we have now, but
there's something behind the scenes. The "more tools ..." entry would
open a sub-menu with all the tools to pick from. The four entries
above that (i.e., the four first entries in the world menu) are
adaptive. The most frequently selected tools make it there, replacing
the less frequently used ones. So, if I rarely open a Transcript but
often the Monticello browser, the latter will eventually replace the
former.

What about that?

Regarding content-wise restructuring of the world menu, I can't say
much as I usually use the top four entries, and some of the ones at
the bottom. The rest is very rarely used, so I don't have much
interest and don't want to impose my opinion on anyone.

Best,

Michael

2009/11/18 Michael Haupt <[hidden email]>: I quite neutral to tricks, like dynamically tracking a most often used
items and arrange the menu
using this criteria.
if your changes will make world menu contain less items (not counting
submenus), please do :)

> Regarding content-wise restructuring of the world menu, I can't say
> much as I usually use the top four entries, and some of the ones at
> the bottom. The rest is very rarely used, so I don't have much
> interest and don't want to impose my opinion on anyone.
>

The world menu organization looks like a white noise to me.
Randomly placed, unrelated items shown in a single list..
If you right-click on a world,
there are much better menu (but again, prepended with white noise from
morph menu).

The items are nicely grouped into submenus:

Squeak
Project
Configuration
Help

IMO this should be shown on top and made accessible before anything
else in world menu.
of course, if we care to make squeak more user-friendly some day :)

> Best,
>
> Michael
>


--
Best regards,
Igor Stasenko AKA sig.