variable assignments button

In the Browsers there is a line of buttons:  "browse", "senders" etc.
One of the buttons is  "vars"  which when pressed brings up a GUI that
allows you to select a variable and then a list of all methods using
that variable
is brought up from which you can select a method to inspect.

Sometimes I only want to view the subset of the methods in which the
variable is assigned.
I have implemented this feature (new button to the right of "vars"
labeled  ":=")
and find it to be very useful.
I am wondering if this feature can be added to the next version of Squeak.
I can send my code changes if someone is willing to do this but the changes
required are small so my help may not be needed.

If some do not like this feature (it's great really!) then perhaps it
could be turned
on or off depending on a Preferences setting.

If this feature happens to be in  5.3 then my apologies for wasting
peoples time.

Ralph Boland

 on the other hand, which person that wants to be efficient uses the button instead of <cmd>a?

Hi, this sounds great! It took me also a few months to find out that this feature "browse assignments" exists :)

On the other hand, I think this makes the button row look even more overfilled.

Another option might be to offer a pop-up menu similar to the code provenance button. This menu would have two items: 'references' and 'assignments'. Good for clarity, not so good for efficiency -- on the other hand, which person that wants to be efficient uses the button instead of <cmd>a?

A popular GUI element for such problems is the split button. Emphasises the default option of a series, but still provides fast access to the rest of series, too. But we don't have a pluggable implementation for this in Morphic so far, do we?

Best,

Christoph

---

Von: Squeak-dev <[hidden email]> im Auftrag von Jakob Reschke <[hidden email]>
Gesendet: Montag, 20. Januar 2020 18:42:58
An: [hidden email]; The general-purpose Squeak developers list
Betreff: Re: [squeak-dev] variable assignments button

 

Hi,

One can invoke this also with Cmd-a on the class, or somewhere in its pop-up menu.

A button for it could be nice on touch screens though. There is no button space for all our favorite features though. 

Ralph, could you send a screenshot of your solution for a quick impression, please?

Kings regards,

Jakob 

Ralph Boland <[hidden email]> schrieb am Mo., 20. Jan. 2020, 18:35:

In the Browsers there is a line of buttons:  "browse", "senders" etc.
One of the buttons is  "vars"  which when pressed brings up a GUI that
allows you to select a variable and then a list of all methods using
that variable
is brought up from which you can select a method to inspect.

Sometimes I only want to view the subset of the methods in which the
variable is assigned.
I have implemented this feature (new button to the right of "vars"
labeled  ":=")
and find it to be very useful.
I am wondering if this feature can be added to the next version of Squeak.
I can send my code changes if someone is willing to do this but the changes
required are small so my help may not be needed.

If some do not like this feature (it's great really!) then perhaps it
could be turned
on or off depending on a Preferences setting.

If this feature happens to be in  5.3 then my apologies for wasting
peoples time.

Ralph Boland

Hi Chris, good idea! I sent two commits regarding your proposal to the inbox.

However, I do not think that Ralphs original request got redundant per this proposal.  The text morph menu is very horrible long, even if you can type to search, and there few more hotkeys free to use.

In my opinion, the button row is exactly appropriate in order to provide a reduced set of operations to the overwhelmed user (such as me). I keep desiring a split button as mentioned below, maybe this dream can become reality someday ... :-)

Best,

Christoph

---

Von: Squeak-dev <[hidden email]> im Auftrag von Chris Muller <[hidden email]>
Gesendet: Montag, 20. Januar 2020 23:55:58
An: The general-purpose Squeak developers list
Cc: [hidden email]
Betreff: Re: [squeak-dev] variable assignments button

 

On Mon, Jan 20, 2020 at 12:51 PM Thiede, Christoph <[hidden email]> wrote:

Hi, this sounds great! It took me also a few months to find out that this feature "browse assignments" exists :)

On the other hand, I think this makes the button row look even more overfilled.

We have an unpleasant mix of a "command-oriented" UI, where you select a command (instead of an object) and THEN the system prompts you, modally, for the object to apply that command to -- we should be moving AWAY from this, not toward --

mixed along with with our "object-oriented" UI, where you select the object first, THEN the contextual command to apply to it (via button or menu or hot-key).

