RFC: KDevelop4 icons, what do we want/need?

[Jakob Petsovits]

On Tuesday, 30. January 2007 11:18, Vladimir Prus wrote:
> On Thursday 25 January 2007 23:20, Matthew Woehlke wrote:
> > I am working on a list of IDE-like icons to give to the Oxygen folk, so
> > that KDevelop4 can have system-provided icons. Anyway, a few comments...
> >
> > For debugging controls, could VCR icons be used for run, break, stop,
> > restart?
>
> I'm not sure about restart -- the ideas in the document don't look
> intuitive.

It may not be a completely appropriate analogy, but I guess looking at audio 
players or VCRs could be a good idea. So...

What Would Amarok Do? (TM)

Amarok (1.4.4) has got four main controls in its player control toolbar:
- Next Track / Previous Track behave in a simple way, are always enabled,
  and only serve one purpose, namely skipping back and forth.
- The Play button is always enabled as well, but when a track is played,
  it changes to the Pause button. Which means that only one of them is
  displayed at a time.
- The Stop button stays the Stop button, but is only enabled when a track
  is playing.

There are players which don't combine the Play/Pause functionality in one
single button (I can't currently think of one, but I remember using them),
and those are using the Play button for restarting the current track.

That in mind, I can think of two possible approaches for KDevelop:

- Start Debugging changes to Pause when the program is running.
  Restart is dropped completely, the user is required to first select Stop,
  then Start Debugging.
or
- Start Debugging keeps its icon, but is renamed to Restart when the program
  is running. Pause gets its own steady place in the toolbar, and is only
  enabled when the program is running.

I would prefer the first one - it kills a bit space for an additional toolbar 
icon, and I'd generally consider it the cleaner approach.

Is there a special need for keeping the Restart capability, or specifically to 
keep it in such a prominent place as the toolbar? Does Restart have any major 
advantages to Stop/Start, or does it just save a single click?

How do debuggers of other IDEs do it?

brainfood,
  Jakob