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User problem: ----------------------------------- The property sheet concept does not work very well as intuitive user interface. For many parts, a dedicated, rich UI is much more usable and intuitive. User need: ----------------------------------- The user needs to be able to quickly and easily change options, or settings in the IDE. Product requirement: ----------------------------------- For the main portion of user interface, design and implement custom, rich user interface that increases the usability of those parts.
This needs to be done with care - in other words, the dialogs that replace property sheet usage need to be carefully designed and scoped. My reasoning: One of the things I liked about NetBeans when I first saw it was the fact that a common object-and-properties model was used pervasively. You may just think that makes me a geek, but hear me out: One of the things I tremendously disliked in Delphi was configuring a project. The main reason was that I did not do it very often, but when I wanted to, I was presented with a huge tabbed dialog with tons of options, and I didn't reconfigure it often enough to learn where things were - so every time it was difficult. Had Delphi used a property-sheet metaphor, I would have had no problem locating what I needed. The problem was many panels with different designs for similar functions. So we need to take into consideration that, while property sheets are less intuitive, there is only one UI to learn, and it is learnable. In replacing the property sheet, we should also reduce the number of options exposed, down to those that are truly useful. Otherwise we will have just replaced one UI problem with another, equally bad one.
Already more specific items open for e.g. Options.