Andreas, You are not alone. I too suffer from tooManyWindowsItis ... I am also doing something about it:) The project is in it's very early stages ... I'm drawing on kraft paper with fat crayons ... but I am encouraged by the results so far. The system is called tODE "the Object (centric) Development Environment" and is written in Seaside, so it is javascript/web browser based. I am developing the system in Pharo, but it is targeted as the next generation development environment for GLASS. I've enclosed a screenshot ... the system uses a single tab in the web-browser, but provides it's own www-style navigation through the Smalltalk object-space (so it is a browser inside of a browser) ... each of the tODE tabs is a view on an object and each object is wrapped by a TOObjectFrame that holds onto the tODE-specific state ... links take you to other objects ... you type Smalltalk-expressions in the input area at the top (and in the workspace tab)... I'm not a javascript guy (which is where the fat crayons come into play:)...You can inspect stacks in a "debugger", I've started work on the Metacello tab....etc. With only one window, you never have to open/close another window!:) and with infinite history (at the bottom) you never lose the ability to go back to a previous object ... The framework is very small: 21 classes in the TOOBject hierarchy and another 20 support classes, but being built on top of Seaside, it can't be called "light weight". It is designed to be easily customizable and extensible through the use of pragmas ... I have just started using the system for development (you got to eat your own dog food), but often have to fall back into Pharo, so the system is really not ready for folks to play with ... yet... I need to solve the debugger issues before I can feel comfortable with letting folks play with it:) Finally, while tODE is written on top of Seaside, I don't think that I'm leveraging Seaside for much more than rendering and javascript generation, which means that tODE could be adapted to other GUI frameworks ...I imagine ... Dale ----- Original Message -----
After following the discussion for some time, I have the impression that there are some smalltalkers suffering similar usability problems like my friend and me and some more or less enjoy the actual state. Dolphin 6 Professional introduced IdeaSpace. With that you can have both - single windows and tabbed windows. It's up to the user to either open windows outside IdeaSpace as independent windows or inside IdeaSpace as tabbed windows. Having the free choice is a good thing. Especially if you don't want to alienate newcomers that are used to use tabbed windows. I like this approach.
I haven't looked at TWM yet due to lack of time. I am hardly able to read the mail traffic in the evenings. But I asked my friend to have a look at it. He promised to do so although it's not suited to Pharo 1.2.1. As Pharo 1.3 is not yet stable I fear that he might have new problems in other areas.
What strikes me during this discussion is that nobody seem to have the same problem with window sizes and positions. I don't like RealEstateAgent and I don't think that a revamped one will solve the problems. At least as long it doesn't provide the possibility to set sizes on the fly. No algorithm can guess the requirements of all users. I also haven't heard about applications written in Squeak or Pharo and what about user thereof think about the usability. IMO there is a lack of an appropriate framework for dealing with such things. Or is everybody developing web applications nowadays?
I have a hard time to promote Smalltalk because of its actual state. I always tell people about my favorite programming language, but I also tell them that alas there is no good implementation of it available. This is sad but true, even if Pharo and Squeak made big progress during the last months. Both, Squeak and Pharo, aren't products but just tools. And that makes a big difference. The commercial products have characteristics that make them not very attractive to people not yet involved. Despite Dolphin they all have dated user interfaces, too. When I try to convince people to have a look at Dolphin they typically tell me: very nice but it seems to be dead already.
Regards, Andreas
