Description Nick Edgar 2001-11-21 15:49:16 EST

Build 20011116.

One of the problems encountered during our "no mouse day" is that it is very 
difficult to determine what the errors are when they are shown in an editor.

Currently you have to hover the cursor over the error icons in the marker bar 
using the mouse in order to see the message.  Since the marker bar can't take 
keyboard focus, there is no way of doing so with the keyboard.

The editor should show the error(s) for the current line.
One way would be to show its message on the status line.
This would make it consistent with the task list.
It would also be similar to VA/Java.
If there are multiple errors on the same line, this should be handled, e.g. by 
discriminating based on character offset.  
In the case of a single problem, moving the cursor within the exact character 
range of the problem should not be required to show it, though.

Note that CTRL+E and CTRL+SHIFT+E go to the next/prev error, and select it in 
the task list if it is visible.  There was a problem with this approach too, in 
that the task list did not show its selection if it wasn't active.
This has been fixed (finally) in builds > 20011120.
This helps, but only if the task list is visible.
The task list updates its status line in this case, but in the CTRL+E scenario 
the task list is not active, so the status line remains blank.
The editor should set the status line to the same text.
That is, if I go to the next problem using CTRL+E, the status line should show 
the problem's message, and not change if I switch between the editor and the 
task list.

The above suggestions should apply to other kinds of markers as well (tasks, 
breakpoints, etc.)

One disadvantage of using the status line is that it may be far from the user's 
locus of attention, so they may not notice it changing.
(This is less problematic for the task list which is typically positioned at 
the bottom of the window.)
Another option would be using hover help to show the current problem(s).
This may have other accessibility issues, though (e.g. are they readable by a 
screen reader).