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[platform-ant-dev] feedback
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Since I know that the Ant team will be working on the AntView next week
I thought I dump the experiences I made after switching to the AntView.
General:
I really like the AntView and the way I can now work with my
scripts. Having said this, I also think that the AntView has some
advanced features that can get in the way for simple tasks.
Issues:
* Running a single target:
My most common task is to run a single Ant target.
* to run a single target I have to:
1: double click the target
2: execute Run from either the context menu
I would like to run a target by just double clicking it
(or by selecting it and executing Run)
* I cannot easily run the default target from a script.
I would like to just double click the script to run its
default target.
Problems in the current UI:
- the only way to set a target selection is by double clicking
(or pressing enter).
There is no corresponding menu action. Hence it isn't obvious
how to select a target.
- when there is no target selected by double clicking and you
execute
Run you get an error dialog:
"No target selected". This is confusing since I had a
target selected but I hadn't double clicked it.
Since the error message doesn't give me any advise on how to
fix the problem,
the Run action could have been just disabled.
- there is a Clear Selection action. However, this action doesn't
clear the
selection it clears the double clicked targets
The main contributor for the complexity here is the support to run
more than one target at the same time. Having support to run more
than one target is interesting, but it shouldn't make my common task
more complex.
I wonder why a user doesn't define an additional target in
a script when there is the desire to run more than one target at
once.
Just thinking, the UI could actually provide a create target
action based on the currently selected targets.
* Support for defining the run order - numbering scheme behind targets:
given that my common scenario is to call a single Ant target, the
ordering feature is too prominent in the UI.
Here are the issues I ran into:
* selecting a target can make it jump in the view since
the sorting is based on the display string build.jar[1]
and not the model string (this is just an implementation bug)
* you can create questionable build orders, e,g build[1], init[2]
where inside the script build depends on init.
The script is run in properly but the UI shows me
an incorrect state.
If this feature is required then it should not get in the way for
the
common case.
* redundancy/properties as child nodes:
the build order is now shown multiple times, when selecting a target
all the dependent targets get a star. I can also see the build order
as children of the target.
The idea to show the properties (Target Execution Order, Target
Dependencies ) of a target in child nodes
of the tree is nice. However, I'm rarely interested in
these properties and therefore having them reified as child
nodes gets in my way and I have to manage a larger
tree than I'd like (I just can't resist clicking these pluses...).
Isn't it sufficient to show these target properties in
a property dialog? Then the user can request them
when needed and they are not that prominent in the UI.
* build script names
my build scripts have mixed names: exportplugin.xml and build.xml
I cannot set-up the view so that I can work on both script families
at the
same time.
The script name filter is currently hidden in the
preference pages and this is too hidden.
Some nits:
* the rendering of the default target with the string "(default)" is
ugly, suggest to use a different
icon for the default target.
* the current icons are really heavy (lots of pixels and imagery) this
makes the
view look noisy. Both the script and target icons should be simpler.
Suggest a simple
file icon for the script, and just <> for targets where the default
target is
emphasized with a heavier, bold <>.
--erich
