Re: [wtp-dev] Why Do We Need the Preference to Enable Multiple Modules p

[Arthur Ryman <ryman@xxxxxxxxxx>]

John,

Thx for the feedback. I agree that our
UI should be as simple as possible and that we should implement the notion
of progressive disclosure though UI controls like "Advanced"
buttons.

However, we need to make a distinction
between Preferences and Modes. Preferences are generally a good thing if
they allow users to tailor the IDE to their tastes. Modes are generally
a bad thing since they lead to usability problems (e.g. I could do that
before, now I can't. Why?) Modes are also dangerous since they complicate
code. You can get a combinatorial explosion when you have several modes,
i.e. modes can interact with eachother. (Known as the "Feature Interaction
Problem").[1]

One of the great advances in UI design
was the elimination of UI modes that were the norm in applications. Command
line systems used to prompt you for input and the input was very modal.
(e.g. the vi editor) Windowing systems creating modeless UIs. In fact,
early Macintosh programmers wore T-shirts that said "Don't Mode Me
In".

I also think that labelling multiple
modules per projects as Advanced is really a matter of where you are coming
from. A Project is an Eclipse mechanism for grouping related work. If an
application contains several modules, isn't it simpler to put them in one
Project and let the tools do they right thing at deployment time? Doesn't
it take more skill to set up several inter-related Projects, and to know
that you have to check them out as a group to do development work?

I got confused by a change in the default
behavoir between builds, but it exposed a bug in the code which indicates
to me that some developers were also "confused" or at least had
a different interpretation of the meaing of the preference.

[1] http://www.research.att.com/~pamela/faq.html

Arthur Ryman,
Rational Desktop Tools Development

phone: +1-905-413-3077, TL 969-3077
assistant: +1-905-413-2411, TL 969-2411
fax: +1-905-413-4920, TL 969-4920
mobile: +1-416-939-5063, text: 4169395063@xxxxxxx
intranet: http://labweb.torolab.ibm.com/DRY6/

John Lanuti <jlanuti@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent by: wtp-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx

07/07/2005 09:15 AM

Please respond to
"General discussion of project-wide or architectural issues."

To	"General discussion of project-wide or architectural issues." <wtp-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx>
cc
Subject	Re: [wtp-dev] Why Do We Need the Preference to Enable Multiple        Modules        per Project?

Arthur, 

The flexible project preference was added to give a better "out of
the box" experience.  If a new user picks up WTP, it is much
easier 
for them to deal with the concepts surrounding one module per project.
 The wizards are easier to follow and it hides a lot of the complexity
from them.  It was our guess that most users would still be using
this one module per project paradigm, however, we absolutely want to allow
flexibility 
and show off all the work we did to provide this flexibility.  In
this respect, multiple modules per project is an advanced feature for advanced
users.  And 
what do we typically do with advanced options and settings?  We hide
them by default.  This was the reasoning behind the preference --
to hide the 
complexity and confusion to someone who did not care about these advanced
flexible options. 

That being said, I guess I'd like to hear feedback from others on what
they think.  I mean, if it confused Arthur, it seems like it will
surely confuse a novice user!  :-) 
Maybe we could keep the preference, but leave it on by default instead
of off? 

Thanks, 

John Lanuti
Software Engineer, IBM Rational
jlanuti@xxxxxxxxxx
t/l 441-7861

"You see this wandering soul, he's never gonna stop, because he loves
and he feels this world can grow. 
He's not afraid of feeling, he loves what he believes, he feels, and he
grows."  - Of A Revolution

Arthur Ryman <ryman@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent by: wtp-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx

07/07/2005 08:00 AM

Please respond to
"General discussion of project-wide or architectural issues."

To	wtp-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx
cc
Subject	[wtp-dev] Why Do We Need the Preference to Enable Multiple Modules        per Project?

While using WTP to develop some Web apps, I ran into a feature of our UI
that I find problematic, and I'd like to hear from other people about why
we need this feature. 

The feature is the Flexible Project Preference. The user now has to explicity
check a box to enable multiple modules per project.

I find this problematic for several reasons: 

1. It caused a usability problem. I created a project with a Web module
in an earlier build of WTP and then worked on it with a later build which
has this preference disabled. It caused the Web service wizard to fail
[1]. This will be corrected, but it pointed out to me that this preference
is causing bimodal behavior. Our code in now more complex than it needs
to be and there is more potential for bugs and usability problems.

2. We went to a lot a development effort to upgrade the code base to allow
multiple modules per project. This should be the WTP norm. We should promote
this feature and improve our UI to make it very easy for users. Disabling
it seems like a step backwards and an admission of failure.

3. The initial wizards to create multiple modules were somewhat awkward,
and this may have motivated this preference. However, the wizards are very
usable now so I believe this preference has outlived its usefulness and
is now just extra baggage that should be jetisonned asap.

I have created a bug [2] to remove this preference. Please review it and
voted for it if you agree. 

Is anyone a strong advocate of this preference? If so, please explain why
you think we should keep it. I'd like to discuss this in our telecon today.

Let's move on this quickly since time is running out. Thx.

[1] https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=102244
[2] https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=102487

Arthur Ryman,
Rational Desktop Tools Development

phone: +1-905-413-3077, TL 969-3077
assistant: +1-905-413-2411, TL 969-2411
fax: +1-905-413-4920, TL 969-4920
mobile: +1-416-939-5063, text: 4169395063@xxxxxxx
intranet: http://labweb.torolab.ibm.com/DRY6/_______________________________________________
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