Interest in overhauling the IDE user interface?

I agree with everything, maybe not interested in new color themes and Window menu.

Code completion += intellisense would be excelent, a small popup with info and some refactoring tools, like rename a var.

Josh
sounds like great improvements really focused on the beginners experience. I wish you lots of success.
Best regards
Jantje

Josh,

You may be interested in taking a look at some of the previous discussions on the developers mailing list.

Several of your suggestions have been requested and discussed in various forums.

Here is a recent example of the direction the developers are headed: http://arduino.cc/pipermail/developers_arduino.cc/2012-June/006789.html

Josh,

If you could come up with some real usability improvements, then I'd be all for it, but things like 'smooth fonts', 'resize font keys', and 'nicer looking icons/toolbar/colour scheme' are just fluff. The IDE is a tool to do a job. Code completion can be useful, as can syntax highlighting, so that's where I would start.

...IDE is written in Java Swing...

The IDE seems to be a mixture of AWT, Processing and Swing. There also seems to be people who are "doing their own thing". I suggest you look at Google Code Archive - Long-term storage for Google Code Project Hosting. if you have not already, as this is where you find the existing issues list and the developers mailing list; archives of this list can be seen without logging in and is updated very soon after postings.

A major direction change seems to be suggested here: http://arduino.cc/pipermail/developers_arduino.cc/2012-August/007100.html

Stay interested :slight_smile:

Thanks for the feedback. I'm looking through existing issues to find ideas for improvements (which is where I found the request for a Windows menu).

Here is a first mockup of what it would look like. Hopefully the icons make sense. The right sidebar contains help so you can learn about the language, functions, and any installed libraries right from within the IDE.

looks like a winner to me

I seldom use the IDE but would be the first to agree that it has it's place, especially with a few enhancements.

Hopefully the icons make sense.

So the guy running is the fire escape for when your program crashes and burns?

I like having line numbers, this is brought up ALL the time and frankly having a single number at the bottom of the window somewhere doesn't cut it, so that's good.

The help has potential as well, as long as it finally has a proper list of return and variable types for all core functions at least (unlike the official reference pages).

One thing that really irks me and I've never heard mentioned is remembering the window size over invocations. Programs have been doing this for maybe 30 years and to have to resize the bloody window every time is very annoying.

As to what chance you have of getting this officially adopted, good luck with that :slight_smile:


Rob

does it really make any more since than arrows in different directs

right = compile up with a little dotted line means upload down with a little dotted line means save, that makes no since compile and save are local functions but have different icons, upload and save are external and internal but share icons

sorry I am a noob, wth? and where are the line numbers? heh

I am a UI expert and worked on the Swing team

Oh; an expert to grill...

  • Match native key bindings.

Is there an easy way to do that? I do miss it, but the way I read the descriptions of Swing (I am not at all a Java programmer, other than being able to write C code in Java), the rejection of the native UI behavior is considered a "feature."

The other thing that has frustrated me is the abstraction of the "Serial Monitor" window. I was trying to figure out how to get it to support "cursor positioning" ala VT100, but the way I read the current code, it would be very difficult to do this. It's too much a "text panel of arbitrary size" rather than the (more primitive) "screen with X/Y coordinates of each letter." Is there an alternative feature more like a "screen" ?

What bugs me is the "Screen of Custard " when trying to select a couple of lines of text :frowning:

Perhaps my mouse control isnt as good as it was :slight_smile:

I don't understand what you mean by 'screen of custard'.

when you try and select just a line or two of text, and suddenly you get a load of yellow lines selected - perhaps its one of my settings ?

Nah - just heavy-handednes on the mouse :grin:

could you post a picture of what you mean? Is it just that text is hard to read with a yellow selection?

What he means is that's way too easy to highlight a whole lot of text when only a couple lines were desired.

Yes, it my be my slow reactons, but ofen I end up with a whole yellow page...

Me too, its not just you. Can't have a twitchy hand.

CrossRoads:
Me too, its not just you. Can't have a twitchy hand.

Ohhh I see the issue too! never noticed because I never select with the mouse. I will check if there is some delay I can add so selection is more precise.

I'm usually working at home on my Sony Vaio laptop with touchpad, have learned to sort of roll a finger along vs trying to slide.