[News.eclipse.technology.mylar] Re: Does anyone else find this annoying?

[Mik Kersten <beatmik@xxxxxxx>]

(finally catching up after the EclipseCon madness)

Thanks for the clarifications Del.  One thing I have now realized that I 
was probably unclear about in my post was what the Task-Focused UI is, 
because the view filtering is just one part of it.  I just added a FAQ 
entry explaining the other things it includes (e.g. change set 
management, content assist ranking):

http://wiki.eclipse.org/index.php/Mylar_FAQ#What_is_the_Task-Focused_UI.3F

It's perfectly normal to be using the Task-Focused UI features and not 
use the filtering in the Package Explorer.  In fact, we're about to make 
this easier by providing a Ctrl+O style in-place view that will pop up 
the task context.  However, keeping views like the Package Explorer in 
focused mode is very likely to stay as the default feature because it is 
the most commonly raved about feature of Mylar (even though it is the 
most 'disruptive').  Personally I have it on 98% of the time, with the 
2% being times that I want to see the entire hierarchical structure 
(e.g. API reviews or major refactorings).

But for 2.0 we need to make improvements to this support, because our 
efforts to improve the Tasks Framework have continued to keep attention 
away from improving the Context Framework and Focused UI.  If you could 
provide any suggestions on how to support your own usage of it better 
that would be great.  The corresponding expansion management request is:

173727: Option not to expand all interesting nodes in package explorer
https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=173727

Also see this old bug:

112235: [discussion] expose interest threshold filter
https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=112235

Mik

Del Myers wrote:
> I'm pretty sure that my problem comes from the fact that I leave the 
> "Toggle focused mode on navigator...." option checked in the 
> preferences. I left it on because I don't mind it setting the focus when 
> I switch tasks. My hunch at what is happening is this: when I start 
> Eclipse, or switch workspaces, and then open something with the package 
> explorer, Mylar notices that I have an active task (I didn't bother to 
> deactivate the task before the last time I exited Eclipse), thinks that 
> I "just" activated it, and then switches to a focused ui.
>
> But the annoyance outweighs the benefit, so I'm going to just turn off 
> the preference, and manually focus the ui when I want it. That isn't too 
> much to ask for my part.
>
> I'm not really sure that the fact that the trees expand in the package 
> explorer is a "bug", so-to-speak. I think it might stem from the fact 
> that I work outside of the focused UI a lot, and I navigate between a 
> lot of files all of the time which means that could easily have 20-50 
> editors open at any given time, making my contexts quite large.
>
> As for the kind of development I use Mylar for: I do research 
> programming at UVic (the CHISEL group). I'm the major developer of 
> TagSEA (you've probably talked to Peggy and Ian about it). The reason 
> that I don't find the focused UI useful, I think, is because most of my 
> development is new development, involving creating a lot of new classes 
> and packages. When organizing package names and creating new classes, 
> moving classes, etc., it is more effective for me to be able to see my 
> entire project all of the time because it gives me a visual cue as to 
> how the project is structured. I don't have a problem with scrollbars, 
> or clutter because I don't link the package explorer to my editors. I 
> guess when making new classes, etc., I'm less interested in "where what 
> I'm editing is" than I am in "where it should go".
>
> Thanks.
>
> Del
>
> Mik Kersten wrote:
> > The Focused UI can be uninstalled via Help -> Software Updates -> 
> > Manage Configuration.  Or the features one-by-one as instructed in the 
> > following FAQ entry.  The automation we have added (e.g. automatic 
> > toggling of Focused mode) is all the result of numerous requests from 
> > people who wanted it, but we have been careful to make sure that 
> > everything is optional:
> >
> > http://wiki.eclipse.org/index.php/Mylar_FAQ#Which_Focused_UI_features_can_I_turn_off.3F 
> >
> >
> > Regarding your particular case, you are definitely hitting a bug, and 
> > it's very likely due to a misconfiguration or a bad extension.  A view 
> > that does not have the interest filter should never expand itself the 
> > way you describe and I can only reproduce it by changing code.  Please 
> > file a bug with details on reproducing this.
> >
> > Regarding your not finding the Focused UI useful, it would be good to 
> > hear about the kind of development that you are using Mylar for.  For 
> > example, I know that some UBC CS TA's find the Focused UI useless for 
> > setting up and grading student assignments where they are dealing with 
> > a small number of small projects and switching workspaces frequently.  
> > One of them reported an issue similar to yours and I pointed him a the 
> > above FAQ entry and that resolved it.  We are targeting industry 
> > developers working with very large workspaces, so our current strategy 
> > is to support alternate uses by allowing Focused UI features to be 
> > disabled. If this is missing your use case in any way, or if there is 
> > anything that you would like to be able to disable but can't please 
> > consider filing a bug report.
> >
> > Mik
> >
> > Del Myers wrote:
> > > That subject line sounds more aggressive than I mean it to be, but it 
> > > was the simplest thing to say.
> > >
> > > Anyway,
> > >
> > > I work with Mylar a lot, and I really like it for task tracking.  
> > > Sometimes I like the focus to be toggled when I switch active tasks 
> > > because it helps me regain context so I keep the "Toggle focused mode 
> > > on navigator views when task activated" preference turned on. 
> > > However, I don't particularly like the focused ui. I don't think that 
> > > it helps me in my productivity. So, I turn it off most of the time.
> > >
> > > But, it seems, Mylar doesn't like me to have it turned off.  However 
> > > it seems that when I open Eclipse or switch workspaces, the focused 
> > > ui turns on as soon as I make any selection in my package explorer. 
> > > This causes the opposite effect of what the focused ui is intended 
> > > for: I loose context immediately, and my ui gets cluttered with a 
> > > million expanded folders.
> > >
> > > Does anyone else find that they have the same problem, and do they 
> > > find it annoying like I do? Is this a bug, or a "feature".
> > >
> > > Del