Office 2007 GUI for an IDE - What do you think ?

Discuss the Integrated Development Environment (IDE)

Moderators: David Barker, Jerry Messina

Post Reply

Do you think that Office2007 ribbon GUI is good for an editor ?

Yes, it's good
6
75%
No, it's a bad idea
2
25%
 
Total votes: 8

User avatar
octal
Registered User
Registered User
Posts: 586
Joined: Thu Jan 11, 2007 12:49 pm
Location: Paris IDF
Contact:

Office 2007 GUI for an IDE - What do you think ?

Post by octal » Fri Nov 30, 2007 9:38 am

Hi,
I'm still working on a new dev environment for Swordfish. I'm trying to find all ways to make users of the new IDE as productive as possible.

I just want your opinion about something concerning the User Interface (GUI) for a development environment (IDE).

Do you think that an Office 2007 ribbon like GUI (if well managed and options well organized) is well suited for such task ?

Please, answer the Poll, and give your comments.

Regards
octal

johngb
Registered User
Registered User
Posts: 139
Joined: Tue Oct 03, 2006 10:16 pm

Post by johngb » Fri Nov 30, 2007 9:27 pm

Sorry, never used the new Office 2007 GUI. Quite happy with Office 2003.
JohnB

User avatar
octal
Registered User
Registered User
Posts: 586
Joined: Thu Jan 11, 2007 12:49 pm
Location: Paris IDF
Contact:

Post by octal » Fri Nov 30, 2007 9:42 pm

Hi John,
thank you for your answer. I'll manage to, may be, make a screenshot with old classic GUI, and a screenshot with the new Office2007 GUI !!! This will let users also see first screenshots of the new IDE :)

regards
octal

User avatar
ohararp
Posts: 194
Joined: Tue Oct 03, 2006 11:29 pm
Location: Dayton, OH USA
Contact:

Post by ohararp » Fri Nov 30, 2007 10:06 pm

Octal, a picture is worth a thousand words. Great idea!
Thanks Ryan
$25 SMT Stencils!!!
www.ohararp.com/Stencils.html

User avatar
octal
Registered User
Registered User
Posts: 586
Joined: Thu Jan 11, 2007 12:49 pm
Location: Paris IDF
Contact:

Post by octal » Fri Nov 30, 2007 10:16 pm

ohararp wrote:Octal, a picture is worth a thousand words. Great idea!
Yes I agree, but the IDE is not in a really advanced state. It's just in design phase. So there nothing really usefull to show :oops:

I'll see how I can do that.

Regards
octal

xor
Posts: 286
Joined: Sun Nov 05, 2006 1:15 pm
Location: NYC
Contact:

Post by xor » Fri Nov 30, 2007 10:27 pm

I still use MS Office XP and not acquainted with v.2007. Would the resultant program require a user to install MSOffice?

User avatar
octal
Registered User
Registered User
Posts: 586
Joined: Thu Jan 11, 2007 12:49 pm
Location: Paris IDF
Contact:

Post by octal » Fri Nov 30, 2007 10:37 pm

xor wrote:Would the resultant program require a user to install MSOffice?
No xor, no need to install it, and the resultant program does NOT need the .NET framework to be installed !!! it's really a standalone program.

regards
octal

xor
Posts: 286
Joined: Sun Nov 05, 2006 1:15 pm
Location: NYC
Contact:

Post by xor » Fri Nov 30, 2007 10:48 pm

Sounds interesting. As Ryan had suggested, a screenshot, or even conceptual screenshot, would be nice to see, especially since I don't know what Office 2007 looks like.

User avatar
octal
Registered User
Registered User
Posts: 586
Joined: Thu Jan 11, 2007 12:49 pm
Location: Paris IDF
Contact:

Post by octal » Sat Dec 01, 2007 4:49 pm

Well, I managed to show some screenshots of the new IDE, but please, consider that only for differenciating the two GUI, I'll show a full version of the IDE once it's finished !!! The IDE, for sure, is not yet ready. It's still in design phase and needs a lot of more work. !!!

These screenshots will let you see the difference and let you see first screenshots of my new IDE for Swordfish Basic.

here are the screenshots : First screenshots with OLD GUI, followed by new GUI screenshots :)

Note that for making the new gui screenshots I only added some of the features implemented. I did that only to show the editor at work, the final disposition of options and features will be for sure different. and note also that in OLD or NEW GUI everything is costumizable, so you'll be able costumize toolbars to show or hide features.

