Why are Tool Buttons hidden by default in MPS 2017.1 ?
MPS 2017.1 hides Tool Buttons by default. It is possible to show them again using the View > Tool Buttons.
While I completely agree that advanced Users should be given the option to hide those buttons, I just cannot understand why they are hidden by default.
The Problem with this is that in a newly installed MPS 2017.1
1) essential functionality like the Inspector is now only accessible via a cryptic key combination (Cmd+2) or via a lenghy walk through the Menu (View > Tool Windows > Inspector).
2) This creates a barrier for users new to MPS, since MPS fails to provide them with an overview of what Tool Windows are availlable.
3) It also invalidates older Documentation like the book "The MPS Language Workbench" which often use phrases like "in the Inspector, we can now see...", which is completely valid when there is a little Button named "Inspector" on the bottom of every MPS, but does not make sense when new users have no way of knowing how to access this omnicious "Inspector".
So, IMHO, this change is significantly steepening the MPS learning curve, which was already pretty steep to begin with. On the other hand, I don't see anything on the positive side. What should it be good for to save expert users one click on View > Tool Buttons ?
Could you guys @ JetBrains please either revert this change or at least explain the reasoning behind it?
Thanks in advance
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Hi Bjoern,
this change came from the IntelliJ platform, perhaps (my guess) to make the UI more visually appealing. Together with that the new button in the bottom left corner was introduced - it provides a straightforward way to show/hide the tool buttons and to display any of the tool windows from a single place.
Unfortunately, the beginner-level tutorials have not been updated yet, so the feature can easily be missed. We will try to fix that.
Best regards,
Vaclav
Thank for the information. Yes, I did not notice that this Icon in the bottom left had a new behaviour. However, I would suggest to also update the Icon as it still looks like it would toggle only the tool buttons on the left and right.