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Code Bubbles — Rethinking the IDE's User Interface
kang327 writes "As Java developers we are used to the familiar file-based user interface that is used by all of the major IDEs. A team at Brown University has developed an IDE for Java called Code Bubbles that makes a fairly radical departure from current IDEs — it is based on fragments instead of files. The idea is that you can see many different pieces of code at once. Fragments can form groups, have automatic layout assistance, wrap long lines based on syntax, and exist in a virtual workspace that you can pan. A video shows reading and editing code, opening different kinds of info such as Javadocs, bug reports and notes, annotating and sharing workspaces, and debugging with bubbles. They report on several user studies that show the system increases performance for the tasks studied, and also that professional developers were enthusiastic about using it. There is also a Beta that you can sign up for."
I've recently been using Mylyn to give me a focussed view on the code I'm working on. I love the way it automatically adds things to the context as I click around.
Then of course there's the rather gorgeous "Run unit tests in context" to give me feedback on the things I've been tinkering with.
I watched the video in 1080p and the text was pretty much unreadable. One would need either a huge screen or have to live with constant panning.
And hey... If you watched the whole video, you'd discover: They do have ways of navigating the space via keyboard.
I'm more a .NET guy these days, but I'd love to try this. Even if the whole thing isn't a slam-dunk, I think there are valuable and useful concepts here that can be useful elsewhere.
~D
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I used to be really anal about how many windows I had open and how they were positioned, simply to avoid the problem of clutter and trying to find what window I wanted. Then I started using a Mac, with Expose, and now I have windows opened all over the place and don't care. Finding the one I want is either F8, F9 or F10 away. I don't know how I functioned without Expose, before.
Truth, Justice. Or the American Way.
Yep, it's still there...go to Window -> Customize Perspective -> Tool Bar Visibility -> Editor Presentation
Check "Show Source of Selected Element Only" to add it to your toolbar.
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When I read your post I thought it was strange how I hadn't noticed it. Then I realized: NoScript. It really makes the Web suck less.
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Serious professional or not - anyone should be able to keep a thousand lines in their head, and write relatively bug free code around that. Maybe even 15000 lines without making mistakes.
Most people would not be able to keep more than 9 lines clearly discernible in their heads. This is why our brains naturally go through the process of recoding. No one thinks of 1000 lines of code as individual lines, we think of them as the concept they cover. But this is why object oriented design can into being in the first place, it's a form of recoding.
This code bubbles thing is really just another realization of Miller's magic number. That's not to say it's not a good thing, just saying it's not a new concept just a new implementation.