[Openmcl-devel] Visual Bugs in the IDE

[Alexander Repenning]

you have my vote too for the black text color. I don't mind the  
console looking different but the red font does look a tad disturbing.  
When running our event code in LUI we do produce output which always  
ends up in the AltConsole. At any rate this should not be hard to  
"fix". I suggest to include a config file for the console, e.g.,

textColor = "000000"  /* black

This way everybody can have it their way.

Here is a harder problem that we face: The console is fine for  
developer mode but in end-user mode, i.e., when using CCL to create a  
complete app without listener and with custom menus we absolutely  
cannot have the Altconsole. In MCL this was not exactly trivial to  
achieve either. We had to create a pretty complex conditions handler  
case that would catch all the conditions, present them in a standard  
dialog, e.g., simple-condition: division-by-zero "OK" and continue in  
some meaningful way, e.g., stop simulation, adjust controls such as  
run/stop/step buttons, and restart the event loop. Using native  
threads I can already anticipate tricky challenges but if CCL is to be  
used to build "real" applications this kind of functionality is rather  
crucial.

What to do?

Alex



On May 20, 2009, at 7:43 PM, John McAleely wrote:

>>> Is there a reason why the text in it is red, and not black like  
>>> every
>>> other window?
>>
>> Because it's not like every other window ?
>>
>> AltConsole is a (small) separate application; it's supposed to  
>> provide
>> a primitive terminal-like interface to GUI applications that don't
>> ordinarily have such an interface.  If its window appears, there's
>> a good chance that that's because of something anomalous and that
>> something probably requires user or developer attention.
>
> I understand the special status of this application window, and I
> empathise with the attempt to draw attention to it.
>
> However, the text is marginally harder to read, and I fail to believe
> colouring it red provides any meaningful extra information to a
> developer or user. I feel it also manages to look surprisingly like
> some sort of bug itself.
>
> J
>
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Prof. Alexander Repenning

University of Colorado
Computer Science Department
Boulder, CO 80309-430

vCard: http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~ralex/AlexanderRepenning.vcf


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