Re: XCode usable?
Re: XCode usable?
- Subject: Re: XCode usable?
- From: Thomas Dibble <email@hidden>
- Date: Tue, 4 Nov 2003 11:29:08 -0800
On Nov 4, 2003, at 10:22 AM, Scott Tooker wrote:
> On Nov 4, 2003, at 4:19 AM, Dix Lorenz wrote:
>
>> It used to be very easy to add a flag in a build-style, just click on
>> the "=" and it turns to "+=". Maybe not obvious, but once you knew
>> about it, very easy, efficient and crystal-clear. Now it needs text
>> that says I have to use "$(value)". I don't see the progress. Plus, I
>> assume it is supposed to be (for example) "$(OTHER_CFLAGS)" and it not
>> really obvious, what I should put there for "Other linker flags". Just
>> an example, I don't need it right now.
>
> Actually it really is supposed to be just '$(value)'. It represents the
> value of the build setting on the "previous level" (i.e. for a build
> style, $(value) will point to the build settings value in the target.
> We went to this model since we have gotten requests to be able to
> prepend or both prepend and append (which the += just couldn't do).
>
But, before, other than having to know the actual name of the build
setting you were changing, the same functionality existed (prepend or
append or both).
If you wanted to append, you could:
1) use the += OR
2) put ${MY_BUILD_SETTING_NAME} in the front of the value (which might
require looking in the documentation or might be an obvious first-try
for UNIX programmers).
If you were prepending or wrapping the old value, you could just put
the ${MY_BUILD_SETTING_NAME} at the end or in the middle of your value.
Now, if you want to append (the most common case) you have to look in
the documentation and find that you can either put "$(value)" or
"${MY_BUILD_SETTING_NAME}" (if you know the latter) at the beginning.
Prepending or wrapping the setting still requires looking in the
documentation as before, except that now you can use $(value) instead.
Functionality: No change.
Usability: discoverability lost for the most common IMHO case, some
usability added for all cases (not needing to know the build setting
name).
Most common case? IMHO, it is the most common case that the developer
is either just adding flags on to the line (-f* or -W*, etc) where they
don't care if the value is being prepended or appended or added in the
middle somehow, or is completely overriding the value (-O*, for
example). Cases where order is important (header search path, for
example) tend to be less common in my experience.
I see no reason why the old "+=" method wouldn't work today just as
well as it did in Project Builder, unless there was a consensus that
for some reason it *wasn't* working in PB (ie, leading people to think
that they could ONLY append).
IMHO, the current usage leads people to believe that either they can
ONLY override or that by setting the value XCode is smart enough to
know when to append and when to override, unless by chance they both
read the bit of documentation about $(value) and remembered that bit of
trivia when setting up their projects. Confusing the user or leading
the user to incorrect conclusions is never good UI.
Again, IMHO, we have sacrificed usability for no obvious reason. I
vote for putting it back in the next version, if it can be.
---- Tom Dibble
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