Option Dialog Redesign - General, Editor, Fonts & Colors, Java Code
Author: Ondrej Langr
$Id: index.html,v 1.4 2008/07/15 12:24:10 ondrej Exp $ (see full CVS history)
Table of Contents
Problem Description
This is not supposed to be overall Option Panel redesign. This document only aims to integrate Editor related advanced options with standard option dialog and redesign General, Editor, Fonts & Colors and Java Code panels. Remaining changes resulting from the integration of Advanced Options dialog are described here.
- Option Menu dialog UI specifications (2007-05, Josef Pavlicek)
- Options Dialog User View (2002, Jan Rojcek, Jaroslav Tulach, Chris LeDantec )
- Options Dialog Design View (2002, Jan Rojcek, Jaroslav Tulach)
Current State
Only categories important for this redesign are depicted in depth.
Symbols used:
* category has items or other categories inside
- item is to be removed
Options Dialog
General Editor |- General |- Indentation |- Code Templates | |- Java | |- Java Script | |- Ruby | |- SOA | |- XML | |- ... |- Macros Fonts&Colors |- Syntax | |- Language ( Java, JavaScript, HTML, ... ) |- Highlighting |- Annotations Java Code |- Formatting |- Hints |- Mark Occurences |- Tasklist Keymap Profiler Miscelanous UML
Specification
Editor Options from Advanced Options dialog
Below is a categorized union of all options available in Advanced Options | Options | Editing | Editor Settings | Expert section for all languages/editors present in NetBeans 'all-in-one' (as of build 070523). These options are categorized irrespectively of the language they are available for.
Options which should be discarded are denoted with "-", other options should be moved to Editor (or in some cases Fonts&Colors) panel in standard options.
Caret Behavior and Appearance Insertion Point -> keep. Overwrite Caret -> keep. - Insertion Point Blink Rate -> discard. Code Completion - Case Sensitive Code Completion -> discard, is already available among other Code Completion settings in Editor/General panel.. Code Completion Instant Substitution -> should be added among other Code Completion settings - Code Completion Natural Sort -> discard, unless we discover a usecase in need of this option - Show Deprecated Members in Code Completion -> discard, is already present among Code Completion settings Code Completion Lowercase Substitution (for HTML) -> should be present among other Code Completion options for HTML. Auto Popup Javadoc window Javadoc - Background Color of Javadoc Popup Window -> discard or move to Fonts & Colors if there is a reason why one could want to change it. - Javadoc Preffered Size -> discard Status Bar - Status Bar Caret Delay -> discard, technical thing noone is interested in. Status Bar Visible -> It should also be possible to change directly from the editor (contextual menu on editor gutter?) Highlighting - Highligt Caret Row -> discard, always on. Reason: does not work anyway (tested in Java, build 070523) - Highlight Matching Bracket -> discard, always on. Unless we discover a usecase in need of not higlighting the matching bracket. Maybe in HTML? Uncategorized - Code Folding Update Interval -> discard. Technical matter noone is interested in. Line Height Correction -> move to Editor Options -> advanced - Margin -> discard. Or is there some special reason why someone would like to set this? Pair Character Completion -> move to Editor options ? Scroll Find Insets -> TBD what does this do? ? Scroll Jump Insets -> TBD what does this do? Display Text Limit Line -> keep, move to Editor | Advanced Text Limit Character Count -> keep, move to Editor | Advanced
Visual Description
General Panel
Yes, this screen is a bit empty. But it should only contain important IDE settings many users are likely to be willin to change and we don't have that many of those.
Editor Panel
Editor | General
For Java, this panel comprises the functionality of the original General panel. For other languages, it should contain the same settings if applicable or/and other important settings for given language/editor. For Java, the new options in this dialog are: Code Completion Instant Substitution
Editor | Formatting | Java | Tabs and Indents
Formatting is, together with keybindings, probably the most often customized part of the IDE. Therefore, a decision may be made, to promote it to the option panel. In such a case, Tabs and Indents, Alignment and Braces and Wrapping implemented now as combo-box items should be implemented as tabs with the language choice within the tab and rest of the dialog for each item should remain as it is.
Because Formatting is only available for Java, Indentation setting should be displayed here for other languages.
Editor | Formatting | Java | Alignment and Braces
Note: The Alignment and Braces panel should be split into two panels as defined Mini UI Specification on Formatting !
Editor | Formatting | Java | Wrapping
When the following window is resized, the tabbed pane on the left should have fixed size (non-scalable) and Preview window should scale appropriately to fill in the rest of the available space.
Editor | Code Templates
Editor | Tasklist
Editor | Advanced
In the folowing screen, remaining options will be displayed. Example is shown for Java. For other languages, the options which were neither discarded nor moved elsewhere (see paragraph with Expert options) should be displayed here.
Note: Text Limit Character Count controls should be disabled if the Display Text Limit Line is unchecked.
Fonts & Colors Panel
Fonts & Colors -> Syntax
Keymap Panel
No changes
Profiler Panel
To be moved to Miscellaneous
UML Panel
Should UML pack have it's own node in Options?
Miscelanous Panel
Described in standalone document written by Josef Pavlicek.
Open Issues & Notes
- Language is not the best naming for the combobox considering what items we currently have in ..
- should we rename Fonts & Colors to Appearance?
- UML pack should not have it's own root option. If there are enough resources, options for UML should be redone for 6.0.
