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Scenario: (1) Open Java Perspective (2) Convert "Task"/"Search"/"Console"-views to Fast-Views; drag the "Outline View" onto the "Packages"-view (the actual arrangement is not that important ...). (3) Now close the Java Perspective. (4) Open the Java Perspective again. One expects the same arrangement one has meticiously set up in (2) -- but is confronted with some "default" setup. BTW, the same behavior happens with the other perspectives too ... Also, when one opens the application one should be presented with one's last arrangement. Even if the current arrangement cannot be saved every time before one closes the Perspective one should at _least_ be able to define an "arrangement template" aka. "arrangement snapshot". Sebastian Davids
perspective layout saving is done in the Platform UI - moving
Perspective changes are made "permanent" when it is explicitly saved. (Perspective->Save As). You can either pick a new name or redefine an existing perspective.
I think most people would expect this "auto-save" ... most other applications do it. The only reason I can think of for not auto-saving the view-arrangement (perspective) is something along the line "Well, I've turned Eclipse into a whole mess ... now let's just restart to get back to the state before I started ..." How to "auto-save"? (non-exclusive options): a) Eclipse could archive all explicitly saved perspectives, and append the autosaved ones with "(Auto-Save)". Example: I start Eclipse, arrange my views and explicitly save the "Java" perspective. Then I change the arrangement and close the perspective. Now, I reopen the perspective and find the "mess" I left. "Workbench/Perspectives/Open" would presend "Java" to me (the one I manually saved) and "Workbench/Perspectives/Open/Other..." would show two "Java" items: Java Java (Auto-Save) Well, the user should be prevented to manually save perspectives under "XXX (Auto-Save)" though ... b) Or there could be a "Revert"-action on the perspectives menu -- it would revert to the arrangement the user manually saved. c) Have an option on the "Workbench/Preferences/Workbench/Perspectives" panel to turn auto-saving on/off, i.e. "Save perspective before close"
Since the capability to save the layout is already available there is going to be no action on this request. I would be interested in finding what data backs up your assertion that "most users expect ..." as the usability studies that we have run have not identified this aspect of the UI having serious usability problems.
Changing resolution to "Later" to better reflect the truth.
Sorry for the late answer ... I've been away for the holidays. First a "real-world" analogy: Imagine: You at work ... you've opened a few books to specific pages to be used as reference material ... you leave home ... returning the next morning, you find all books back on their shelf. Questioning your assistent why your stuff is not where you left it, he replies: "Well, you didn't explicitly tell me to leave them in their places, so I figured they should be returned to their shelves -- that's where you usually put them." Would you either say "OK, next time I will *explicitly* tell you when they should be left alone." or rather "In the future leave them where they are, unless I tell you to put them back at their customary place."? Here are two book references, both are from 1995 but I don't think that Microsoft has changed there guidelines (concerning the particular behavior) in the meantime: _The Windows Interface Guidelines for Software Design_. Redmond: Microsoft. 1995. "[V]iew state information, such as [...] window size and location, should be preserved so it can be restored when an object's view is reopened." (20) "If the window has been opened previously, restore the window to its size and position when it was last closed." (104) Cooper, Alan. _About Face: The Essentials of User Interface Design_. Foster City: IDG Books Worldwide, Inc. 1995. "A program [...] would remember the settings the user specified from execution to execution. Simple things can make a big difference: The position of windows, particularly MDI children, should be remembered [...]" (187) "The way to determine what information the program should remember is with a simple axiom: If it is worth asking the user, it's worth the program remembering." (187) Sebastian Davids P.S.: Want does RESOLVED LATER mean in this context ... not considered for R2.0 ... will investigate later?
Reopen for investigation
This is a dup. but I could not find the other bug report about auto save perspectives.
*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 11757 ***
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discussion continues in bug 11757.
