[platform-help-dev] re: Eclipse help system requirements

[Greg_Adams@xxxxxxx]

Kari,
Thanks for taking the time to enumerate some of the user interface issues/requests you see. Below are some follow on questions I have.  Search for <greg>.  Apologies in my delay of replying.

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For Eclipse 2.0, the IBM ID community has put forward the
following help system affordance requirements.

1. Require at least the affordances used in Eclipse V1.0
   - TOC rendering:
     - Level 1 nodes affordance (v1 called them infosets,
       and showed them in a drop-down list)
     - Level 2 nodes affordance (v1 called them infoviews,
       and showed them as tabs on the nav frame) *** NOTE:
       The ability to display different views of the navigation
       is critical.
     - Level 3+ nodes in nav tree (topics, shown in tree;
       Level 3 nodes served as search filters)

   - Printing:
     - individual topics
     - topic trees
   - Synchronization
   - Show/Hide navigation
   - Forward/Back
   - Search advanced options (search headings; search filtering)

2. Additional new requirements
   - TOC rendering:
     - Expand/collapse all for nav tree
<greg>
Can you elaborate on expand/collapse all in terms of the users actions.
</greg>

     - Bookmarking topics


   - Search:
     - Ability to specify case sensitivity
     - Search hits return <h1> from content file, not
       navigation label
   - Infopops:
     - A visual cue on UIs that there is context-sensitive
       help available
<greg>
This one is actually not part of the help system. It's provided by the platform ui itself. 
Can I encourage you to post your design suggestion to their mailing list. When you...can I persuade you to also include any pictures/drawings  showing visualizations that you might recommend. I am sure they would be interested in the input.
</greg>

     - higher/lower context sensitivity on infopops
       (e.g., an arrow on an infopop for a field that will
       take you to the wizard's infopop)

<greg>
 I think I know what you mean here but can you elaborate.
FYI - currently the F1 support generates/supports nested contexts. Unfortunately these have been identified as a real source of confusion and annoyance. In 2.0 the plan is for a more static F1 context id, although there are some thoughts a couple of us have had offline about extensible references which we'll post when I can find a few seconds.
</greg>


Kari Halsted
User Assistance PDT
IBM Canada - Toronto Software Lab
(905) 413-3331 / tl 969-3331 / D3-238

The more I want to get something done, the less I call it work.
                   - Richard Bach