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I20050509-2000 (M7 test pass) - In the help view, showing help for the Java editor (there are two collapsible sections: 'About Java Editor' and 'Dynamic Help') - Observation 1: collapsible sections can be collapsed/expanded using Arrow_Left/Right > I like this, as it is intuitive from the tree operations on many platforms (unfortunately not GTK, although many applications override that, e.g. mozilla) - Observation 2: Arrow_Up/Down can be used to navigate from one collapsible section to the next. This is kinda nice, but it is unexpected that Arrow_Down jumps further than Tab, which goes to the next element in the section. I would almost expect that Arrow_Up/Down don't work, as the help view tries to stick to the Browser metaphore. Or otherwise, I would expect that the arrow keys also work takes from inside a section. - Obervation 3: Pressing Shift+Tab from the second section title takes me to the *first* element in the previous section. It should take me to the *last* element of the previous section.
Observation 1: We tried to make the behaviour similar to the tree widget. When several sections are used, it feels natural to expand using left/right and travel between nodes using up/down arrow keys Observation 2: up/down behaviour has been added to allow quick jump to the next section when there are several. This only works when the focus is on the toggle. When the focus is elsewhere in side the section, it will work as in a regular browser i.e. scroll the page up/down one row if the vertical scroll bar is visible. Similarly, left/right arrow key will scroll horizontally when the focus is not on the section toggle. While the browser metaphor is sensible, the sections are tightly integrated into the workbench, so some degree of workbench keyboard behaviour is useful. We know about the focus direction issue. At the moment we have a limitation of not knowing how a focus event has been generated. Since we don't know whether focus was transfered to the section using Tab or Shift-Tab, we cannot compute the direction (which would allow us to transfer focus to the last instead of first child). I will leave this defect opened to look at the third issue after 3.1.
Your points are all valid. I believe the main thing that feels uncomfortable to me is that 'tab' jumps less far than 'arrow_down'. In my perception, 'arrow_down' is a 'lighter' key than 'tab'... Or, with other words, both the browser and the workbench keyboard behaviors are valid, but mixing them does not necessarily give good/intuitive results. Minor, I guess.
I think this is worse now in Eclipse 3.2.2. Trying to navigate the Help window with the arrow keys (on Windows XP) results in massive scrolling of the tree view (if you have enough topics expanded to warrant a scrollbar) and is pretty much unusable as it can scroll the selected topic completely out of view simply by pressing the down arrow. I also like the ability to navigate as a tree viewer using the arrow keys but I don't think it is very usable the way it is now. Should I file this as a new bug? This one seems pretty generic and covers it - but it may be better to have a more specific bug.
Mark, see bug 165551. This bug is for the help view, not the help window (different implementations). Chris rewrote the toc view in 3.3 and it's way better than in 3.2.2. Have a look.
Aha! Sweet - thanks.
There is now one section in the related topics section and it is not collapsible, The navigation issues with expansion of sections no longer exist.
