Comments on Real Software: Is it time to redesign?

Ah what wonderful nostalgia to see a screenshot of...

2012-02-19T05:39:13.776-06:00

Ah what wonderful nostalgia to see a screenshot of RB 1.0. I started using RB with version 2 and in my mind the IDE never managed to gracefully transition to OS X. But it was still highly effective until the UI changed to the unified window. The tabs spawn so quickly that after a whole they are have truncated identical names (Windo..). This makes it more effective to open duplicate tabs than trying to find the one you're looking for. With the old IDE I would have 6-7 windows open. NOw I end up with at least a dozen anonymous tabs. The tab management is way more time consuming than the windows management ever was, and the displays those days were tiny. Today we have cinema display and Expose so i would like to see you go back to the UI that made RB so great.

The kinds of changes we would all like to see in t...

2012-02-01T14:32:57.027-06:00

The kinds of changes we would all like to see in the debugger require more than a UI change. They will require significant changes to the compiler itself. Those changes are ones we wish to make and will make eventually but they are far more significant than they would at first appear.

I have to agree with Mattias with usability. Some...

2012-02-01T12:35:30.010-06:00

I have to agree with Mattias with usability. Some of the things your talking about make a lot of sense, but THE thing we need more out of the IDE is a better debugger.

The debugger hasn't had an overhaul in a long time and it's missing a lot of features that many of us could use TODAY even if the rest of the IDE was the same.

Geoff, I think you are missing a major point here ...

2012-01-25T06:19:15.304-06:00

Geoff,
I think you are missing a major point here but not once mentioning the less-than-stellar debugger in RS. I couldn't care less if it takes a whooping eight clicks to subclass and create a new class - I do that maybe once a day.
I spend many hours a day in the debugger and I would be extremely happy to have a working debugger showing me all values CORRECTLY (FB 12361, 9664, 12066) - Dictionaries anyone?, stepping through code and handling THREADS (FB 8907, , conditional breakpoints (FB 12922, 10534, 6310, 1358, 1095 - hey, why not merge these so the score improves...), show the stack in a correct way (FB 568, 7329), see a variable value easily (FB 13664) etc. etc.
I hope we will see a brand new useful debugger in the new UI if so you have my full support, if not I'd say that a new UI is like putting lipstick on a pig.

At the Frankfurt meeting you mentioned Xcode as a source of inspiration (due to connection problems we weren't able to see much of the demo). Please don't let this be true for the editing... Xcode has a excellent debugger, but the UI for editing is a complete disaster. A current project forces me spend two days/week in Xcode and the Assistant Editor is driving me nuts, file-handling is a mess, the tabbed interface is crash-prone and the Storyboard Editor just makes me want to scream.

Just my thoughts,
/Mattias

P.S OpenID as authentication does not seem to work on the blob (FF 9.01 on Mac) D.S

Relevant: "Why we're building a whole ne...

2012-01-24T08:36:33.946-06:00

Relevant:

"Why we're building a whole new Basecamp":

http://www.inc.com/magazine/201202/jason-fried/starting-over-get-real.html

Where are the screenshots of the new IDE? Some as...

2012-01-24T02:38:47.751-06:00

Where are the screenshots of the new IDE?

Some aspects of the existing IDE have been less than good. For instance the open projects dialog or the IDE edit screen as sheet. Will those be redesigned, too?

@ BobTheCodeBuilder-Yes, these changes are schedul...

2012-01-23T17:27:49.204-06:00

@ BobTheCodeBuilder-Yes, these changes are scheduled for the next major release (2012r1).

@Geoff - Are the IDE changes something we'll b...

2012-01-23T15:44:23.641-06:00

@Geoff - Are the IDE changes something we'll be seeing in the next release? I'm currently working on a project where I'm utilizing some screenshots of RS for help documentation, etc.

@ Olivier - those are all great suggestions. Once ...

2012-01-20T14:00:18.887-06:00

@ Olivier - those are all great suggestions. Once the we release the IDE with the new design, give it a try then see how many of your suggestions still apply. If they do, let us know and they will look into them.

@ BobTheCodeBuilder - Yes, we will be adding more ...

2012-01-20T13:58:35.414-06:00

@ BobTheCodeBuilder - Yes, we will be adding more controls and more features to existing controls. At the moment, we are focused on the redesign of the IDE and other things but we do plan to add more controls.

ok, thank you Thom!

2012-01-20T12:21:30.966-06:00

ok, thank you Thom!

Do you plan some sort of preview of the new UI (fo...

2012-01-20T12:19:38.645-06:00

Do you plan some sort of preview of the new UI (for beta testers) ?

Oliver, the IDE redesign fixes the speed issue.

2012-01-20T12:06:48.535-06:00

Oliver, the IDE redesign fixes the speed issue.

New user (WE), the current interface is pleasant. ...

2012-01-20T12:00:26.299-06:00

New user (WE), the current interface is pleasant. The disadvantage is its slowness (I use an fast iMac, with lots of ram). Moving objects is slow, we're wasting time.

I'm really looking forward to the next UI. Hon...

2012-01-20T10:19:40.864-06:00

I'm really looking forward to the next UI. Honestly, I have no problem with much of the present UI, but one area I would really like to see improvement is the Window Editor. Instead of whining, I'll just make some suggestions. :)

1. Explicit layering would be great. For example, controls could be "grouped" to a single layer, then within that layer the controls would have sub-indexes. Say I may have six Text Fields in layer 3, and implicitly the controls are ordered 3.0 to 3.5. Move forward/back would adjust the sub levels, and a palette with the layers would allow me to move groups of controls at once.

2. Lock Controls/Layers. This is a big one. The smart guides get extremely annoying on a complex UI, and selecting an individual control or two (especially when stacked), can be very frustrating. I know locking currently exists, but it doesn't affect smart guides or selection.

3. Toggle smart-guides on/off. With the hopes of moving controls having a smoother, less jumpy feel.

4. Custom horizontal/vertical guides, set to either a percent or pixel position.

Well, that about does it. The truth is I'm very spoiled by Illustrator and Photoshop, but as a designer the two are visually similar to me. Hope these suggestions are helpful!

Good article, Geoff. I come from the Visual Studio...

2012-01-20T10:11:03.297-06:00

Good article, Geoff. I come from the Visual Studio environment for Windows apps. Any chance Real Software will be adding more controls to RS? The existing controls offer typical basic functionality, but lack features to make apps look more modern.