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Re: [platform-ui-dev] Proposal to rename Project menu to Workbench


See RG>


"Dan Kehn" <kehn@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent by: platform-ui-dev-admin@xxxxxxxxxxx

12/06/01 04:41 PM
Please respond to platform-ui-dev

       
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        Subject:        Re: [platform-ui-dev] Proposal to rename Project menu to Workbench


FWIW, I'm concerned about the generalization of the Project menu.  The
VA/Smalltalk and VA/Java products had a general pulldown ("Tools") that
quickly became the dumping ground for every menu item that needed a home.
I'd prefer to create more top-level menu pulldowns that push them together.


RG> Wasn't the main reason items were added under "Tools" because that's the only place the api would allow it?
Our API's allow additions virtually anywhere including new top level menus. The user can also selectivly remove action sets if some contribution is not useful.

I don't see a big conceptual problem with "Build" and "Build All", since
they do in fact apply against one or more projects.  


RG> The conceptual problem is that those two actions always apply to the workbench (_all_ projects), regardless of your current selection.

The "Open Type" is an
instance that is less easily explained, and might be better relocated to
File (above New) under the submenu Open ("Open > Type...").  This gives you
a centralization based more on the action than a vague object (i.e.,
"Workbench" is basically synonomous with "YourWorld").


RG> Interesting idea, currently we have goto resource dialog in the navigator which could very easily be used for an Open Resource dialog as well. File>Open is pretty standard for an IDE.

Perhaps this problem really stems from the mixture of action-based
pulldowns (File, Edit) and object-based pulldowns (Project), but we're kind
of stuck with it.  In a more OO approach, File would be renamed to
Workbench (or Workspace), since it is the conceptual anchorpoint.  


RG> At least half of the current File menu is object based while none of the current Project menu is object based. Having File as the first menu item is a standard I would not want to break.

That
also resolves the question of search scope since "Workspace > Search..."
and "Project > Search..." is not ambigious.  Since I believe in
multilayered UIs, I would nonetheless include two radiobuttons ("Search
projects only" and "Search entire workspace" or similar wording) or
checkbox in the Search dialog that allows either type of search from either
choice location, the principal difference being its initial selection
state.

RG> The intial scope state of the search dialog reflects the current selection but can be changed. It would not be good to have multiple menu items in the menubar opening the same dialog.

Dan

PS: Parting comment on Preferences.  I always thought it was odd to find it
under "Window" of all places.  In the above scheme, it would move under the
pulldown formally known as File, since it has a global scope.



                                                                                                                     
                   Randy_Giffen@xxxxxxx                                                                              
                   Sent by:                      To:     platform-ui-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx                                  
                   platform-ui-dev-admin@e       cc:                                                                  
                   clipse.org                    Subject:     [platform-ui-dev] Proposal to rename Project menu to    
                                                  Workbench                                                          
                                                                                                                     
                   12/06/2001 02:52 PM                                                                                
                   Please respond to                                                                                  
                   platform-ui-dev                                                                                    
                                                                                                                     
                                                                                                                     




Voting will end on Monday Dec 10th.



                                                                         
  Nick Edgar                                                            
                         To:        Randy Giffen/OTT/OTI@OTI            
                         cc:                                            
  12/06/01 02:44         Subject:        [platform-ui-dev] Proposal to  
  PM             rename Project menu to Workbench                        
                                                                         




Please specify a vote end date.  I suggest next Monday so we can get the
change in for Tuesday's build.

----- Forwarded by Nick Edgar/OTT/OTI on 12/06/01 02:50 PM -----
                                                                         
  Randy_Giffen@xxxxxxx                                                  
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  lipse.org                        cc:                                  
                                   Subject:        [platform-ui-dev]    
                           Proposal to rename Project menu to Workbench  
  12/06/01 01:42 PM                                                      
  Please respond to                                                      
  platform-ui-dev                                                        
                                                                         




This is a request for committers to vote.

The workbench menubar currently contains a "Project" menu.
The proposal is to rename this to "Workbench"

The menu items currently contributed to this menu by the ui ("Build" and
"Rebuild All") and jdt ("Open Type") are not scoped to a single project but
rather to all projects in the workspace. This is leading to user confusion.


With the rename to Workbench, menu items such as Search and Preferences can
move to this menu.

Workbench is preferred over Workspace or Projects as items in the menu may
have a scope beyond the workspace (ex. Search scoped to help
documentation).

Workbench is not a new concept and already appears in the ui (ex.
Window>Open Workbench).

Theoretically, some plug-in actions contributed to the Project menu may be
scoped to the selected project. The scope of these actions will be less
apparent to the user after this change. However, there are currently no
known cases of such actions (in SDK or Websphere).

Of course we are just changing the menu label, the menu id will not change
(in fact the menu id for the Project menu is "workbench")




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