Re: [ jEdit-devel ] Plugins: still not too user-friendly

Hi,

While I don't think being able to add plugin menus to existing top-level
menus is a good idea, it might be worthwhile letting the user split the
'Plugins' menu into several top-level menus. I might implement this in
jEdit 4.1.

On Fri, 2002-03-29 at 09:19, Gregg Saffell wrote:
> I would be more inclined towards allowing the plugin developer to assign the
> plugin's menu to a particular jEdit top-bar menu option (via .props) rather
> than allowing an end-user to do so.  Allowing the end-user to move menus
> around could make it significantly more difficult to understand bug reports
> and general end-user type questions.  
> 
> As an example, any of the following might make sense under jEdit's View
> menu: Background, BufferList, BufferSelector, BufferTabs, Editor Scheme,
> Hex, Line Guides, Look & Feel, and WhiteSpace. Or maybe the following might
> install their menus to jEdit's Utilities menu: JythonInterpreter, RETest,
> Console, ErrorList. 
> 
> You might also consider allowing a plugin to add an entirely new drop-down
> to jEdit's menu bar.  If you wanted to retain some degree of control, an
> alternative would be to support some additional well-known top-bar dropdowns
> that only appear if an installed plugin requests it at runtime.  Options
> such as "Format" (AStylePlugin, Code2HTML, JavaStyle, JTidyPlugin),
> "Project" (ProjectViewer), "Build" or "Run" (AntFarm, JCompile, Debugger),
> "Team" (CVS Plugin, VSS Plugin), and "Wizards" (CharacterMap, ClassWizard)
> spring to mind.
> 
> One complication to think about is what these ideas would mean for jEdit's
> help.  Ideally, the help would mirror the application.  
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: "Sergey V. Udaltsov" <ser...@cl...>
> To: de...@je...
> Date: 28 Mar 2002 16:28:42 +0000
> Subject: [ jEdit-devel ] Plugins: still not too user-friendly
> 
> Hi all
> 
> There is one question I'd like to discuss.
> As all we know, any plugin can register any number of actions and menu
> items. User can assign plugin shortcuts to actions (which it simply
> good).
> But the rule is that all these menu items are in the "Plugin" submenu
> which is really a mess (even number "1", "2", "3" do not help much
> here). User actually _has_no_ability_ to compose the menu according to
> his taste. I think this is rather disgusting. Actually, the first
> complain I heard from one new user (khm-m... it's my wife:) is "Cannot
> find things easily". Indeed, the "Plugin" submenu(s) contains a lot of
> items which would be nice to have in other submens (do you need
> examples).
> So, people, what do you think about this situation? Slava, what is your
> vision?
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Sergey
> 
> PS. Also, AFAIK, plugins are unable to set "default" shortcuts for their
> actions. This would be handy too. Though, there have to be some
> coordination efforts between plugins...
> 
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Slava Pestov