KDevelop 4.0 UI

David Nolden david.nolden.kdevelop at art-master.de
Fri May 22 19:56:22 UTC 2009


Am Freitag 22 Mai 2009 21:40:14 schrieb Andreas Pakulat:
> On 22.05.09 21:10:11, David Nolden wrote:
> > Well actually after digesting this a bit, I think I don't like the
> > approach of using the tabs to manage areas any more. While it is
> > intuitive, it clutters the UI up a bit too much, since there is multiple
> > level of tabs.
> >
> > Probably it's better just having some tool buttons that make clear which
> > area is currently selected.
>
> I'll just take this one for my thoughts on this:
>
> It tries to cramp too much stuff into too little space. The toolbar area
> has almost no whitespace, thats really bad usability wise. I also think
I think that's wrong. Why is it bad for usability if there is no white space? 
It is good for usability when the important features are discoverable and 
intuitive. Except for the breadcrumb, I think the stuff done in the mockups is 
intuitive.

I hate wasting space. Especially in an app like an IDE, where every line of 
horizontal and vertical space can be used to increase productivity within the 
editor. So if we have a given set of features, we should fit it into the 
smallest space possible, to leave as much as possible for the editor.

> the tabs-in-tabs is bad and in general tabs along the menu or right
> underneath them looks pretty bad. Also, an area can possibly even change
> the menu (if it can change the toolbar), so the tabs would need to have
> everything in them (we could actually do this by having a QGraphicsView
> with an embedded mainwindow and a tab with multiple such graphicsviews,
> but I think thats quite a bit overkill).
I'm still not sure about that. One moment I think the tabs are good, the next 
not. But they definitely are the most intuitive description of what area 
switching does, so they should at least be considered.

> I don't think we need such a prominent place for switching area's, as
> thats not something the user should do all the time - except maybe for a
> Documentation area when we get that). KDevelop should automatically
> switch the area to the right one, i.e. if an application is started in
> the debugger switch to Debug Area, if its not debugged anymore switch
> back to Code area. So yes, some toolbuttons in a toolbar for the last 3
> used areas should be enough here.
But it should be clear to the user what's happening. When you start the 
debugger, and see that the tab is changed from "Code" to the "Debug" tab, then 
it's clear how you get back to where you were before. Buttons on the other 
hand may lead to confusion here, "Where the fuck are my documents?"
> The toolbar should have standard KDE icon sizes and text underneath
> them. Forcing it to disobey global KDE settings will get us tons of
> bugreports that are absolutely correct. Especially new users need the
> text underneath the icons.
Not sure about that. I think we should give the user a well usable IDE out-of-
the-box, and to me that means that it should not waste space. Showing the text 
on the right side of the icons by default might be an option.
> I don't think the breadcrumbs view (assuming thats the one we planned to
> have) should be under the tabs as the breadcrumbs content naturally
> belongs to the file thats being shown.
You mean in the toolbar? Not sure about that either.

Greetings, David





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