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

[Brian Granger]

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