For example, you can select the instVar name (text) and use "References to it (N)" off the menu (or hot-key) to show all references to an instVar that way.  It would be easy to add an additional menu entry for assignments only.

Best,

  Chris

Another option might be to offer a pop-up menu similar to the code provenance button. This menu would have two items: 'references' and 'assignments'. Good for clarity, not so good for efficiency -- on the other hand, which person that wants to be efficient uses the button instead of <cmd>a?

A popular GUI element for such problems is the split button. Emphasises the default option of a series, but still provides fast access to the rest of series, too. But we don't have a pluggable implementation for this in Morphic so far, do we?

Best,

Christoph

---

Von: Squeak-dev <[hidden email]> im Auftrag von Jakob Reschke <[hidden email]>
Gesendet: Montag, 20. Januar 2020 18:42:58
An: [hidden email]; The general-purpose Squeak developers list
Betreff: Re: [squeak-dev] variable assignments button

 

Hi,

One can invoke this also with Cmd-a on the class, or somewhere in its pop-up menu.

A button for it could be nice on touch screens though. There is no button space for all our favorite features though. 

Ralph, could you send a screenshot of your solution for a quick impression, please?

Kings regards,

Jakob 

Ralph Boland <[hidden email]> schrieb am Mo., 20. Jan. 2020, 18:35:

In the Browsers there is a line of buttons:  "browse", "senders" etc.
One of the buttons is  "vars"  which when pressed brings up a GUI that
allows you to select a variable and then a list of all methods using
that variable
is brought up from which you can select a method to inspect.

Sometimes I only want to view the subset of the methods in which the
variable is assigned.
I have implemented this feature (new button to the right of "vars"
labeled  ":=")
and find it to be very useful.
I am wondering if this feature can be added to the next version of Squeak.
I can send my code changes if someone is willing to do this but the changes
required are small so my help may not be needed.

If some do not like this feature (it's great really!) then perhaps it
could be turned
on or off depending on a Preferences setting.

If this feature happens to be in  5.3 then my apologies for wasting
peoples time.

Ralph Boland

> It wasn't really meant as a proposal as much as an "example" of how we do it with our object oriented UI.  Since that is already available on the Class menu (also as Cmd+a on that pane, which is how I usually access it), we will have to decide whether we want to lengthen the already-long text menu, as you alluded to below..

In your previous message, you convinced me that it would be a better user experience to select the subject first and the operation second.

This workflow is not supported by <cmd>a.

But yes, the current text morph menu is way too long.

Maybe we should clean it up at some time (for example, by extracting all find/"* with it" items into one submenu ... just an idea).

> Maybe the button row could morph itself automatically into one of those based on size and number of truncated labels..  :)   Another idea, ability to select which functions one wants at each place...   :-o   :)

Ah, that sounds a bit like MS (Office) Ribbons :) They are indeed a good example of how to keep a UI quite clear.

Free configurability of each menu and button bar is a cool thing, but when I think at Visual Studio, for example, there were so many command lists to be adjusted that I actually never managed to adjust any of them.

Plus, this kind of modularity impair universally comprehensible and reproducibly tutorials or screenshots.

> Also like what we did with button labels, shortening them to the first letter when their extent gets too small.

This is indeed an improvement in terms of design, but it does not actually help you to find the right button.

> wherever we currently put a separator break, ---------- , what if it could be a "grayed out" label for that section of menu items which would, whenever the World height was too small, collapse that section into into a cascading menu, and ungray the label..?

Interesting idea :) I never struggled in a situation where a menu was too high, but in this case, it clearly sounds like an improvement to me.

In order to give meaning names to these "automatical categories", we would need to revise or current menu design. However personally, I absolutely favor type-to-search in case of any menu that has more than 6 items :).

> Shift+red-click a menu item, you can edit it.  Shift+blue-click it, and you can use the red halo to remove it, or the green-halo to tear it off as a button and place it anywhere, such as the DockingBar.  We just need to make it _remember_ these actions, and put the removed ones under "more..." for retrieval.  Squeak's live configuration is allows the user to do it without having to context-switch.

But users cannot change the default contents of any kind of menu permanently without modifying the underlying code.

