Re: Xcode usability (was Re: Where did the GDB drawer go?)
Re: Xcode usability (was Re: Where did the GDB drawer go?)
- Subject: Re: Xcode usability (was Re: Where did the GDB drawer go?)
- From: Steve Bennett <email@hidden>
- Date: Mon, 09 Aug 2004 11:25:50 -0400
Dietmar Planitzer wrote:
> ...
> The real problem for me is that Xcode claims on one side that it would
> support a single window mode, but on the other side it tries very hard
> to force multiple windows down my throat. Now with 1.5 a single window
> mode effectively no longer exists because of the way how the build and
> find panels work.
>
> Actually I think that the PB 2.0 UI got the single window mode exactly
> right. Its single window mode really allowed you to do everything in
> just one single window: editing code, fixing build problems, debugging,
> doing project wide search & replace, project management, configuring
> build and executable options - everything could be done in just one
> single window.
>
> The big advantage of PB 2.0 over Xcode was that it showed the
> information you needed at exactly the time when you needed it and it
> was very easy - just a single click - to get rid of the stuff you no
> longer cared about. This was possible because of the sliding tab views.
> I know that some people didn't like them because of the sliding
> animation, but this problem could have been easily fixed by offering a
> preferences setting to turn the animation on / off.
>
I agree completely -- the PB 2.x single window interface was probably the
closest thing I've found to an ideal IDE user interface. And I really loved
those sliding tab views -- the animation wasn't important to me, but the
idea that with one click, the proper pane would appear, and (a key feature)
in the size I last left it, was ideal. I could set up my project window
with the sizes I wanted and then everything would be at my fingertips.
XCode was a huge step backwards in usability to me. I've gotten sort of
used to it, but it's still nowhere close to as usable as PB was.
I suspect the main reason we don't have a PB style UI as an option was the
non-standard nature of those sliding tab split-view controls. I think one
of the XCode design goals was to eliminate all non-standard controls, except
for the text editor. Personally, I'd have preferred using a standard (and
much less quirky) editor, and retain the non-standard sliding tabs... <sigh>
Or better yet, make those sliding tabbed split-views a standard control.
I've wanted to use something like that in a number of applications.
Meantime, I suppose if everyone wanting a PB-style UI in XCode filed a
feature request, they *might* consider it for the next major revision of
XCode.
-->Steve Bennett
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