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Bug 65601 - [50cat] Crowded/Unorganized Window and Tool menu
Summary: [50cat] Crowded/Unorganized Window and Tool menu
Status: VERIFIED WONTFIX
Alias: None
Product: platform
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Window System (show other bugs)
Version: 5.x
Hardware: All All
: P3 blocker (vote)
Assignee: David Simonek
URL:
Keywords: UMBRELLA
Depends on: 66336
Blocks:
  Show dependency tree
 
Reported: 2005-10-01 14:16 UTC by host
Modified: 2008-12-22 21:43 UTC (History)
5 users (show)

See Also:
Issue Type: DEFECT
Exception Reporter:


Attachments
Tools window (34.87 KB, image/jpeg)
2005-10-02 17:27 UTC, host
Details
Standard Tools menu in 5.0 Beta. (8.51 KB, image/png)
2005-10-02 17:46 UTC, Jan Chalupa
Details
Patch that augments menu items with FQN of the action corresponding action (does not work for all actions). (808 bytes, patch)
2005-10-05 16:43 UTC, Jan Lahoda
Details | Diff

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Description host 2005-10-01 14:16:55 UTC
(At least) if you have a lot of modules installed, the Window menu is quite
crowded. By that I mean that there are a lot of entries and those are not sorted
too well and not divided into groups by delimiters. In essence, there should be
more logical grouping of realted functionality to make accessing the
functionality more intuitive and hence faster.

...and looking at the Tools menu, I basically think the same. How about putting
all the managers there (i.e. Java Platform Manager, Server Manager, Library
Manager, etc.) under one common Tools submenu (obviously) named Managers? ...and
the same with the databases (i.e. Derby, Pointbase etc.) also?
Comment 1 Jan Chalupa 2005-10-02 17:04:26 UTC
Re: "if you have a lot of modules installed..." and that's the problem. NetBeans
has an extensible modular architecture. On one hand, that's good because users
can install additional functionality as they need. On the other hand, it also
has its drawbacks as additional modules that don't behave as good citizens in
the IDE may pollute the UI or interfere with existing functionality.

Both the Window and (especially) Tools menus have been cleaned up and simplified
in NB 5.0. Many actions have been moved to the new Go To and Source menus to
make the structure of menus more logical. More improvements are probably
possible, but the standard NB 5.0 IDE menus are quite polished at the moment.

However, if you're using any Beta/Aplha quality modules from the update centers,
then it  may be a different story. If thats the case, specific bugs should be
filed against those modules. It would also help if you could provide screenshots
of menus that you call Crowded/Unorganized. Thanks.
Comment 2 host 2005-10-02 17:27:27 UTC
Created attachment 25405 [details]
Tools window
Comment 3 host 2005-10-02 17:42:55 UTC
Comment to the "Tools window" attachement:

All the different "Manager" entries (e.g. "Java Platform Manager", "NetBeans
Platform", "Server Manager" etc.) could be grouped together under a submenu
"Managers" (e.g. "Java Platforms", "NetBeans Platforms", "Server Manager", etc.)
I guess the above are all core menu entries and not from later installed modules
but they could already be nicely grouped.

And for external modules can you provide guidelines that they have to follow
where entries in the menu appear? Two examples: 1) The Profiling menu entries
("Select Profiling XYZ..." and "Add as Profiling XYZ...") should be put together
under the common "Profile" subentry. 2) The "Derby Database" and "Pointbase
Database" could be put under a common "Databases" submenu entry.
Should I file bug entries for the two databases and the profiler, if I
understand your comment correctly?

Also why is the "Palette Customizer" entry pretty much on the bottom of the menu
and the "Add to Palette..." on the top and not together?

...and another small thing: Why are some entries indented in the menu and other
are not? It does not look consitent.
Comment 4 Jan Chalupa 2005-10-02 17:45:40 UTC
Hmm, I see. Pretty bad. Have you installed all modules available on all update
centers and the contrib site? :-)

FWIW, here's what the Tools menu is supposed to look like in the standard 5.0 IDE...
Comment 5 Jan Chalupa 2005-10-02 17:46:48 UTC
Created attachment 25406 [details]
Standard Tools menu in 5.0 Beta.
Comment 6 host 2005-10-02 17:52:13 UTC
Well, I can also see your point now! Your menu looks quite minimalistic compared
to mine... :-)

...but firstly: I think a lot of people will download a couple of modules from
the download center and hence run in the same trouble I do. Perhaps not as if
you install all modules, but still... ;-)

...and secondly: already in the regular menu the managers should be grouped
together. (I think at least.)
Comment 7 Jan Lahoda 2005-10-05 16:43:02 UTC
Created attachment 25566 [details]
Patch that augments menu items with FQN of the action corresponding action (does not work for all actions).
Comment 8 David Simonek 2005-10-06 11:20:35 UTC
Just to keep you informed: We (part of nbusability) concluded that individual
bugs should be filed against modules which put an icon into Tools menu, Tools
menu is designed to not contain any icon. Then alignment of Tools menu will be
just fine.

Re other complaints - we won't use submenus, it's proven from usability studies
that submenus makes discoverability and learnability harder. So Window and Tools
menu will stay long if there are many extra modules installed. We think it's
better then to have many submenus.

We also discussed the order and we feel current state is relatively OK. However
we will listen to users' voice furter and change order accordingly if needed.
Comment 9 host 2005-10-06 13:14:17 UTC
Ok, if usability experts say that submenus are not that good - well - they are
the experts and will know... But myself, colleagues I asked and (seemingly)
others on the NetCAT list don't fully subscribe to the this statement. What my
colleagues and I particularly did not like was the amount of managers and their
not being grouped together. "Why is the Module Manager not together with the
other managers?", "Why isn't there a specific menu for managers?" were two of
the questions I got back when I showed them the picture I also have attached to
this issue. So if there can be no submenu, please group the functionality at
least nicely together.
Comment 10 David Simonek 2005-10-10 14:42:18 UTC
Bug 66336 (its duplicate in reality) is fixed, which means that tools menu is
now aligned correctly and icons are gone. So this part was fixed.

Usability talks: Submenus - they are bad because they require extra click or key
press, which compromises usability. Also, users seem to have troubles
finding/exploring actions that are hidden in submenus. Having "Managers" submenu
or grouped is I think developer's point of view, which perfectly fits into
coding (group related things into class ect) but in UI design, having the word
"Manager" repeated six times in menu is OK.

Also, Module manager has quite different purpose then other managers, that's why
it is separated.

I'm closing this bug as wontfix, because part of original complaints was fixed,
but bigger part was found OK in current state.

If you still disagree in some specific point, please create new report
containing only that specific complaint, thanks.
Comment 11 host 2006-01-17 09:30:43 UTC
verified (but I am not really happy with this...)