[oXygen-user] oXygen File-Open dialog wishes

[George Cristian Bina]

Dear Lars,

Thank you for your message, I filed a bugzilla entry with it.
Version 5.1 is already beta, see:
http://www.oxygenxml.com/pipermail/oxygen-user/2005-January/000345.html
http://www.oxygenxml.com/pipermail/oxygen-user/2005-January/000346.html

Best Regards,
George
P.S. Please join the user list to have the messages sent to the list 
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---------------------------------------------------------------------
George Cristian Bina
<oXygen/> XML Editor, Schema Editor and XSLT Editor/Debugger
http://www.oxygenxml.com


Lars Huttar wrote:
> 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
> 
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