[platform-ui-dev] Release Notes: Perspective Functionality

[David_Springgay@xxxxxxx]

Release Notes

In order to address a number of common problems encountered by novice
users, the default behavior of some perspective actions has been modified.

1) The default behavior for "Open Perspective" has been changed from "open
in current window" to "open in new window".  This was done to clarify the
separation between state in one perspective and another.

2) A perspective reuse strategy has been implemented in the workbench, and
is "on" by default.  If an object is opened once (using Open Perspective in
the Navigator), you get a new page (in implementation terms).  If the
object is opened again, and a page is already open for the same object, the
old page will be activated and the active perspective type will be changed.
This was done to avoid the creation of duplicate perspectives, unless the
user explicitly asks for it.  If two pages are needed on the same object,
you can now invoke Perspective > Clone to create a second page with the
same input and perspective type as where the action is invoked.   The
"reuse perspective" option can be turned off in the Workbench Preferences
page.

3) The contents of the Perspective > Open submenu are now determined using
a global "most recently used" list.  As you switch from one perspective to
another, the list is updated with the new perspective (and clipped at 7
items).  This was done to avoid the frustration which occurs when you
switch from one perspective to another, then can't get back to the first.
In order to avoid menu reordering, the items are sorted by perspective
name.

4) A drop down combo box has been added to the window toolbar, to change
the "perspective type" in a page.  For instance, if you switch from a
"resource perspective" to a "java perspective", the existing views and
editors in the page will be re-arranged to suit the new perspective.  This
makes it easy to switch between perspective types without losing the open
editors.