Add “Open Trace” option to File menu

eclipse-cdt-cloud / theia-trace-extension

Eclipse Theia trace viewer extension using the Trace Server Protocol (TSP), through the tsp-typescript-client. Also the home for reusable JavaScript libraries: traceviewer-base, traceviewer-react-components

MIT License

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Add “Open Trace” option to File menu #159

Open ebugden opened 4 years ago

ebugden commented 4 years ago

Adding an “Open Trace” option in the File menu keeps this operation intuitive (by imitating how any file is opened).

The "Open Trace" button #160 covers the case where no traces are open.
Using file menu to open additional traces would be the user's first reflex.

Note: When a new trace is opened, the IDE navigates automatically to the trace viewer tab

Position in menu

Suggestion: “Open Trace” could be in a separate menu section to distinguish it from the other standard IDE open operations: file-menu-open-trace

Alternative: “Open Trace” could also be further down to avoid breaking up the more standard IDE operations. This would create a bit more discontinuity in the menu list since all the “Open” and the “Save” operations would not be grouped: file-menu-open-trace-2

bhufmann commented 3 years ago

If I'm not mistaken, a VsCode extension won't be able to contribute to the main menu [1], while a Theia extensions would allow it. I think it's to keep the main menu to a small set of commands relevant to IDEs. The commands are available through CTRL+SHIFT+P and typing the command name.

If we add it now as part of the Theia extension, then when switching to VsCode extension the "Open Trace" main menu will be removed. If users would want to keep it, than Theia extension would need to be build and added there.

I wonder if we don't add it in to the main menu and have available through:

context sensitive menu in file explorer
Open button in trace explorer (#186)
CTRL+SHIFT+P + "Open Trace"

Any thoughts?

[1] https://code.visualstudio.com/api/references/contribution-points#contributes.menus.

ebugden commented 3 years ago

To clarify, would adding the file menu code to a VS Code extension break the plugin for VS Code? Or would VS Code just throw an internal exception and ignore that section of the code without breaking?

ebugden commented 3 years ago

@bhufmann @muddana-satish At the moment, I'm comfortable with not adding the "Open Trace" option to the file menu. It's true that it's an atypical operation for most users.

I also agree with the three alternatives suggested for opening traces (Right-click menu in file explorer, open button in trace explorer, CTRL+SHIFT+P + "Open Trace")

bhufmann commented 3 years ago

To clarify, would adding the file menu code to a VS Code extension break the plugin for VS Code? Or would VS Code just throw an internal exception and ignore that section of the code without breaking?

There is no API to add commands to the file menu when using VsCode as far as I know.

ebugden commented 3 years ago

I also agree with the three alternatives suggested for opening traces (Right-click menu in file explorer, open button in trace explorer, CTRL+SHIFT+P + "Open Trace")

I just remembered why I even wanted an "Open Trace" option in the File menu: It's the obvious UX friendly way to open more traces if you already have one open. (Issue description updated)

The "Open Trace" button #160 covers the case where no traces are open.
Currently, there is no intuitive way to open traces if one is already open. I created a new issue to discuss this: #193
I argue that the alternatives (Right-click in the file explorer, CTRL+SHIFT+P + "Open Trace") are convenient "pro speedrunning strats", but definitely wouldn't be the user's first reflex.

ebugden commented 3 years ago

Since using the File menu really would be the user's first reflex for opening additional traces, should we save this feature to be added to a more tailored for Theia version down the line? We could change the milestone on this issue.