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Bug 175546 - [68cat] Revert default for modified & r/o display
Summary: [68cat] Revert default for modified & r/o display
Status: REOPENED
Alias: None
Product: platform
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Text (show other bugs)
Version: 6.x
Hardware: All All
: P2 blocker with 4 votes (vote)
Assignee: issues@editor
URL:
Keywords: UI
Depends on:
Blocks: 47290
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Reported: 2009-10-27 19:37 UTC by matthies
Modified: 2010-01-12 05:21 UTC (History)
5 users (show)

See Also:
Issue Type: TASK
Exception Reporter:


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Description matthies 2009-10-27 19:37:24 UTC
Files modified in-memory now have their editor label bolded in 6.8.
Please bring back the old asterisk "highlighting", at least as an option.
Using an asterisk to mark modified files in an editor is a well-established convention that many are used to and find 
preferable. It's less visually striking, takes up less space (depending on the font) and has a more specific 
established meaning compared to boldface.
Comment 1 Petr Dvorak 2009-10-27 23:13:08 UTC
> at least as an option.

No, asterisk should be there by default - it is standard in all text editors from gedit/mousepad to Eclipse IDE, for
example... This is a huge usability bug. It is not a question of reasoning about what is better and why - this has to be
done this way (with asterisk) by convention...
Comment 2 Jan Lahoda 2009-10-27 23:32:10 UTC
Platform is the correct component in this case. See issue #171428 and:
http://hg.netbeans.org/main-silver/rev/fb38741d5a80
Comment 3 Jesse Glick 2009-10-27 23:49:18 UTC
Use of boldface & italics is intentionally the default in 6.8. -J-Dnb.tabnames.html=false can be used to revert to the
6.7 behavior. Please do not reopen; use mailing lists if you wish to comment.
Comment 4 Petr Dvorak 2009-10-29 11:55:22 UTC
... I am tempted to reopen this but... no... I will not start conflicts:). From the brief discussion in the office:

- even a digital cameras use asterisk for the tabs in settings to indicate something changed
- boldface would be great... if used to indicate selected tab (on Windows, it is quite hard to distinguish selected tab,
as there are many colors due to versioning, etc.)
- boldface does not save too much space compared to '*' char

Again - asterisk has to be there by convention... Not that I don't believe we start a new standard of marking modified
files...
Comment 5 Petr Dvorak 2009-12-16 11:31:33 UTC
See http://forums.netbeans.org/topic21096.html - please reconsider the default settings for IDE.
Comment 6 Jesse Glick 2009-12-16 12:02:20 UTC
It was agreed to try bold/italic in 6.8 with the understanding that some people would be unhappy with the change. Bugzilla is an inappropriate forum for making subjective decisions; any changes to default behavior will be made or not made regardless of the issue tracker, so again please talk to the appropriate people directly. A TASK can be filed to implement any final decision which is made.
Comment 7 Petr Dvorak 2009-12-16 12:36:46 UTC
1. What part of the issue is subjective? As I said - not using asterisk is a usability bug. Therefore, I think bugzilla is a good place for this.

2. Ondra Langr was cc'd (now he is is assigned) to the issue, which is just correct - he is the right person to read this and make the decision. Therefore, what I was doing by reopening this was to make sure that he has got a ticket for this.

3. I would like to see the report is closed by Ondra, as he is someone who is responsible for making this kind of decisions.

4. All this report now asks is to switch the default to what is considered standard elsewhere.

OK, I won't reopen this - maybe someone from the outside world will do it.
Comment 8 _ alexlamsl 2009-12-16 16:38:27 UTC
Just want to express the opinion that after using it for quite a while, it is getting pretty annoying in that the visual difference is not as clear as an extra asterisk appended to the end of the file.

I am using Windows 7 on JavaSE 6 update 17, if that helps.