I'm updating some legacy code, because of my unfamiliarity to it, Its very difficult to find structures, especially if I step away for a week for other projects.
To alleviate this problem I've gone back to my old-school roots and started adding ascii text-art as comments above sections of code, using this tool:
http://patorjk.com/software/taag/#p=display&h=3&v=1&f=Big%20Money-ne&t=Reveal%0ACheck
This allows me to see via my MiniMap the titles of functions or sections of code I might need to come back to
The Thought then occured.. well surely someone else has this problem, and since VSCode seems to be written by the community, maybe someone has already written a plugin that would search the code for function titles (like Javadocs?) and display the title in a readable size?
If not, would it be easily coded? i.e. is the minimap just a very shrunk down copy(not easy) or is it structured and can be parsed and tweaked?
As long as your language plugin supports it, you can use cmd + shift + o to go to function definition.
All functions should also be listed in the Side Bar under "Outline"
I've been exploring various text editor solutions for Mac OS X recently, and I've noticed that some editors, namely Xcode, Smultron and CodeRunner, show the same behavior with bracket matching, which makes the matching bracket exhibit a small yellow popping animation that looked exactly the same throughout the editors. This made me think about whether there is a unified Cocoa API for code views that is being used. I have looked for something like that but I haven't found anything. Can someone enlighten me?
There is no unified Cocoa API for code views, no, or at least not that I am aware of. The yellow popping animation is just due to the Cocoa method -[NSTextView showFindIndicatorForRange:], which lots of different code editors use for producing that sort of effect. However, if you search stackoverflow you'll find some examples of how to do syntax coloring, bracket matching, etc. You might also find the source code in this project useful: https://github.com/MesserLab/SLiM. (Which happens to be a project I work on.)
I have two basic practical problems:
1) The first one is really stupid. I receive a message saying: "Method definition for 'aIncreasedSelection' not found, together with an "Incomplete Implementation".
Well, that is quite strange, because I don't have this method in neither my .m or .h file (and the class name is mentioned in the remark).
I used to implement this method, but I deleted it because it was redundant. In a certain way, it appears as if my Xcode project can't let go of the method...
2) The second question is also a very mysterious one. I have a couple of viewControllers in which I have put the identical same background, and the identical same buttons. It's really identical in size and position in the screen as well (I defined the pixels). For an unknown reason, when I switch between the views, one of the buttons changes very slightly its color (it is a Photoshop created button with mirror effect on the bottom, it's the mirror that becomes lighter). That is really annoying because it's supposed to be identical; when the user switches views now, he can see that there is a color difference in the button (supposed to be planted as a button in a dock, which should be identical over the entire app)...
Very frustrating as I cannot solve these small mistakes... Any ideas? Thanks!
Regarding your first problem, if you have verified that it no longer exists in your .h or .m file, try to cmd+shift+k and clean your project, then rebuild. This should update everything and in theory solve that issue for you.
As for the second problem, it sounds strange indeed. Is there any chance you could provide pictures somehow? Are you statically loading the image into similar buttons, or are you doing something differently?
Re - opening my project solved my first problem (unlike the refresh - cmd + shift + k, which didn't work). The color problem is not solved despite :-/
It was definitely a bug since I didn't change anything. It is in fact - very confusing!
I just noticed the strangest thing when updating one of my Mac applications.
The menu bar of the application when run has different font sizes (!?). Some items are in the normal system text size (13 point?) and others are a few points smaller (11 points?). What gives?
I didn't even know that you could do this.. never mind understanding how this just came about of its own volition..
I immediately zeroed in on the likely culprit XCode 4, but compiling the same project with 3.2.5 shows the same problem.
I'm rather flummoxed by this.. has anybody come across this weird phenomenon?
Best regards,
Frank
I`m used to iOS but you may have a similar issue. The UILabels have an "autoshrink" property, which reduces the font size if the text is too long, to avoid truncating it. You can turn this property off in the Interface Builder. Hope this helps!
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Many programs (often large ones, like MS Office, The GIMP, Maxthon) have a feature called "tip-of-the-day". It explains a small part of the program, like this one in Maxthon:
"You can hide/show the main menu bar by pressing Ctrl+F11"
You can usually browse through them by clicking next. And other options provided are "Previous", "Close", "Do not show at startup".
I think I like the way Maxthon used to handle this; in the browser's statusbar (down at the bottom usually, together with "Done", the progress-bar etc), there would sometimes be a small hint or tip on what else you could do with it.
As Joel Spolsky wrote in his article-series "User Interface Design for Programmers", people don't like reading manuals. But we still want them to use the program, and the features they could benefit from, don't we? Therefore, I think it is useful to have such a feature, without the annoyance of the pop-up on startup.
What do you think? Pop-up? Maxthonstyle? No way?
I really only like the idea of a "tip of the day" if it is displayed when I can't do anything else anyway. For example, when the program is loading a large file. Suppose it has to load some large amount of data when the program is first started. Along with the "loading" splash screen, show a small tip, and have it disappear when the program starts. It's simple, unobtrusive, and can sometimes be very helpful to some users.
I hate to bring up "World of Warcraft" as an example in a programming discussion, but it uses this technique when you first login. Here is an example loading screen. Along with the loading bar and a full screen piece of art, it displays a small tip at the bottom of the screen. Usually these tips lead users to things they can explore further (such as a settings window, character customization tools, etcetera). For example, "Pressing ESCAPE will bring up a menu that lets you customize the the look and feel of the game".
