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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.

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

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.  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.

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                                                   
   Sent by:                         To:                                   
   platform-ui-dev-admin@ec platform-ui-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx                   
   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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