PR# 12535 Consider changing order of tools in Show List popup

Problem Report Summary
Submitter: prestoat2000
Category: EiffelStudio
Priority: Medium
Date: 2007/04/25
Class: Feature Request
Severity: Serious
Number: 12535
Release: 6.0.67948
Confidential: No
Status: Closed
Responsible: larryl
Environment: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; SunOS sun4u; en-US; rv:1.8.0.7) Gecko/20060915 Firefox/1.5.0.7 Solaris 9 on SPARC
Synopsis: Consider changing order of tools in Show List popup

Description
I find the order of the tools displayed in a Show List popup to be
very confusing.  The natural order (to me) would be the order in
which the tools appear (left to right).  This would mean that the
visible tools would be listed first (at top of list) in the left-to-right
order in which they appear, followed by the non-visible tools in bold
font, in the order in which they would appear if the window were made wider.
The advantage of this method is that the list stays in the same order
regardless of how many tools are visible (i.e., list order does not change
when zone width changes), which makes it easier to find things.

Please consider changing the display order as suggested above.
To Reproduce

										

									

								

							

						

					

				

			

		

	









	

		

			
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											From:ted_eiffel   
											Date:2007/06/13   
																							Status: Closed   
											
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It has been implemented in rev#69062. I am closing it. Thanks for the suggestion.

											
											
											

											
										

									

								

							

							
							

								

									
									
										

											

									
											From:prestoat2000   
											Date:2007/06/13   
											
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If I understand your proposal, the currently invisible tools are at the top
of the list (in bold), in the left-to-right order in which they would appear if
you resized the window much wider.  The currently visible tools would be
below the invisible tools in the list (not in bold) and would also appear
in the left-to-right order in which they appear in the window.

That's not bad.  I think you should perhaps implement that, if possible.
Only user experience with 6.0 will tell whether that is the best choice.
Ultimately, users might ask for a preference that determines the order of
items in a Show List popup.  In addition to the one you are suggesting 
(and I am recommending you implement for 6.0), one could also imagine
an ordering sorted by name either before or after sorting by visible/invisible
status.  I guess the possibilities are endless and the best choice may depend
on how the user finds the right tool (by position within the list or looking
at the names and expecting them to be sorted).
....
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											From:ted_eiffel   
											Date:2007/06/13   
																							Status: Analyzed   
											
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I agree with part of your point. I would still put invisible tabs above the visible ones, but in the order, as you suggested, in which they will appear by resizing wider. Because when people click on the indicator, they mostly are looking for invisible tools. What do you think?