Hello Phar-ites!
I was at the STIC conference this week, and decided to do a small project in Pharo to "get my feet wet." I ported the "Package Browser" (AKA 6-paned browser) that I prefer to use. the basic idea of it is to parse the system categories into a 2-level hierarchy so that the left-most pane is the top-most packages (Collections, Kernel, System, etc.). If the system is well-organized, this list hardly needs a scroll bar!
Yes, we need to improve how the browser shows the packages. And we need to seriously clean put he packages we haveâ¦. right now it is just far too un-organized and un-browsable.
it is not that bad. You can find a package either directly typing the beginning of its name, or using a shortcut. For classes the short cut is working well. What we should do is to finish the rpackage integration. Because we will be able to get rid of PackageInfo. Esteban is aware of that and working on it so it will arrive soon.
Having some 4th categorization will be needed in some form (4th column is one, having packages that show their content as trees is another).
I'm attaching the code with this letter for your edification.
To use the PackageBrowser, it really helps if the system categories form a nice 2-level hierarchy, as in ,
Collections-Abstract Collections-Arithmetic Collections-Arrayed Graphics-Files Graphics-Fonts Graphics-Primitives etc.
The second file below is a system re-org for a Pharo 2.0 image. Obviously this is quite release-dependent, so it would be good to do this once in the release cycle for 3.0. In the "old days," there were about 12 top-level packages -- will this work in Pharo?
Sadly it is a bit more complex⦠Categories vs. PackageInfo vs. Rpackage⦠we should really do another pass over RPackage. Just recategorizing is not enough, as we are managing the system with Monticello and "just" recategorizing using System Categories is not enoughâ¦
We should not stress about that. If you take any large system you will have many packages. We will get rid of PackageInfo for real soon. So it will be a nice step in the right direction. Stef