Enhanced List Support

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.

$C:\Users\documentation\Documents\vastePublisher\stable\VAS Documentation Word\images\vaast\vaast-3.29.jpg$

$C:\Users\documentation\Documents\vastePublisher\stable\VAS Documentation Word\images\vaast\vaast-3.30.jpg$

Show Item Colors menu

Show Attributes menu

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.

$C:\Users\documentation\Documents\vastePublisher\stable\VAS Documentation Word\images\vaast\vaast-3.29.jpg$	$C:\Users\documentation\Documents\vastePublisher\stable\VAS Documentation Word\images\vaast\vaast-3.30.jpg$
Show Item Colors menu	Show Attributes menu