While I like that GTTools are in Pharo 4 now (thanks!!!) and allow all kind of
neat
things I basically ask myself if we forgot to remember usability on a few
places:
1. the world menu item "Workspace" opens a window "Playground" including also
a tab with the same name "Playground".
=> CONFUSING
I would suggest that we rename the window "Workspace" and keep "Playground"
for the initial tab. This is easy to fix and would also fulfill the
expectation
when a beginner grabbed an existing Smalltalk or Pharo book.
2. While in all UI interfaces (Windows, Linux, Mac) the order in the context
menu
is "Cut", "Copy", "Paste" the playground menu uses a different order
"Copy", "Cut" "Paste".
=> CONFUSING again
I would suggest to use the well known order "Cut","Copy","Paste".
3. When one uses "Inspect it" from the context menu it means
- to run the code
- and the resulting object is then "inspectable" in a new window
On the other side "Do it and go" from the context menu means
- to run the code
- and the resulting object is then "inspectable" in a new pane (but
same window)
The intention of both menu items and also the result is the same, but the
naming
is different ("go" vs. "inspect"). But the only notable difference is that
in one case the
inspectable object is opening right to the existing pane in the other case
a new
window is opened.
=> CONFUSING and inconsistent
This is harder to solve. Possible solutions are:
3a. We keep the "inspect" concept and name the menu items "Do and
Inspect it" and "Inspect in new window"
3b. We keep "Do it" as before to run the code, also "Inspect it"
which opens the new pane to the
left in the same window. If someone wants to open a new
inspector window he should keep SHIFT key pressed
while running "Inspect it". This is a concept known from web
browsers and other tools today, clicking on
a link while pressing SHIFT opens a new window.
4. The icons in the context menu of Playground are not the same as the ones in
the Pharo browsers.
=> CONFUSING and inconsistent
They are just black and if one switches to the Pharo dark theme they stay
black and therefore
looking ugly and make nearly no sense on the dark grey menu background.
For now we should use the known icons that we already have. Maybe currently
they are hardcoded and may
conflict with Moose vs. Pharo icons - but this could be solved with the
Icon Theming.
(In the long term I would like to see scalable icons in Pharo menues
(instead of bitmaps) similar to
"Fontawesome" in web browsers (two colors) or SVG based ones (more colors)
as currently the icon does
not scale when changing the menue font size).
Sorry if it sound like a rant - but the intention of this mail is that we
discuss
(and hopefully fix) in order to improve.
Maybe it is written too early after the initial integration, but I think the
mentioned
points should be easy to address. Unfortunately I'm additionally confused with
the changed
contribution process that has exceptions for specific packages like GT to fix
it
myself with the usualy bugs/slice cycle.
Thanks
T.
