appeal for usability

Here a few points that i dislike in IntelliJ (6.0.4) :

1. When prompted to select a file, i must manually select it in IDEA file browser (example : add a module library).
I would like to be able to type a path in a dedicated field (like in 'import existing module'). The reason is that I use a third party file browser (xplorer2) in which i can browse extremely fast, I have bookmarks to folders all over the place, and i can copy file path to clipboard with a single keystroke.

2. When adding modules to a project, i would like to be able to import all existing modules from an arborescence (such thing exists in Eclipse). Basically, it scans all subdirectories for .iml a propose them for addition.

3. Adding sources to module library is awkward, i preferred the 5.x way.

4. I agree with the issue of checkin project dialog : it shouldn't be modal.

5. I don't find the plugin manager intuitive. No legend at all, what blue colored plugins mean, what the error icon on an installed plugin means (no tooltip).

6. When finding for usage, i would like to be able to group by production code and test code in the output, similar to group by module (yes, i know i can change the scope beforehand, but i always want to know everyplace where the thing i'm looking for is used). Ideally first group by module, then by code type (production vs tests).

7. Path variables scope should be project wide, not application wide. Currently, you can't have 2 projects open with different values, you have to use different variables.

Gilles

I must cast my vote for point #1 in Gilles list.
This has been a mild pane for a while and it really would help, particularly in a windows environment where you would be able to type in UNC paths. The only way to do this currently is to hack the project files directly.

Saqib wrote:

I must cast my vote for point #1 in Gilles list.
This has been a mild pane for a while and it really would help, particularly in a windows environment where you would be able to type in UNC paths. The only way to do this currently is to hack the project files directly.

+ 10

As I wrote on January 16th in this same thread (but my posts seem to go
into a black hold sometimes... I've seen posts to the web site not show
up in the newsgroup and vice-versa.... what's up with this?):

When I need to add a new module library, the dialog for "Choose Library
Classes" doesn't let me simply enter the entire library path by keyboard
(a path which I often have ready on the clipboard for pasting- but I
can't take advantage of this because the dialog has no field for just
entering the path!), I have to slowly and painfully use the mouse to
navigate down the file/folder structure manually. Even the standard
windows file dialog would be light years ahead of this dialog...

It's a small thing, but should be simple to change... I like to configure the editor to have the file tabs on the right. It would be nice if when doing so the file names changed to left justification rather then the current centering. It would make it visually easier to scan down the list. This is especially true when I have open files with great variance in the length of their names. Plus the file type icons would be lined up making it easier to quickly find things by icon.

Perhaps you could simply add an option to the editor appearance settings to allow a user to select their choice of justification, (left, center, right) as well as the already present "tab location" selection.

What L&F are you using?
This feature already implemented in the IDEA L&F, but we have no control
over other L&Fs unfortunately.

--
regards,
--
Alexey Kudravtsev
Software Developer
JetBrains, Inc, http://www.jetbrains.com
"Develop with pleasure!"

"Mark Vedder" <no_reply@jetbrains.com> wrote in message
news:26266214.1170339885044.JavaMail.itn@is.intellij.net...

It's a small thing, but should be simple to change... I like to configure
the editor to have the file tabs on the right. It would be nice if when
doing so the file names changed to left justification rather then the
current centering. It would make it visually easier to scan down the list.
This is especially true when I have open files with great variance in the
length of their names. Plus the file type icons would be lined up making
it easier to quickly find things by icon.

>

Perhaps you could simply add an option to the editor appearance settings
to allow a user to select their choice of justification, (left, center,
right) as well as the already present "tab location" selection.

I typically use the "Alloy, Glass Theme". Being a Web App developer, and therefore having little experince with Swing, I didn't realize the tab's justification is tied to the L&F. That's too bad.

Sorry for the delay in replying -- vacation away from my computer :)

Like Nathan suggested, a button on the ChangesBar (which I use) to quickly edit the comment for the active changelist sounds like it would do the trick.

I also like dimitar's suggestion of showing the comment in the Changes window as well.

I'll give it some more thought. I just felt this ... "lack", but I have no concrete ideas for how to fix it yet :)

A minor annoyance i've found is with idea's dialogs (such as "Find in Path") where I can't use the right mouse button to paste text into the required field. If i'm using the code editor, i tend to cut and paste with key-presses, but if i need to bring-up some kind of search dialog i use the mouse to do it and it's natural simply to right-click in the search field to paste a fragment of copied text into it (rather than open dialog with mouse then use Ctrl-V). No matter how many times i've used those dialogs, i still find myself pressing the right mouse button and expecting a menu to appear.

