[RFC] KDev4 Ui

[Jens Dagerbo]

On Wednesday 14 November 2007 21.53.18 Andreas Pakulat wrote:
> On 14.11.07 21:39:51, Jens Dagerbo wrote:
> > What would a more predictable navigation history look like? A popup that
> > describes what you would jump to with filenames and line numbers (like in
> > your mockup.. (that's just the "useless" KDev3 feature bound to a
> > shortcut) Personally, I never found it informative enough.
>
> Maybe you're biased because you know exactly what events add an entry to
> the history list.

Sadly, this is probably true. :(

> The problem is that unless you
>
> a) spend an hour or so playing with the history
> b) or know the code exactly
>
> you have no idea what exactly adds an entry to the history. At least I
> didn't find a pattern that I can memorize. Thus I'm _never_ sure what
> place I go back to when hitting the shortcut even once. And I can
> imagine new users having the same problem.

I hope that if you try it now you will find it much more predictable than it 
was pre-3.4.0. It wasn't until we finally ripped out KMDI that it made sense 
to try and support tab-initiated file switching (which was flat out 
impossible in KMDI, #kdevelop still echoes with my shouting on that 
topic ;) )

I _think_ that the only navigation still not captured is kate-initiated moving 
of the cursor - so we miss out on jumps caused by using bookmarks via 
katepart (the kdevelop bookmarks plugin is supported).

Also, one type of navigation that is captured, but shouldn't be, is stepping 
in the debugger - it unfortunately used editDocument() to move the cursor. :(

> So maybe the problem we have to solve is actually just making the
> addition to the history more easily to follow? One idea would be having
> a highlight set on the back-button which then fades out, everytime the
> history is changed...

Actually, that sounds both instructive and kinda cool. :) And also like 
something you would tire of quite quickly. :( As long as the non-noob can 
turn it off it wouldn't be too bad, but I hate having features that work best 
turned off. :(


// jens