App Browser versus Project Browser

[Martin Koob]

J. Landman Gay wrote
> On 10/7/2015 6:20 PM, Scott Rossi wrote:
>> IMO, Jacque makes a number of valid points.  In the Project Browser,
>> because stacks and cards are contained in the single view, a long list of
>> controls will remove any stack and card references from view, while in
>> the
>> Application Browser, stacks and cards are always visible.  It seems like
>> applying an Application Browser layout to the Project Browser could make
>> it more useful: move stack/card references to a left pane that is always
>> visible.
>>
>> For myself, I also often rely on numerical references: card numbers,
>> layer
>> numbers, etc.  Filtering in the Project Browser is great, but it's not
>> the
>> same as sorting offered by the Application Browser (AFAICT the Project
>> Browser doesn't offer sorting that I can see).
> 
> You can choose to sort layers from top to bottom, or bottom to top in 
> Preferences, but there's no option to sort by anything other than layers.
> 
> Suppose the project browser had a slide-out left panel that listed the 
> stacks and cards, like the app browser does now? Maybe it could be a 
> preference, and if it's turned off, the PB works the way it currently 
> does. If the panel option is turned on, it would keep its selection but 
> get out of the way if you need the screen space. People could choose if 
> they wanted to view by stack/card/object hierarchy with a panel, or just 
> single-list as it is now.
> 
> I definitely need card numbers and object IDs.

I use the project browser exclusively but the main stack in my project has
only 3 cards but with lots of objects on the cards many of which are in
nested groups so the ability to drill down into nested groups is why I like
project browser. So having all the cards in view is not really an issue for
me. However,  Jacque's post encouraged me to look at AB to see how that
would work for me and I can see the benefits she points out.

The other feature I like about PB is the filter.  Sometimes in a script
there is a reference to an object that I need to manipulate using the
property inspector or edit the script of as I use lots of dispatches and
sends.  To find the object and open its script I can quickly enter it in the
filter and find it and open the property inspector.  In the application
browser I don't see a find or filter function.  I also use filter if I am
trying to go from memory to find an object and typing the partial name of
the object allows me to find it.  

The one thing I dislike about filter feature is that once an object is
selected from the filtered list you can't then see the objects that are
above it and below it in the hierarchy.  If I remove the search term from
the filter then the object that I selected from the filtered list is no
longer visible in the pane. There should be a way to turn off the filter and
then all objects are visible again but the object that you selected from the
filtered list stays where it is in the pane so you can then see where it is
in the hierarchy and access its children or parent.

I like the suggestion about a two pane approach with the Left pane being the
AB and right Pane being the PB or the right pane being able to toggle
between a PB or AB approach to viewing the hierarchy.

In another part of this thread there is a discussion of merging the AB/PB
with the script editor.  I think that is an interesting idea.  One feature I
think would be useful would be the ability to right click on the name of an
object in the script editor and have a contextual menu come up with a 'go to
object' menu item that would hilite the object in the PB/AB just as when
right clicking on a handler you get the 'go to definition' menu item.  There
could also be a 'go to object script' menu item.  This would be useful with
send or dispatch commands to be able to jump to the script of the object
that it was being dispatched to. 

One question though  Jacque says she uses the object IDs in the AB.  I don't
see a column for object IDs in the AB.  Is it a preference to choose which
columns are shown?

Martin




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