Most applications (and even the web interface i'm typing this into) have a cut/copy/paste popupMenu for that sort of thing, and i always assumed idea would eventually catch-up.

Hi,

I would love for Idea to provide out-of-the box simple uml support like the SimpleUML plugin should provide if it was adequately maintained.

before the flames and rants start:

I am not asking for a full-blown UML feature set... and I know ther is at least 2 full blown UML plugins available for IDEA. But that's not what I need.

I use Simple UML (when ever the plugin is working with the Idea build I have): to do quick class diagrams; to keep track of what I am doing as I inject new functionality into a system; to use in a conversation at my desk when needing to look at code and some OOP relationships at the same time.

What I would like it to do:
-fully integrate with IDEA for refactoring.
-provide decent export features for when I need to attacha diagram into an email or some other docs.
-smarter layout features
-simple way to attach diagrams to a module/project.
-sync editor location and diagram
-read-only capabilities

What I do not want it to do:
-code generation
-any thing that starts with "reverse-"
-project support
-doesn't even have to
-no creation/editing capabilities other then access to the code and refactorings

basically I want tightly integrated basic uml features.

thanks
Florian Hehlen

hi,

An other simple thing has just come up and I wanted to request it. I work with a lot of configuration and other auxiliary files. I would very much like to be able to search for files by name rather then by content. At the moment we can only do this with classes.

so it would be something like ctrl-n but for non-java files.

this would be usefull when looking for xml, dat, and other files.

thanks,
florian

Have you tried ctrl-shift-n? This looks at files in the module content roots.

cool thanks. That was fast implementation by JB :)

Actually I have been having a hard time finding any missing usuability features... because this keeps on happening to me! I think of something and then by searching a bit I find it!!!! But I had not searched enough for this one.

I have used IntelliJ since the beginning but I have been away from it for the last 18 month. Now since January we are re-united and I keep on finding all sorts of things that I used to find were missing

florian

Better bookmarking: bookmark lists, automatically give new bookmark the name of the text of the line it is at.

I would like to be able to use IDEA for a whole day without reaching for the mouse. Right now thats quite hard to do, please try it for a day and revise.
There are some bugs with focusing for example.

Its really annoying that it does all parsing processing in the foreground so I have to wait for that. Its also really annoying how the editor slows down when its "thinking" (typing one character and waiting 2secs before it appears). What the user is doing should allways be of the highest priority.

Compared to eclipse, IDEA's vcs isnt up to snuff. We need better branch management for example.

Agreed on the bookmarking. I would like the bookmarks to work the same way as the TODO view; use a separate list/heirarchical view that displays all the files in the project with the bookmarks they contain.

And allow group marking. The same bookmark can be applied to several locations so that you can get a list of locations that all share the same mark.

... and agreed on the VCS integration. Doesn't seem to be able to import a project into SVN at the moment.

The latter suggestion (showing the comment in the Changes window) is now
implemented in Changes Bar 1.2, available from the plugin manager.

Cheers,
N.

Gordon Tyler wrote:

Sorry for the delay in replying -- vacation away from my computer :)

Like Nathan suggested, a button on the ChangesBar (which I use) to quickly edit the comment for the active changelist sounds like it would do the trick.

I also like dimitar's suggestion of showing the comment in the Changes window as well.

1) Creating a Unit test takes a lot of time/work. Preferably a one-button-create-test-class+test-method.
1) Integration with Maven. I use maven idea:idea to create my project, since I'm the only IntelliJ user in an Eclipse environment... but maven idea:idea create a 'standard' Java project, which has not a web structure. Changing the type of project doesn't seem to be supported, so when new dependencies are added to the project.xml, I cannot regenerate the IntelliJ project files, since that would loose my current web-module structure.
In short: being able to change the type of project (Java <-> Java EE <-> Web Module) or a better integration with maven would be great!
1) Very minor issue: When creating Javadoc, IntelliJ does this:

/**

• Some text

• <-- no spaces after the *

*/

When using Eclipse, this happens:

/**

• Some text

• <-- one space of the *!

*/

You cannot change this in IntellJ (or I didn't find it), nor can you change it in Eclipse (or I didn't find it). This makes is always a bit annoying when developing code with Eclipse and IntelliJ users... (okay, okay, I know! But I already said it was minor! ;))
4) I like IDEA, and the way it looks. I sometimes have the idea that my UI is cluttered with too may different sliding windows (instead of perspectives, which I wouldn't consider a really good thing), but I'll manage!

The latter suggestion (showing the comment in the
Changes window) is now
implemented in Changes Bar 1.2, available from the
plugin manager.
Cheers,
N.

Woohoo!