[oXygen-user] oXygen File-Open dialog wishes

[Lars Huttar]

Dear oXygen folks,
I have just purchased an academic license to oXygen, with 1-yr maintenance.
Maybe this is a good time to express some of my wishes for Oxygen that 
have held me back from purchasing till now.
I'm using version 5.0, so maybe some of this is fixed in 5.1.

#1: Better directory-browsing functionality in File-Open dialog.
This is a major reason why I still often use XMLSpy instead of oXygen. 
When you press Ctrl+O, the Open dialog that appears isn't the native 
Windows File-Open dialog, and doesn't meet expectations in some 
significant ways. I'm sure this is due to Oxygen being a cross-platform 
Java program. But I would hope that that doesn't mean the interface has 
to be inferior.

a) Can't follow shortcuts. My code base is located several directories 
deep, so to get there, in XMLSpy I first open c:\mount.lnk, which is a 
shortcut to the actual codebase. When I select mount.lnk (e.g. 
double-click, or press Enter) the dialog stays open, but displays the 
folder that the shortcut points to. In Oxygen, it apparently attempts to 
open "mount.lnk" as a file, with no useful result. So I have to navigate 
the whole path by hand.

b) File/folder name completion. As I start typing the name of the file, 
a native Windows dialog would suggest possible completions, and let me 
select using the up/down arrow keys. Oxygen does not.

c) Type-to-find doesn't autoscroll. If you put focus in the pane of the 
Open dialog that lists all the files, and you type letters, the 
selection moves to the file/folder that begins with those letters; but 
if the newly selected file/folder happens to be one that is not showing 
on the screen (e.g. it's off to the right because there are too many 
files to show at once), the pane doesn't auto-scroll. Manual scrolling 
is required, which detracts from the ergonomic benefit of type-to-find.

d) Pressing Enter after typing a folder name doesn't remove the folder 
name from the "File name" field. E.g. if you are in c:\Program Files and 
you type Apache Group and press Enter, the dialog shows the subfolders 
of c:\Program Files\Apache Group, but leaves "Apache Group" in the File 
name field. (Expectation: Apache Group would disappear, since it is not 
needed relative to the folder that is being shown, i.e. Apache Group.) 
So if you continue typing the name of a subfolder, you get "Apache 
Group\cocoon" in the File name field, and if you press Enter/OK, you 
will not see the contents of the cocoon subfolder. (Instead it will 
apparentlyl try to open c:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache Group\cocoon.)

e) If any of the above behavior leads to attempting to open a file that 
doesn't exist, Oxygen still closes the File-Open dialog and tries to 
open the file; thus I lose the File-Open dialog and have to hit Ctrl+O 
again. It would be nicer if the File-Open dialog would (beep or 
something and) stay open unless you click Cancel.

f) (This is more icing on the cake...) In a native Windows file-Open 
dialog, you can perform other operations in the dialog, such as renaming 
or deleting files. This is often handy: e.g. if you want to save the 
file you're working on to a filename that already exists. In Oxygen you 
can't do this.

That's probably enough for now.

Lest I sound overly negative, let me say that the benefits of Oxygen 
have outweighed its limitations enough that I was willing to pay for it, 
vs. the free XMLSpy Home Edition. For example, the responsiveness to 
problems posted on this list has been a good selling point.

I hope to see Oxygen improve to the point where I use it without having 
regretful thoughts about what I left behind.

Lars