Hi everybody!
I have been compiling Code::Blocks nightly builds for the past several days now. I managed to crash each and one of them just by trying to use Code::Blocks. By "use" I mean, I tried to create a simple program and I used the C::B interface with the mouse. Now, I feel like I should give some input about what the user experience is with C::B. I know you guys must have lots of things to implement, but I would suggest to take the notes below into consideration. I do not claim to be an expert or something, I am trying to help here
I will provide screenshots to support my statements.
Ok, so a bit of info:
OS: Ubuntu Linux 6.06.1, kernel 2.6.17.9-amd64
C::B: 1.0 rev2910 (build 26 August 2006)
wxWidgets: 2.6.3 gtk2, shared, monolithic, unicode
C::B configured as ./configure --enable-contrib
wxWidgets compiled exactly as described here:http://wiki.codeblocks.org/index.php?title=Installing_Code::Blocks_from_source_on_Linux
If you need more info, I will be more than happy to provide it.
Foreword: some of the notes here will discuss interface issues. Please don't say:"It's a wxWidgets problem", because that does not help. If you say: "It's a wxWidgets 2.6.3 problem, you have to use wxWidgets 2.7 and everything will work" then that's the right attitude, otherwise, if something in Code::Blocks doesn't look right, then it's a Code::Blocks issue that must be solved. The importance of the problem doesn't matter in this case, I am trying to report problems, not emphasize their urgency. I would appreciate it if you wouldn't take this as criticism, but rather, a way of helping.
First encounter with Code::Blocks (not my FIRST one, but first for the build)
1 I ran C::B with "./codeblocks", saw the splash screen, everything started up successfully (no error messages). The interface is nice (after changing GTK theme
). A minor thing looks kind of ugly: the links are not fully underlined (like one would expect them to be), but rather, each word is underlined by itself.
2 Menu lacks icons. The menu would be much more user friendly if it had more icons. Also, icons (since they are images) are easier to remember than text (because visual memory tends to be quite developed in everyone).
3 I want to create a project. I go to File->Project. Personally, I think that "Empty file" shouldn't be the first choice, because most people would try to create a source file not just any file, but that depends on the individual. Ok, so a window pops up with lots of things on it. Now this is a user-friendly window, except for a few things.
A The icons do not align correctly.
B The middle window (the one with the white background which contains a list of available project) is too small! I shouldn't have to scroll right to see the rest of the icons (especially at 1600x1200). Now, if you look at the buttons on the right (Go/Cancel), you will see that they have lots of space surrounding them. Why? because of the "View as" panel. Obviously "Large icons" and "List", which are aligned horizontally, take up a lot of space, so the resize the window to the right. If you align them vertically, then the window will look more consistent and the white window (with the list of project) will get additional space, and you don't have to increase the size of the whole window.
C The "Why are some wizards marked in red?" button looks like a quick dirty way of getting rid of the users who where asking you this question: "Why are some wizards marked in red?". I suspect that this button will be removed, but, just to make sure, I will still say that I couldn't see any wizards marked in red. Seriously, I double checked. Maybe I am missing something there (like some custom scripts), but, as far as I am concerned, that button is useless and should be removed. If it has to stay in the release, then you guys should come up with a different way of explaining this question, because that button smells like bad design. I would suggest a tooltip or something similar.
D Since I had to scroll to the right in order to see all the projects, I thought I would have them be arranged as a list, and scroll vertically (which is much more convenient, because people can use the mouse scroll). I clicked on the "List" radio button. All the icons disappeared. Selecting "Build targets", or something else from that window didnt help. Apparently, I should have clicked on a Category to refresh the list. I think that list should be refreshed when I click on "Large icons" or "List".
So now I complete the steps of the little cool wizard. I really like it, by the way. A new project opens up.
4By default, main.cpp does not open in the editor.
I have to manually open it. Not a big deal, but still an annoyance. It's the little useful unnoticeable things that make you like a program.
5 Code completion: a painful topic, I know. It's being redesigned, I know. But, where is the code suggestion in this simple code?
Nothing appeared, and as far as I know, I should be presented with a list of methods and properties which I can choose from. A really useful tool, and I can't find it to work well anywhere, except Visual Studio and Borland Delphi (and other software from big companies).
So I thought.. "Ok, let me create a class". And I did. I created a class "Google", which has 4 public methods. I then created 1 instance of that class called SearchEngine, and .. guess what: SearchEngine-> doesn't do anything. I was expecting to see the 4 public methods of class Google. I can see the cursor changing to "Busy" for a split of a second, which means that it is actually searching, but it didnt find anything.
6Symbols browser - the most annoying thing in C::B.
A It wasn't wide enough and I tried to resize it. C::B crashed.
This is the output from C::B:
Steps to reproduce 1. Open C::B
2. Go to File-> New -> Project
3. Choose Console Application
4. Complete the Wizard
5. In the Management window, double click on Sources->main.cpp
6. Click once in the editor window
7. Grab the separator that splits the editor from the symbols browser. Drag 5 cm left. Sometimes it crashes after the first drag and drop. If it didnt crash, drag the separator left one more time. It will crash with the above error message printed in the console.
If there is no project opened, moving the separator did not crash Code Blocks. Most of the times, you dont even have to open main.cpp and click in the window. Just create a new Console project and try to resize the Symbols browser. I always get the same error.
I even got this error when double-clicking on main.cpp, but I couldn't reproduce it.
On a different occasion, while editing the text and then resizing the Symbold Browser, I got this error:
(codeblocks:4439): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_queue_push_head_link: assertion `link->next == NULL' failed
codeblocks: cairo-ft-font.c:678: _cairo_ft_unscaled_font_set_scale: Assertion `error == 0' failed.
Aborted
However, I couldn't reproduce this either.
When i started up Code::Blocks again, it deleted the lock
B - Code Completion and Symbols Browser - Finally I saw my classes
Who would have ever thought, that in order for the Code Completion to work, and the Symbols browser to display the symbols, you have to SAVE the file first. Yes, I had to find the hard way. Come on guys, you can't make me save after each declaration of a function. Everyone saves whenever he/she wants, this shouldn't be enforced. In this case I didn't even think of saving, because it was a simple test class, and i didn't even bother saving. However, Symbol browser and Code Completion should have been aware of the Google class.
Also, I would recommend the Code Completion box to display methods, classes and properties with their types and parameters. for example:
int Google1(int,int,int)
void PrintX(string,string,string)
void PrintX(float)
void PrintX(int)
string Message
This is much more helpful than just displaying the name and an icon in the front of the method name. The Code Completion is not the case to rely only on icons. I want to know the type and the parameters that the methods take. It's ok if the Code completion popup is wider than 75pixels (or whatever its average width is). Even on a 800x600 you would probably fit most of the parameters there. Another idea is to display only several arguments of the function, and if they are too many, replace the rest by a "..." at the end. I think this will be really appreciated by the users, as it is not a matter of taste. It is obviously very useful if you have functions with the same name that take different parameters.
I have to stop at this point, I will try to find more bugs as I find more free time.
In conclusionI would like to say that I really like Code::Blocks. I don't know why, I just feel that it has huge potential. I tried Anjuta, Dev-Cpp, KDevelop, Eclipse and god knows what else, and I still prefer Code::Blocks. I used it on Windows a month ago, and I fell inlove with it
But I think it has a long way to go. Until a stable version is released, I will keep reporting bugs so that they get fixed as soon as possible
