Re: IBM is so confusing!

[Edmund Reinhardt <edmund.reinhardt@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Joe,
Thanks for the suggestions.
We definitely have to improve the marquee actions.  I have been frustrated
by the copy/paste and delete restrictions.

That is a creative idea about toggling marquee

The Ctrl key will do what you want.  I.e. extend the selection without
unselecting what you currently have selected.
This is a standard behaviour that is true in many other contexts.  I hope
you find it helpful.

We have thought about group properties.  But I doubt we will be able to get
around to doing that, with our current resource constraints.

Eric, could you please write up work items for Joe's suggestions.

Thanks,
Edmund



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  |Joe Pluta <joepluta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>                                                                                                            |
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  |02/12/2011 10:45 AM                                                                                                                               |
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  |Re: [WDSCI-L] IBM is so confusing!                                                                                                                |
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  |wdsci-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx                                                                                                                      |
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Hi Edmund!

I wanted to take a little time to test before giving you my checklist.

Sort seems to work fine.  Not sure whether you want to pop up a message
telling the user that the fields have been sorted.

For Marquee actions:

Move: Works!
Delete: Only deletes one field.
Copy/Paste: Only pastes one field.
Resize: Works!  (This, by the way, was most awesome!)

As an extension of Stuart's request (or maybe an alternative), how about
a new action toggleMarquee.  This action would toggle the cursor: if in
Marquee mode to Select, and if in Select to Marquee.  I could then
assign that action to, say, the middle mouse button.  Then I would never
have to move my mouse over to the palette.  I could click the middle
button, select some fields, then click the middle button again to
perform some other actions.

By the way, Shift works as a way to use Marquee while in Select mode.
The problem is that it removes the current Marquee selection.  In
Marquee mode, you can use Shift to add more fields to the selection.  If
you're in Select mode, you can hit Shift to do a Marquee select but that
removes the current selection.

It would be nice to have a group properties dialog.  I know this is
bigger than a bread-basket.  You would have to modify the properties
screen to only allow changes to attributes that make sense for all
fields, and you'd have to have a way of showing when fields have
different attributes.  But the business reason for this would be the
ability to mark a bunch of fields and change their color or attribute.

I've got more, but since I've already gone from fixes to enhancements,
I'll leave this.

Joe


> Hi Joe
> We have field sorting as of 8.0.0.1 using the context menu of any field,
> the fields for that record can be sorted.  (we were restricted for adding
> any translatable strings since this was a service pack, but we wanted to
> get this out because of the feedback we got on this forum)
> What kind of enhancements were you looking for with multiple fields.  You
> have to use the Marquee selection tool from the pallete to select
multiple
> fields, we allow alignment etc.  We would have preferred to simply drag a
> rectangle to select multiple fields, but the marquee tool was forced on
us
> by the GEF framework we were building on top of.
>
> Edmund
> IBM RD Power
>
>
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> On 2/11/2011 11:57 AM, Tom Huff wrote:
> > I disagree. I think it is because it is not as good as SEU. It is a
> > wonderful tool, but they(IBM) went 90% of the way again. Without screen
> > design, report design, and debug done easily, why would people want to
> use
> > it. You still have to use both.
> >
> > Tom
> I find the editor to be much better than SEU.  I personally have never
> been able to use RLU effectively, so the report designer is almost by
> definition better.  And I think the debugger is better than STRDBG for a
> lot of things (STRDBG is still easier for interactive OPM programs).
>
> I agree that the screen designer needs a couple of enhancements to beat
> SDA at everything: better handling of multiple fields and a field sort
> capability are my top two.  I prefer the easy change between records in
> RDP and the ability to design screens by grouping records together, as
> well as the drag and drop field movement, so it's nearly a wash.
> Moreover I do most of my screen changes using the text editor, I really
> don't have to deal with the issues as much as you do.
>
> So for folks who don't spend spend a lot of time in SDA (which I just
> don't) and don't do a lot of debugging of non-ILE code, I think RDP is
> more than 90% there.  And the additional features sell it for that group
> (just more real estate is worth the price of admission).
>
> Joe
> --
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