Without trying to start another one of "those" threads, if anyone is
willing to share their thoughts, I'm more than willing to listen,
realizing long ago that we don't have a monopoly on the "good ideas"
front.

Case in point is last week when Symeon made a comment about debugging,
which spurred an idea for an improvement - so the ideas don't have to
be "for" a specific environment, and I figure if you DO have a good
idea that you are willing to share in an open forum, then chances are a
number of people may pick it up (modify to suit), so there is a greater
likelyhood of your idea turning up as a feature in some products.

I'm actually hopeful that some of the "list lurkers" may post
something, so that we don't see the usual suspects, and can all gain
some perspective from people that aren't necessarily so passionately
linked to their chosen technology platform - a good idea is a good
idea!

(Or, it could be that this will end up being a single post [non-]thread)

Ross - just one thing to say on this - "MS Visual web developer"

Seems to have everything i ever need and more beside. - Just wish it
did not take up 120meg of ram when i am editing a 2k asp.net file ;(

Things i like :-

To be able to see the object properties while in design view,
To be able to select multiple objects at once and move etc.
To be able to move and edit objects in a code view.
And the standard syntax tools etc in the editor

Probably many more

rgds
Sym.

Symeon wrote:
Q: The screen real-estate that you loose by having the properties
always open/docked doesn't worry you? Obviously depends on your screen
resolution as to how much real-estate you have to play with - still, I
suppose a double click saved IS a saving, and I can see the convenience
factor when "just looking"

If this "feature" gets more votes I may have to re-examine my
"dictatorial" stance on this matter, because traditionally I have
always closed these down to get my workspace as near to the end-result
size as possible when "playing"



click on the source to call up the properties, as opposed to just
editing in the source?

subroutines/functions that you "publish")


Thanks for your input (phew - not a single post topic :-)

I also have the object properties always open with developing with VS.

Screen real-estate isn't really a problem - I design for 1024x768 but have a
monitor thats running at a higher resolution so works fine

I also find the "intellisense" in visual studio superb for writing code
quickly and accurately. This is the key feature that QMObjects need in the
editor - to be able to type the name of the object, type in the -> and then
have a drop down list of the methods and properties (with integrated help).
It seems to me, that one of the main benefits of OO for a lot of people is
the ability to have this type of assistance when coding..

Simon

--
Simon Verona

"Ross Ferris" <rossf (AT) stamina (DOT) com.au> wrote

OK, a question for you both then ... if I have multiple objects
selected, would you still expect the property window to be ":active"
and allow changes to 'common' properties (relatively obvious if all,
say, text boxes - more "interesting" with say, a text box, text area,
select box and radio group selected [contrived]) ?

Simon Verona wrote:

Ross Ferris wrote:
As Simon says, i develop on a much higher screen res than i envisage
deployment.

Also yes, intellisense, probably makes you a lazy coder, but is just so
usefull.

Ross Ferris wrote:
VS shows only properties that are shared by the controls selected. I
must admit to only really selecting multiple objects/control for the
purposes of moving them, tho i can see that you may want to set a
particular property on each.

Also the abiltiy to move multiple selected objects using the cursor
keys.

Move with the cursor ?!?!

OK, this one has me interested. Why not just drag'n'drop with the
mouse? Why move my hand back to the keyboard when it is already on the
mouse (sorry, I'm a 2 finger typist, and NOT ambidextrous)

Symeon wrote:

Ross Ferris wrote:
Yup - those fine movements are just easier with the keyboard. You find
this a lot in graphics packages, where there are numerous keyboard
shortcuts and the ability to move with the cursor keys. - visio is
another example., each hit of the cursor key advances the selected
object to the next grid snap point.

Symeon wrote:
Assuming all the objects are equi-distant from a grid point (another
contorted scenario where grids were set @ 1 pixel, and grid is now 5
pixels --> some objects may be "on" a grid, other 1 or 2 pixels either
way) .... maybe just move X (grid size) pixels in the direction of the
arrow (we can already align, justify etc from right click context menu)

Thanks Symeon! Keep those ideas flowing about things that you like (or
hate, so we can all avoid [or discuss] developer pitfalls)

Ross Ferris
Stamina Software
Visage > Better by Design!