Usability suggestions/questions
- Right clicking on the HelloWorld concept should offer the ability to
create a belonging editor.
- How much editors one can define for a concept?
If one, it should be shown as a child node of the concept.
If multiple, how do I chose the right one when writing models?
- Right clicking the project language's context menu should show 'Language
Properties' as the last entry (properties always are the last one).
- Do I need to give the generator's rule a name?
Generally, to make MPS a success I'm sure you need to create a "text editor
feeling". At the moment it is quite inconvenient to first choose the
"." before can start typing. Also, when entering System and typing '.', it automatically should jump to the field. and
should work like in real text editors jumping to the first/last character of
the line. Ctrl-Left/-Right should be used to jump to the start/end of the
current "element"'s text.
Tom
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Some additional suggestions:
- Because the color of a field is be very important to inform the user about the type of a field (expecially in more complex situations), this color shouldn't change, it the field has the focus. Better draw a border around it, use a underline or just use a blinking cursor to show the active field.
- Properties should have 'calculated defaults'. In the moment you have to specify to many values if you create things. Just look at the HelloWorld example, how often you have to write 'HelloWorld' into some field or have to specify a path. Instead of this, new structures should create default names/values where possible.
- Don't like the general 'space' after each field. Should be optional.
- Borders should outline the hierachy of the structure. In the moment they don't because borders are 'everywhere'. Maybe borders should be 'indented' by a pixel if they are placed inside an element with another border, so that it is visible which element ist inside which element. Also borders should be used a bit more sparingly (syntax coloring is often more concise).
- A query language should be high priority. Having a MPS to create other languages and having to write clumsy queries in Java just don't match.
- Is it really necessary to 'generate language' every time you make a small change at an editor?
- The 'base language' should be able to decide by itself between things like static method calls and non-static method calls. While I understand the reason for that, it must be possible to create languages which use a type system to choose between these things.
I think some of these things are already planned, so excuse if I stated something obvious which is already planned for one of the next releases.
scr submitted
rigth now only one.
in case the language can be target of generation, the second (projection) editor is generated.
submitted (MPS-222)
no. you don't have to. but these labels are not just cosmetic thing. They used to find nodes in target model by "source node" + "mapping name" key.
submitted (MPS-223)
submitted (MPS-224)