Chapter 3 Browsers Enhancements : Enhanced List Support

Enhanced List Support
VA Assist Pro brings an advanced look and feel to VA Smalltalk. Gone are the simple black and white lists and simple hierarchical views. VA Assist Pro replaces the simple lists in all of the standard browsers with enhanced lists capable of displaying icons and color. Careful use of icons and color greatly increases the information bandwidth available to the developer. Examples include:
Use of color to indicate changed or scratch editions. Unversioned classes and applications are displayed in blue as are any methods that are new to those classes. Scratch applications and any classes or methods that have been changed within them are displayed in red.
Unreleased classes C:\Users\documentation\Documents\vastePublisher\stable\VAS Documentation Word\images\vaast\vaast-3.02.jpg and applications C:\Users\documentation\Documents\vastePublisher\stable\VAS Documentation Word\images\vaast\vaast-3.03.jpg are displayed with a green icon. Names and version numbers associated with unreleased subapplications are shown in lavender; names and version numbers of released subapplications are shown in black. Scratch classes C:\Users\documentation\Documents\vastePublisher\stable\VAS Documentation Word\images\vaast\vaast-3.04.jpg or applications C:\Users\documentation\Documents\vastePublisher\stable\VAS Documentation Word\images\vaast\vaast-3.05.jpg have a red “x” in their centers.
The icons of defined C:\Users\documentation\Documents\vastePublisher\stable\VAS Documentation Word\images\vaast\vaast-3.06.jpg and extended C:\Users\documentation\Documents\vastePublisher\stable\VAS Documentation Word\images\vaast\vaast-3.07.jpg classes are differentiated from one another, just as the controlling application C:\Users\documentation\Documents\vastePublisher\stable\VAS Documentation Word\images\vaast\vaast-3.08.jpg of a class is differentiated from other applications C:\Users\documentation\Documents\vastePublisher\stable\VAS Documentation Word\images\vaast\vaast-3.09.jpg that extend the class.
Loaded applications C:\Users\documentation\Documents\vastePublisher\stable\VAS Documentation Word\images\vaast\vaast-3.10.jpg and configuration maps C:\Users\documentation\Documents\vastePublisher\stable\VAS Documentation Word\images\vaast\vaast-3.11.jpg are differentiated from unloaded ones C:\Users\documentation\Documents\vastePublisher\stable\VAS Documentation Word\images\vaast\vaast-3.12.jpg C:\Users\documentation\Documents\vastePublisher\stable\VAS Documentation Word\images\vaast\vaast-3.13.jpg in the Application Configurations Browser and the Configuration Maps Browser. Loaded classes C:\Users\documentation\Documents\vastePublisher\stable\VAS Documentation Word\images\vaast\vaast-3.14.jpg are differentiated from unloaded ones C:\Users\documentation\Documents\vastePublisher\stable\VAS Documentation Word\images\vaast\vaast-3.15.jpg.
The manager C:\Users\documentation\Documents\vastePublisher\stable\VAS Documentation Word\images\vaast\vaast-3.16.jpg of an application is differentiated from other group members C:\Users\documentation\Documents\vastePublisher\stable\VAS Documentation Word\images\vaast\vaast-3.17.jpg.
Public C:\Users\documentation\Documents\vastePublisher\stable\VAS Documentation Word\images\vaast\vaast-3.18.jpg and private C:\Users\documentation\Documents\vastePublisher\stable\VAS Documentation Word\images\vaast\vaast-3.19.jpg instance methods are differentiated from one another.
Empty categories and hidden classes are grayed out.
Various attribute icons are used to indicate various special characteristics of classes and methods. Classes are marked whether they are abstract C:\Users\documentation\Documents\vastePublisher\stable\VAS Documentation Word\images\vaast\vaast-3.20.jpg or not, runnable C:\Users\documentation\Documents\vastePublisher\stable\VAS Documentation Word\images\vaast\vaast-3.21.jpg or not, Composition Editor C:\Users\documentation\Documents\vastePublisher\stable\VAS Documentation Word\images\vaast\vaast-3.22.jpg or WindowBuilder Pro C:\Users\documentation\Documents\vastePublisher\stable\VAS Documentation Word\images\vaast\vaast-3.23.jpg created, etc. Methods are marked whether they are abstract C:\Users\documentation\Documents\vastePublisher\stable\VAS Documentation Word\images\vaast\vaast-3.24.jpg or not, whether they are subclass overrides C:\Users\documentation\Documents\vastePublisher\stable\VAS Documentation Word\images\vaast\vaast-3.25.jpg, whether they are special GUI builder generated methods C:\Users\documentation\Documents\vastePublisher\stable\VAS Documentation Word\images\vaast\vaast-3.26.jpg C:\Users\documentation\Documents\vastePublisher\stable\VAS Documentation Word\images\vaast\vaast-3.27.jpg or whether they reference a missing method C:\Users\documentation\Documents\vastePublisher\stable\VAS Documentation Word\images\vaast\vaast-3.28.jpg.
The various attribute icons and colors may be individually controlled via the (Options | Enhanced List Widgets) commands.
 
C:\Users\documentation\Documents\vastePublisher\stable\VAS Documentation Word\images\vaast\vaast-3.29.jpg
C:\Users\documentation\Documents\vastePublisher\stable\VAS Documentation Word\images\vaast\vaast-3.30.jpg
Some of the attribute and color calculations may be expensive of slower hardware so you can experiment with turning them on and off individually or as a group.
The background color of the enhanced lists may be controlled via the (Options | Enhanced List Widgets | Set List Background Color) command.
C:\Users\documentation\Documents\vastePublisher\stable\VAS Documentation Word\images\vaast\vaast_3_colorpal.png
Hover help expansion of list elements in the enhanced lists may be controlled via the (Options | Enhanced List Widgets | Show Hover Help) command.