[IPython-dev] Help testing new UI for the notebook

[Brian Granger]

Aaron,

Thanks for looking at this!

On Wed, Jan 11, 2012 at 5:36 AM, Aaron Meurer <asmeurer at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi.
>
> I just tried them both. I used Chrome.
>
> In wihmoize:
>
> - There is a bug where the menus can remain blue after the menu has
> disappeared.

Yep, that is one that I can't easily fix.

> - The menus are maybe a little choppy, but it's not too bad. The menus
> are too slow to disappear after being deselected, but that's annoying
> at best. Granted, Chrome is the most responsive browser, and I didn't
> try it in others. If anything, this is more responsive, in terms the
> UI updating when I move up and down in the menus.  Also, the popup
> dialogs felt a little more responsive (i.e., when moving them around),
> but the difference on my machine could be considered negligible.

Interesting.  I am on Chrome and the choppiness (compared with the
dewijmoize version) is horrible.  The behavior of the popups should be
exacly the same though.

> - As far as UI goes, I like this one better.  I guess you'll have to
> play around with a lot of actual use to see if automatically opening
> the menu or only when clicked is better (given the precedence of
> virtually every other GUI, though, it's probably the latter).

Yes, I agree that click to open is more standard.  Unfortunately that
mode is completely broken in the Wijmo and the devs have not responded
to my emails.

> In dewhimoize:
>
> - There is a similar bug to above. If you click on a menu, then click
> again to deselect, it still remains highlighted.

Yes, I have seen this as well, although it is more difficult to
trigger than in the wijmoize version.

> - Selecting the first menu item when the menu is open and the mouse is
> over the menu title is confusing (I first thought it was some kind of
> "default" or something).

Yes, for now we are stuck with this.  We would have to contribute code
to jquery to fix this.  But at least that is an option (Wijmo is not
openly developed as there is a commercial version).

> Unless these things are hard-coded into the libraries, I don't see any
> difference between the two yet to suggest one over the other.
> Obviously some things are implemented in one that aren't in the other.

Yes most of the things you bring up are hard-coded.  Because jquery is
openly developed and has a solid community, it makes me more at ease.

> Unrelated note: I noticed that the SymPy docs link in the help menu
> links to the dev docs.  This should probably link to the release docs.

OK I will fix that.

> Aaron Meurer
>
> On Tue, Jan 10, 2012 at 10:51 PM, Brian Granger <ellisonbg at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I have developed a new menu based UI for the notebook.  There are two versions:
>>
>> * One that uses Wjimo (a jQuery widget library):
>>
>> https://github.com/ellisonbg/ipython/tree/wijmoize
>>
>> This Wijmo based version was my first attempt.  Wijmo has a very
>> polished look (we have been using one of its themes "Aristo" for
>> months now).  But, as I got going, I found that the usability of the
>> menus was lacking.  The menu flyout animation is clunky and slow, I
>> can't get the menus to open with a click (only on mouseover) and there
>> are lots of minor glitches.  Documentation is also not great and no
>> one has replied to multiple posts on their forums.
>>
>> * One that uses a dev branch of jQueryUI:
>>
>> https://github.com/ellisonbg/ipython/tree/dewijmoize
>>
>> jQuery UI has been working on menu/menubar widgets for some time now.
>> The version I am using is in a dev branch (not even master).
>> Surprisingly, the usability is much better than the Wijmo based
>> version.  Everything is snappy and quick and things just work.  jQuery
>> UI is pretty solid, so even though this is pre-release quality, I
>> trust it - and it tends to be clean, well documented code.  Downsides:
>> we are back to a basic jquery theme, no keyboard shortcuts in menu
>> items.
>>
>> 1: PLEASE play with the notebook in both of these branches and give me
>> feedback.  I am moving quickly these days, so we need to decide on
>> which version we like better ASAP.
>>
>> 2. If we move away from Wijmo, we will be stuck with the basic theme
>> for now.  We can use themeroller to *help* us generate a new theme,
>> but it will be ome extra work as the themes it generates don't work
>> with the dev version:
>>
>> http://jqueryui.com/themeroller/
>>
>> Happy notebooking!
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Brian
>>
>>
>> --
>> Brian E. Granger
>> Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo
>> bgranger at calpoly.edu and ellisonbg at gmail.com
>> _______________________________________________
>> IPython-dev mailing list
>> IPython-dev at scipy.org
>> http://mail.scipy.org/mailman/listinfo/ipython-dev



-- 
Brian E. Granger
Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo
bgranger at calpoly.edu and ellisonbg at gmail.com