Re: Xcode workflow
Re: Xcode workflow
- Subject: Re: Xcode workflow
- From: Rick Mann <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 01 Apr 2011 14:07:47 -0700
On Apr 1, 2011, at 13:28 , G S wrote:
> Double-click on the file. It opens a separate window by default.
>
> Can we move on now?
No, and your suggestion exemplifies what's wrong with the current Xcode design thinking. It's not enough to just cause a new, generic "browser" window to open when you open a file. The file and the window need to be much more closely associated, such that the window configuration (position, shape, visible chrome, scroll position, font, colors, etc.) is determined both by the type of file (text file, nib file, etc.) and by specific settings for that specific file.
Once in place, that window shouldn't change except by an explicit user interaction on a control in the window, or a menu item. That is, if that window happens to be frontmost when the debugger hits a breakpoint, I don't want that window suddenly changing its configuration to show the stack crawl and local variables; I want the debugger window, wherever it is, to pop forward and adjust to the current breakpoint.
I'd go as far as to say that a window for a particular type of document (say, a text file being edited, as opposed to being debugged) should not *be* configurable into another type of window, even by explicit user action. With so much configurability (and with OS X's propensity to use the first click), it's far too easy to accidentally a tiny control when you didn't intend to.
Finally, these settings need to persist. If I close that window, quit Xcode, relaunch, and then double-click that file in the files list, I want a window with a configuration identical to the window I closed. If some other part of the UI shows the same document (say, the big monolithic Xcode window, because I selected the file without double-clicking it), it should not change the fact that the primary window associated with that file is the separate one I have open.
Your approach suggests a severe lack of understanding about what it means to "use separate windows," and what it is about having separate windows that makes them powerful. I fear the Xcode design team has fallen into a similar mode of thinking.
--
Rick
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