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Bug 84842 - Debugger Console OW tab should not force visibility
Summary: Debugger Console OW tab should not force visibility
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: platform
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Output Window (show other bugs)
Version: 6.x
Hardware: All All
: P3 blocker (vote)
Assignee: t_h
URL:
Keywords: UI
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2006-09-13 21:56 UTC by Jesse Glick
Modified: 2009-02-19 22:53 UTC (History)
4 users (show)

See Also:
Issue Type: DEFECT
Exception Reporter:


Attachments

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Description Jesse Glick 2006-09-13 21:56:12 UTC
If you have the OW set to sliding mode, then the Ant module in "show only when
needed" mode will avoid sliding it into view unless something interesting
happens: a hyperlink is printed, etc. But when running the debugger, the
Debugger Console window seems to always request visibility, causing the OW to
slide in even when nothing of interest is happening (the debugger is just
starting up, which I can see plainly from the various debugger windows opening).
This is annoying.

Better would be to request focus only on the first occasion in a given debugger
session when something unusual is printed to the Debugger Console window, e.g. a
breakpoint is hit, if such a case happens at all.
Comment 1 Roman Ondruska 2007-07-16 16:15:19 UTC
Should be considered from the usability point of view, but it is too late for NB 6 (after UI freeze). 
Comment 2 valeredejardin 2007-11-21 13:45:41 UTC
This bug is particullary annoying. Each time I add/remove a breakpoint the debugger console steals the focus. It is the
kind of bug that could stress a new user.
Maybe too late for NB6 but a patch a little later, but a patch soon after the release would be very nice.
Comment 3 Martin Entlicher 2007-11-21 15:13:35 UTC
The Debugger Console does not move the focus for me.
It's activated only when some error message is printed (e.g. the breakpoint can not be submitted). It's usually
important for the user to see this message.
Comment 4 galewolf 2007-12-14 23:24:36 UTC
This issue appeared over a year ago in this usability report: http://ui.netbeans.org/usability/debugger_Sep_06/report.html

This issue appears as DB-19 in the report.

The debugger console provides no useful information for debugging, and it always obscures the actual program output from
the debug run.  The program output is the only thing I need to see most of the time, so obscuring it is very annoying. 
Every single time I run a debug, I have to close the debugger console in order to see what happened!

Comment 5 _ gtzabari 2008-02-03 09:24:00 UTC
I second galewolf's motion. I have found the existing behavior to be extremely annoying for years now. The only reason I
didn't file an issue sooner is because there were more critical bugs to deal with, such as the entire debugger session
crashing.

In my view this issue should be a P2 due to the annoying nature of the bug and due to the fact that an independent
usability report confirms that we are not the only ones running into this problem. Please consider setting target
milestone to 6.1.

BTW: I've been using Netbeans heavily since version 3.0 and I have never needed to use the Debugger Console. I'd be
surprised if anyone except the actual developers of the Netbeans debugger use it. I believe the same goes for bug 69287.
Comment 6 _ gtzabari 2008-02-03 09:49:42 UTC
To clarify, I believe there are three separate issues being discussed here:

1) Windows/tabs should only grab focus when they are first created. Under no circumstance (that I can think of) should
we steal focus away from the user while he is busy somewhere else. This is the original issue brought up by jglick. I
personally consider this a P2.

2) Output Window should get focus by default instead of Debugger Console at the beginning of a debugging session. I
consider this to be a P3.

3) Consider removing these tabs altogether. I personally consider this a P4.
Comment 7 _ gtzabari 2008-03-24 13:35:11 UTC
Guys, is it possible to reassign this to the openide module (or some other more general module) for UI evaluation as
soon as possible? I'd really like to get some movement on it for an upcoming release or at least know what the target
milestone is.

- This issue is (partially) related to issue 103190.
- Another internal tab that should probably be hidden is the SVN/CVS tab that opens up if the editor contains a diff
bar. This is yet another example of a tab that is useful for debugging Netbeans itself, not the application being worked
on, and it gets in the way by grabbing focus when it shouldn't.
Comment 8 Jesse Glick 2008-03-24 17:41:03 UTC
I think this is in the appropriate component already.
Comment 9 Martin Entlicher 2008-03-25 09:11:35 UTC
The problem should be fixed now, Debugger Console is made visible only when there's anything important printed out.
changeset:   75275:16a569435c31
http://hg.netbeans.org/main/rev/16a569435c31
Comment 10 _ gtzabari 2008-04-04 20:55:58 UTC
Reopening. I've just tested this in dev build 200804041203 and the debugger console still took focus with the following
contents:

Listening on 51228
User program running
LineBreakpoint MethodTreeVisitor.java : 1071 successfully submitted.
LineBreakpoint MethodTreeVisitor.java : 987 successfully submitted.
Breakpoint hit at line 1071 in class nana.bytecode.visitor.MethodTreeVisitor by thread main.
Thread main stopped at MethodTreeVisitor.java:1071.

I don't see anything there that requires my attention (I can already see the breakpoint in the editor window). There
also seems to be some sort of race condition at play because sometimes the console steals the focus for the above
messages, while other times it does not (50% repro rate).

Perhaps there was a misunderstanding... mentlicher can you please comment on which messages trigger focus requests?
Comment 11 Martin Entlicher 2008-09-15 14:48:43 UTC
There does not seem to be anything that makes the Debugger Console active, but sometimes it is activated.
It seems to be random.
Comment 12 Martin Entlicher 2008-09-15 15:27:45 UTC
Unfixable in debugger, a bug of core.output2 module.

Controller.createOutputTab() gets the value of "activateContainer" from io.isFocusTaken(), which is "false" correctly.
But createOutputTab() ignores this value and calls  "win.setSelectedTab(result);"
Comment 13 t_h 2009-01-06 16:13:11 UTC
45ba4a121d85
Comment 14 Quality Engineering 2009-01-07 05:37:15 UTC
Integrated into 'main-golden', will be available in build *200901070201* on http://bits.netbeans.org/dev/nightly/ (upload may still be in progress)
Changeset: http://hg.netbeans.org/main/rev/45ba4a121d85
User: Tomas Holy <t_h@netbeans.org>
Log: #84842: OW tab should not be selected on creation