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The results from two IDE usability surveys suggest that beginner programmers find the line-numbers "ruler" useful. Perhaps it should be available by default. http://docs.google.com/present/view?id=addqfjnjc3d6_108gj3w67c3 http://proton.scs.carleton.ca/~dacosta/ide4edu/results.ods
Created attachment 151146 [details] Patch to display line numbers in the editor by default
Created attachment 151147 [details] Patch to display line numbers in the editor by default Please ignore the previous patch.
Created attachment 157064 [details] Updated patch to show line numbers by default Made some tweaks to the previously proposed patch so that its now more compatible with the current version of our project (logic adding the line numbers to the editor remains the same).
The approach you've taken here is novel. There is a mechanism in Eclipse that, using a customize product along with an ini file does the same thing. At some point, I believe that we're going to want to create our own product, so we should consider using that mechanism instead. Having said that, I'm not 100% convinced that showing line numbers by default is necessarily good. Doesn't it add additional clutter to the screen? Can you argue that it's good clutter. I'm assuming that we have two "yes" votes. Does anybody else want to provide an opinion?
(In reply to comment #4) > Having said that, I'm not 100% convinced that showing line numbers by default > is necessarily good. Doesn't it add additional clutter to the screen? Can you > argue that it's good clutter. I'm assuming that we have two "yes" votes. Does > anybody else want to provide an opinion? Well, I'll add my opinion anyways :).. I find seeing line numbers essential for development and debugging. The last thing I would want a new student to do is to go searching through Eclipse's massive options for where to enable it (in fact, would they even know it exists, or better yet, where the options are?). I find you get the best out of it when your debugging especially. Say you see a problem on line 27.. Its quicker to scroll to the line then try and guesstimate it. And on that note, it only takes up an additional like.. 5mm of screen real estate? Its a very subtle additional that can go a long way to helping users out. Although, I'm all for a more efficient (and less novel?) implementation if that is possible.
I agree that having line numbers was useful to me as a beginner. The default way for seeing line numbers, in the bottom right corner in the format "line:character" was not at all intuitive to me... I would have at least preferred it above the console, closer to the editor where the actual code is, plus some hint that those numbers mean line and character position would have been nice. Having a number next to each line was definitely a good idea once I figured out how to set that up.
I believe that more correct way to accomplish this is to add an entry to the plugin_customization.ini file in org.eclipse.ide4edu.branding. The FAQs tell us exactly what needs to be added :-) http://wiki.eclipse.org/RCP_FAQ#How_can_I_show_line_numbers_by_default_in_my_RCP_application.3F I'm marking the attachments as obsolete since we're not going to use them.
FWIW, I'm leaving this one open for the time being as an 'easy one' for students to implement.
Created attachment 197712 [details] Line numbers display on start-up Line numbers are now displayed on start-up.
Thank Mike. Can you please confirm that: (a) you wrote 100% of the code; (b) that you have the right to contribute the code to Eclipse; and (c) the file header contains the appropriate License header.
(In reply to comment #10) > Thank Mike. > > Can you please confirm that: > > (a) you wrote 100% of the code; > (b) that you have the right to contribute the code to Eclipse; and > (c) the file header contains the appropriate License header. Yes to a, b, and c.
Patch committed. Marking as FIXED. Thanks Mike.
Created attachment 198485 [details] mylyn/context/zip
