Re: [platform-ui-dev] A very minor usability issue

[Bob Foster <bob@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Phlip wrote:

> Eclipsters:
>
> This is a question about usability requirements for
> Eclipse.
>
> How the hell do I open a file?
>
> I have worked with many editors over two decades, and
> find the lack of a File -> Open menu item
> inconceivable. I am aghast that even work-arounds,
> such as adding pre-existing files to a project, don't
> seem to exist.
>
> Has anyone else noticed this problem? If the answer is
> indeed buried in a manual somewhere ... then why is
> the rest of the GUI so slick and this feature so perverse?

Yes, of course. This is a FAQ. Who can fathom why there is no File Open 
command? It seems as obvious as daylight to those who have used non-IBM 
IDEs, but that's an ingrown culture for you.

There is an Open External file command in 3.0 from M7 onwards, so, even 
though it took them three years to react to it, the Eclipse folks aren't 
completely oblivious to this shortcoming. However, it is implemented in 
such a way that third-party plug-ins have to be changed to support it.

There are a couple of good plug-ins that add this capability to pre-3.0 
Eclipse. I like the one named 'filedrag' which is floating around 
somewhere on SourceForge. There is another named 'fileopen'.

Bob Foster
http://xmlbuddy.com/