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Hello, I woiuld suggest the following feature ; up to now we only can in the perspective menu change a persepctive and adding a view. It could be very useful to be able to ADD a perspective(Add...). What does it mean? For instance, you already have a browser on a class and you want to open another browser. You have then to open a new Workbench to do that. If we could add a supplementary perspective to others in the same workbench, even if a perspectiove of the same type exists, it could be very useful. regards Xavier
...continued... To be able tehn to find the right perspective, we could add a name to this perspective instance when creating thsi perspective.... The perspective should then have a information bubble when the mouse roll over...
Pls take a look at the latest integration builds. Much of what you are asking for is possible. Opening the same perspective multiple times in a single window is awkward though.
Xavier is right. The usability of this feature can be improved.
What build are you using? The perspective has changed a few times since release 1.0
I'm using the latest stable build 20020314... Actually, the rule could be this one : * we can create new perspective as today with the save perspectice as... fetaure * and we can instantiate as many times as we want all the perspectives in the same workbench * the perspectives must not be synchronized (ie when I select a class in a perspective view, I don't want to see another perspective changing the clas too, unless I said it explicitely... * a perspective instane has a instance name to be able to find again our view * a keyboard shortcut could render easier to access to these perspective instances With such an improvement, we would'nt need to open sevearl workbenches. Best regards Xavier
I wish I could just embed my comments into your last reply, but not possible with bugzilla...so I'll copy it here ;-) (my comments try to explain how perspectives are working now and why - that does not mean it is right...) <<* we can create new perspective as today with the save perspectice as... fetaure>> Yes, we will continue to support this feature. There is another problem report open to allow a user to assign an icon to these custom perspective. Otherwise, it is very hard to now the difference in the shortcut bar unless you hover the mouse over each tool item. <<* and we can instantiate as many times as we want all the perspectives in the same workbench * the perspectives must not be synchronized (ie when I select a class in a perspective view, I don't want to see another perspective changing the clas too, unless I said it explicitely...>> Until 2002-03-07 build, the ui model "Perspective" was trying to represent two different things and doing a poor job of it. Now, it means a way to look at what you are working on. That is, an arrangement of views, editors, and actions. Perspective are "synchronized" within the same window. Given this definition, there is not much value in instanciating the same perspective multiple times. It will show the same thing. If we did, then would "Perspective > Open" switch to the requested perspective if already opened or open a new one? If I understood your point, perspectives would not be synchronized unless done explicitely? How would envision the UI for this? Would editors be shared across them? <<* a perspective instane has a instance name to be able to find again our view>> Each perspective type all have names, including custom ones (as in your first point). If you have multiple instances of the same perspective, when/how do you assign a name to it? (i.e how would the ui look like to do this?) <<* a keyboard shortcut could render easier to access to these perspective instances With such an improvement, we would'nt need to open sevearl workbenches.>> We could come up with a shortcut key to switch perspectives - maybe kinda like the editor switcher. Right now, you either click on the icon, select Perspective > Open, or look at the list opened in the bottom of Perspective menu (first nine have mnumonics so Alt+P+(1..9) is available). It seems you are looking for an MDI style of environment. That is, somehow represent what would be in other windows into one window. We've yet to find an acceptable solution to this. How do we represent a group of perspectives working together ("synchronized") and another group of perspectives working together? Suggestions? We went with the multiple window approach because it was easier to explain to users. The window managers (XP, NT, Gnome, etc) already provide navigation facilities to switch between windows, and users are familiar with this. Otherwise we need to invent another navigation system within one window to show what really is multiple window contents. We've not given up. Maybe someone within the community will have an understandable solution. We've come up with some ideas internally, but some were too complicated or used up more space on an already crowded window. Let us know what your ideas are about how the ui would do want you explained in your previous comment. Maybe there is something we can make use of?
Thanks a lot Simon for this long answer... Actually, I don't understand why we couldn't , maybe in a future version, have the behavior has I described... To sum up, we could have : * the ability to open as many Workbench as we would want ...as today ;-) * the ability to open as many perspective instances in the same workbench. Of course to have a coherent behavior, a perspective instance which is of the same type of another opened perspective instance shouldn't be synchronized whith the other. And of course to be able to distinguish these two perspectives, we should give to them an instance name when creating them by means of a dialog box. Each instance should be placed on the left side of the workbench as today. Why such a demand? Because I find today that it is not very useful to have for instance a java browsing perspective and a java perspective opened in the same time. Normally, a person should prefer one kind of navigating. For me it is the java browsing perspective. So I never use the java perspective. If I want to open a new java browsing perspective on another piece of code, I must today open a new Workbench. As formerly Smalltalk programmer, I know that ti is possible to work so.. but I remember also that sometimes I had so many windows opened in the same time, that It was quite difficult to find again the window I searched... Personnaly, the ability to mix the possiblity to open new Workbenches and also to open as many perspecrtives as I want in a same workbench should be a good compromize. But I know you have all a lot work to provide us with the 2.0 version. It is really a very good tool!!! Maybe there is a lack of wizards like in Netbeans ;-) Best regards Xavier
Defer until after release 2.0
Reopen to investigate
The fact the you perspectives are "synchronized" was was changed after 1.0 because users were losing context too often. After a usability study, it was decided that keeping the same context in all perspectives in a window would be better. And it has proven to be better. So multiple window is the answer for users that needed multiple context. If you need as second browser in the same or in another class you will need another window.
