[jdt-debug-dev] Java Variable Settings

[Darin_Wright@xxxxxxxxxx]

All interested,

As of late, there have been various comments on the new "java variables filter" dialog. Interestingly enough, some say we have too much, and some say we have too little. However, when I looked at this recently filed bug, I started to think that perhaps we are not providing the "right" function with the variable filters dialog.

http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=31907

This bug raises an an interesting point - that is the ability to hide constants (static-finals), but show (non-final) statics, and (non-static) finals. The new filter dialog does provide the ability to show final locals, but does not provide the ability to hide constants while showing (non-final) statics or (non-static) final members.

The goal of the filters is to provide the user with what they want to see, removing the unimportant details (noise). Generally, the user wants to see everything except constants. Thus, I propose that we could replace the filter matrix with two simple settings:

(1) Show statics - i.e. non-final statics
(2) Show constants - i.e. static finals

Although this filter set is not as rich as the matrix, I believe it is an important improvement over the 2.0 filters (for the reason stated above). As well, it maintains the simplicity of the 2.0 filters via toggles. I would propose that the toggles appear in the view menu, to reduce clutter in the variables view (and that we should also move the "show qualified names" toggle to the view menu).

Comments?

Darin