On Mon, Feb 20, 2017 at 4:05 AM, Torsten Bergmann <[email protected]> wrote: > In the past in Pharo it was possible to open Spotter, type in the name of a > framework/project to load > from catalog, perform a search and just hit ENTER to easily install the > project. > > This was following the Spotter idea that it is easy to access most > informations of Pharo > with the Spotter tool. > > There always was and still is a setting in "Settings" -> "Catalog" -> > "Display catalog projects in Spotter". > This setting is ENABLED BY DEFAULT but could be switched off in the settings > tool or custom preference > scripts if this is problematic for someone. > > > Now in Pharo 6 there is an additional class "GTSpotterExtensionSettings" to > activate/deactivate > Spotter extensions. While nearly all of the Spotter extensions are enabled > the one for the catalog > integration is DISABLED BY DEFAULT. > > This leads to several effects: > > 1. While in the past it was possible in a fresh Pharo image to search and > install out of > the box it is (as of today in the not yet released Pharo 6) not possible > anymore to quickly > start by searching and installing from catalog using Spotter. > > 2. It is very confusing that in the settings "Display catalog projects in > Spotter" is enabled but a search > in Spotter gives no results. Most people will not not know about the > second setting and easily > get lost and think this behavior is just broken. > Also this second setting for the Spotter extension is much more hidden > between all the other > Spotter extension enablements very and hard to find.
Generally its not good to have two settings for the one thing. > > 3. Several of my youtube videos demonstrating Goodies like DesktopManager, > QuickAccess, > MessageFlowBrowser, ... directly start by loading the tools from > Spotter. Anyone newbee who will > follow these will not only be confused - but also stuck in trying Pharo > when he learns > from these videos. UI things do evolve and videos date. But these seem worthwhile to keep current. > > I was asked several times on Slack and via Mail from people who were not > able to reproduce ... this > is really annyoing. Especially this gives the wrong impression to > newbees. Things should be easy > not complicated. > > To my knowledge disabling the Spotter search in Pharo 6 came up due to some > Pharo teaching in regions > with slow internet connection. This made sense at the time. It is a worse first impression if UI lags when this central part of the UI is interfaced. How often would it access the network? Every time? Or did it cache the result for a day, etc? > I understand that we would like to support these Pharo users too as best > as possible in their out of the box experience ... but (without being able to > prove) I think that 90% or > more Pharo users have a regular internet connection. Otherwise it would be > hard to work with updates, > project loading, PharoLauncher, STHub or Iceberg/GitHub. > > Also my own personal experience is that even on low bandwidth network this > Catalog Spotter search for > me was always fast enough (as I often use Pharo in trains with slow > connections or on a Pi with slow > connections and less processing power). I do not know about all others from > the community. > > I invested hours in the past in developing and introducing the initial > configuration browser to Pharo, > later improved and helped shaping its replacement CatalogBrowser, also > contributed this spotter search > for the catalog items so things are more accessible, easy and enjoyable. > That's why I also invested > hours in udpating configs or pushing you to put things into catalog. > > Because accessibility is key. Only when things are easy to access and > understandable people will > enjoy Pharo. > > Currently in an out-of the box image this easy access to the projects via > Spotter is blocked. > Additionally I have to explain to anyone who asks me that there is a second > non-obvious/more hidden setting > leaving an unpleasant feeling how many others unknown to me will struggle > with this issue. > > I see two solutions: > > A) We enable both settings by DEFAULT to bring back the Spotter search and > installation > of catalog items - with the clear benefit of having > - the previous behavior in Pharo back > - the out of the box ability to search for catalog projects in any > fresh image > - no confusion among the user base anymore regarding the settings > - we have unbroken Youtube videos that newbees can continue to follow > - if a user asks (like often) how to get Seaside, Artefact, Mongo, > Teapot or other projects we can > just tell him "search in Spotter and you should be fine" as most > of them have a config in > the catalog. > > Remember that not all of us know about all the github pages or > nice Metacello expressions. > So the easier things are found and accessible the better it is. > > B) If A is still a "No go" for the community we should at a minimum switch > the defaults of > the two settings: > > => we ENABLE the Spotter extension (GTSpotterExtensionSettings > perform: #GTSpotter_spotterCatalogProjectsFor: with: true) > => we DISABLE the catalog setting (CatalogSettings > displayCatalogProjectsInSpotter: false) > > With this at least we have no confusion among the user base anymore > regarding the settings. C) Could a STON file of the catalog be cached in the zip of Image/Changes files? That zip might be updated daily to keep it current. Then in a fresh image Spotter searches the cached file for a instant response, while the Catalog is updated from the network in the background. Even with fast Internet the Catalog should only need to auto-update once a day, with results cached in a common file to be accessed when fresh images are started. The Spotter UI might display the last update date as part of the Catalog sub-heading in its results. cheers -ben > > I would clearly and strongly vote for option A as my preferred one. > > I agree there are regions/continents with very low bandwidth - but Pharo will > rival with state of the art > technologies where loading/installation megabytes from the web is often not > seen as an issue. There are > many package registries out there (from debian packages) up to Maven, npm in > JS, ... or look at Docker. > Shuffling megabytes around is a reality in todays technologies. > > So to be honest I never understood this whole "bandwidth" discussion and even > if this comes up it could > be solved with a note in the download/welcome screen or pointing to a custom > preference script for low bandwidth > situations. > > Sorry for having to bring this up again ... but I would like this to be > solved BEFORE Pharo 6 will > be pushed out of the door. Keeping it like it is without further actions > would be really stupid. > > Thanks for you comments, ideas or votes. > > Thanks > T. >