> > Plus, this kind of modularity impair universally comprehensible and reproducibly tutorials or screenshots.

> I hope you won't limit your imagination based on that.  No, close your eyes and let it run wild, imagine the most amazing and intuitive UI ever (something like in Minority Report).  Worry NOTHING about the implementation, ONLY the vision, as a user, and what you would want.  THEN make the tutorials and screenshots about THAT!

Well, of course, you're absolutely right :-) Provided that we provide a convenient command search function for all of these commands.

> Have you noticed how many modern consumer products no longer come with owners manuals, just "quick start" cards?  Integrated documentation seems to be a thing...  :)

I come from a generation that never consults an owner manual for an application until physical coercion is applied :) Intuitivity first, always, ever, of course! That's the way I learned Squeak until now, so we are not on a bad path.

However, a quick start guide sounds interesting, too :) This would also be a nice project for Squeak: If the user opens the MCBrowser the first time, for example, a decent pop-up could lead him or her to the most popular few buttons of the dialog and guide him or her how to make their first commit. Also see TipOfTheDay for this more ideas.

Best,

Christoph

---

Von: Chris Muller <[hidden email]>
Gesendet: Donnerstag, 23. Januar 2020 22:36 Uhr
An: Thiede, Christoph
Cc: The general-purpose Squeak developers list; [hidden email]
Betreff: Re: [squeak-dev] variable assignments button

 

> It wasn't really meant as a proposal as much as an "example" of how we do it with our object oriented UI.  Since that is already available on the Class menu (also as Cmd+a on that pane, which is how I usually access it), we will have to decide whether we want to lengthen the already-long text menu, as you alluded to below..

In your previous message, you convinced me that it would be a better user experience to select the subject first and the operation second.

Great!  :)

 

This workflow is not supported by <cmd>a.

Very true.  The MC Browser also forces me into the "operation first, subject second" workflow.  I definitely prefer your Inbox submission for the workflow dimension, but..

 

But yes, the current text morph menu is way too long.

.. yep.  :)  On small screens, some menus end up taller than the screen.

 

Maybe we should clean it up at some time (for example, by extracting all find/"* with it" items into one submenu ... just an idea).

> Maybe the button row could morph itself automatically into one of those based on size and number of truncated labels..  :)   Another idea, ability to select which functions one wants at each place...   :-o   :)

Ah, that sounds a bit like MS (Office) Ribbons :) They are indeed a good example of how to keep a UI quite clear.

Also like what we did with button labels, shortening them to the first letter when their extent gets too small.  I ended up liking that, and could imagine something similar with menus, wherever we currently put a separator break, ---------- , what if it could be a "grayed out" label for that section of menu items which would, whenever the World height was too small, collapse that section into into a cascading menu, and ungray the label..?

 

Free configurability of each menu and button bar is a cool thing, but when I think at Visual Studio, for example, there were so many command lists to be adjusted that I actually never managed to adjust any of them.

"Command lists?"  It sounds like they buried it into some tab on a modal "Preferences" panel?  The Squeak way is "live" configuration.  Shift+red-click a menu item, you can edit it.  Shift+blue-click it, and you can use the red halo to remove it, or the green-halo to tear it off as a button and place it anywhere, such as the DockingBar.  We just need to make it _remember_ these actions, and put the removed ones under "more..." for retrieval.  Squeak's live configuration is allows the user to do it without having to context-switch.

 

Plus, this kind of modularity impair universally comprehensible and reproducibly tutorials or screenshots.

I hope you won't limit your imagination based on that.  No, close your eyes and let it run wild, imagine the most amazing and intuitive UI ever (something like in Minority Report).  Worry NOTHING about the implementation, ONLY the vision, as a user, and what you would want.  THEN make the tutorials and screenshots about THAT!  Maybe it'd even be a self-teaching, user-guiding UI, like in video games, so you wouldn't even need them.  Have you noticed how many modern consumer products no longer come with owners manuals, just "quick start" cards?  Integrated documentation seems to be a thing...  :)

Best,

  Chris

 

I come from a generation that never consults an owner manual for an application until physical coercion is applied :) Intuitivity first, always, ever, of course! That's the way I learned Squeak until now, so we are not on a bad path