Above all else: allow the user to easily close the tips and stop them from appearing each time. Make every key close the tip dialog when pressed. Have two buttons: "Close Tip" and "Close Tip and Never Show Again", or something to that effect.
It must be easy to banish the tips---but when learning a new GUI, I use them often. If it's a tip at startup I usually turn it off after at most a dozen runs, but if tips are well designed this gives me a sense of the application space.
Ways tips could be improved:
Don't tip a user about a feature that user has used recently.
Making tips sensitive to context can be helpful (the new Vista bars are an example --- pause to get the vapors; I have just said something nice about Vista).
Tips that are unobtrusive or appear during otherwise wasted time are good.
Tip during loading screen is good, but it must be findable after loading is over. Some popular game, maybe it was Baldur's Gate, would give you a tip during loading, and then afterward you could go back and review the tips in your journal. So if you had a vague memory of a useful tip a few screens back, you could find it quickly, in the same place you were accustomed to look for other recent information. A 'recently tipped' item on the help menu perhaps?
Actually, I've never heard of Maxthon. But I actually like those as long as there is a checkbox to make them stop. I like the tips to actually tell me something interesting instead of something very obvious in the UI. But this is really preference. I don't think it is bad design to use them.
No - I dislike them pretty strongly. When I am starting a software application, I almost always have a specific task in mind. The TOTD just interrupts this flow and tries to get me to think about the software rather than the task.
This might not be a direct answer to your question, but personally, I like the way StackOverflow handles this. The badge system essentially acts as a manual, rewarding users for discovering and utilizing the functionality it has to offer. Granted, this isn't really an option for most apps but it works beautifully for StackOverflow.
I think this goes along with the issues against modals -- it's something in a user's way, despite how helpful it may be. Which is why the "Do not show at startup" is needed.
Though I've never used Maxthon before, the way it showed tips sounds like a really good idea. It's unobtrusive and entirely optional as to if users even have to pay them any attention.
IMO, it's not good idea to have a feature that has to ask the user if it should "keep quiet." ;)
And, while some tips can seem blatantly obvious, even these tips can still be useful to users that aren't quite as familiar. Those that already know it can just continue on with their day.
A tip is a good idea, users can discover things they didn't know they didn't know. But rather than using a pop up getting in the way of working, I like how World of Warcraft does it. They put the tip on the loading screen, when you have nothing better to do then stare at the progress bar anyway.
Norman Ramsey made some great points about how tips could be improved. My problem with tips of the day (and I'm speaking as someone who's implemented them in my own apps) is that they are not timely and a bit too intrusive. The typical tip of the day comes up when you start the program, and requires a button click to make it go away. When I actually see a useful tip, my train of thought is usually "I'll have to remember that when I do option ". Of course, it's forgotten by the time I get around to using . And clicking OK during program startup gets old fast, I'll usually disable the tips after the first dozen or so.
My suggestion would be to go the next step and make the tip of the day much more context sensitive. For example, if the program detects that the user is constantly going to Edit | Copy and then Edit | Paste, a good tip would be "Not for nothing, but CTRL+C followed by CTRL+V accomplishes the same thing" and tell them right when they are clicking away at the menu like a lost monkey, not during program startup. Oh, and don't interrupt their work by forcing them to click OK.
What I just suggested - is that what that damn paperclip dude used to do?
IMO Tip of the day (popup) is only within programs that have a certain level of complexity, that you use frequently. So when you open the program you learn a new trick that will help you.
Usually people either like it or hate it, so definitely have an option to disable it.
What I'm worried about with the other type is that it will go unnoticed, you wont believe the areas of programs people never look at.
Maybe put it in something like a "tool tip" (or down at the bottom like the OP described) and make it contextual. A few seconds after you change to a new mode it slides in some text about the current mode.
And YES make the OFF button easy to find!!!
Personally, I prefer software that’s simple enough to not need “Tip of the Day”.
Tip of the day can be good if it's
non-modal, and never in the way
has a "history" I can access
is context sensitive to what I do
Unfortunately, the crappy initial Office implementation Clippy of has completely killed the last idea.
So IMO a good implementation would:
Show up at startup
Make "don't show at startup" the obvious choice
Indicate (with an animation?) that TOTD is accessible from e.g. the toolbar
MouseOver the toolbar icon would give the title/abstract of the "current tip"
clicking on it would give me the tip, give forward/backward navigation through tips,
link to "show all tips" in the manual.
For a large tip database, a "related tips" link might encourage me to explore the manual
Context-sensitive
Later incarnations of Clippy were almost helpful actually: it was nonmodal and stayed out of the way not requiring interaction (the jumping around was attention-grabbing, though), and I remember a few instances where the suggestion was good - e.g. a keyboard shortcut for a command I had accessed repeatedly through the menu.
A simpler method could still be effective:
"Did you know... you can customize the print templates to look like a pie chart on LSD - the manual shows you how! [clickety]" on a print dialog
Did you know... I can remember your custom searches. Just click 'Goof/Barf/Hidden/Create Index for last Query' - and they'll show up in the 'Search' menu. They'll run much faster, too! whe working with a search/query form