PS. Note that all these screenshots are NOT full screen screenshots. I'm using a 19" monitor at 1280x1024 resolution screen. If I put the IDE full screen I get more space for coding in even Old on new gui.

Waiting for your comments !

Old GUI with menu and toolbars

Image

Old GUI with menu and toolbars: you can see the coloured vertical bar (Yellow and green just after lines numbers) that shows modified lines (yellow) and new inserted lines (green) since last modification.
You can also see the vertical lines that shows code structure (If/endif, While/wend,...)
You can also see Code folding on declarations, subs and functions.

Image

Old GUI : Syntax autocompletion (actually works for SF predefined variables types, constants and sub/func. It will be generalized to user defined sub/func and vars/consts.

Image

Old GUI : Braces matching and highlighting
Note that the function GetTemporisation() is folded, so its code is hidden.

Image

Old GUI : parameter hints - no need to remember functions params, parmas types or their position anymore. Works also for user typed functions !!!

Image


The NEW GUI : (same functions as before).

The Ribbon version in Office2007 Blue Theme

Image

The Ribbon version in Office2007 Blue Theme with the ribbon minimized.
As in MSOffice the ribbon can be minimized by double clicking on any tab. The ribbon popups when the user click on a tab or use the keyb (Alt).
User can also recover space bu folding lateral panels using the folding button "<<" and ">>" in panels header.
Note also that now you can see more code since you can fold functions and subroutines ...
The screenshot shows also Parameters hints support for user defined functions. Here the function FileExists(...) overloads are defined some lines before the function where they are called (see the two overloads folded before modified function).

Image


The Ribbon version in Office2007 Silver Theme

Image


The Ribbon version in Office2007 Black Theme

Image

Waiting for your comments :)

regards
octal
Last edited by octal on Wed Dec 05, 2007 4:41 pm, edited 5 times in total.

xor
Posts: 286
Joined: Sun Nov 05, 2006 1:15 pm
Location: NYC
Contact:

Post by xor » Sat Dec 01, 2007 5:52 pm

Your images aren't showing... :shock: The screenshot you posted yesterday looked really nice.

User avatar
octal
Registered User
Registered User
Posts: 586
Joined: Thu Jan 11, 2007 12:49 pm
Location: Paris IDF
Contact:

Post by octal » Sat Dec 01, 2007 9:20 pm

xor wrote:Your images aren't showing... :shock: The screenshot you posted yesterday looked really nice.
Really, you can not see them xor ??? :wink: yep I corrected links and added comments to the post :)

regards
octal

User avatar
octal
Registered User
Registered User
Posts: 586
Joined: Thu Jan 11, 2007 12:49 pm
Location: Paris IDF
Contact:

Post by octal » Mon Dec 03, 2007 8:24 pm

-deleted
Last edited by octal on Mon Dec 03, 2007 9:09 pm, edited 2 times in total.

gramo
Registered User
Registered User
Posts: 200
Joined: Tue Mar 20, 2007 6:55 am
Location: Australia
Contact:

Post by gramo » Mon Dec 03, 2007 9:00 pm

I think it looks great, but is the effort worth the cosmetic overhaul?


I'm an office '03 user as well, and don't have any issues with the current style and functionality.

That said, the next upgrade will have '07, and I may (will) grow to like the new features and wish all my development software shared them :wink:
digital-diy.com - Hobby microcontroller projects and tutorials. Assembly, PICBasic and C examples.

Australian distributor for the Swordfish Compiler

User avatar
octal
Registered User
Registered User
Posts: 586
Joined: Thu Jan 11, 2007 12:49 pm
Location: Paris IDF
Contact:

Post by octal » Mon Dec 03, 2007 9:22 pm

gramo wrote:I think it looks great, but is the effort worth the cosmetic overhaul?
Thank you gramo,
I agree with the fact tha old style is more familiar for developers. Perhaps it's better. For sure managing old gui it's less work and less effort. If I had to finish the project, I think I'll stick with it.

As for now, I sincerly think that the whole project itself is not worth. The developement of the IDE itself is a very interresting programming experience, but it's also a real waste of time and usefulness.

This project is on hold for now. sorry!

Regards
octal

Post Reply