Re: [OBO-Edit Working Group] Should all components start out docked by default?

[Nomi H. <nlh...@gm...>]

On Feb 26, 2008, at 3:12 AM, Midori Harris wrote:

>
> On Mon, 25 Feb 2008, Chris Mungall wrote:
>
>> On Feb 25, 2008, at 1:52 PM, Nomi Harris wrote:
>>
>>> I noticed that the help page for the Configuration Manager says:
>>>> The Configuration Manager lets you control some of the settings in
>>>> OBO-Edit.
>>>> It shows up as a free-floating window in the default Edit layout;
>>>> you can also
>>>> bring it up with [View]->[Show]->[Config]->[Configuration Manager].
>>>>
>>>
>>> However, the default Edit layout does not currently appear to  
>>> include
>>> the Configuration Manager.  I can save a new Edit layout that  
>>> includes
>>> the Configuration Manager, either docked or undocked (in which  
>>> case it
>>> comes up hidden BEHIND the main OE window--not so obvious).  If we
>>> want it docked, someone needs to decide where it should fit.
>
> Wouldn't it be easier just to change that bit of the documentation?

Either one (changing documentation or changing behavior) is easy.  I'm  
just trying to determine what users want.  When I read something in  
the userguide and the current OE is not behaving that way, I don't  
know whether it has lost a desired behavior or whether it is behaving  
the way users want and thus the documentation should be changed.

> I don't think we really need a default layout that includes the
> Configuration Manager, because we only occasionally need to use it.

Sounds reasonable.

>>> I agree that DAGView should default to being docked, and perhaps
>>> ConfigurationManager as well.  I'm less convinced that  
>>> ReasonerManager
>>> and SemanticParserManager should be docked.  You don't usually need
>>> them hanging around.  What do real users think?
>
> In the SF item I voted in favor of having them docked simply because  
> that
> would make for consistent behavior -- every time you call up any
> component, it's docked. Otherwise we have to try to guess which  
> components
> people would expect to see docked, and which ones floating ... and of
> course not everyone will have the same opinions ... I just think we  
> save
> ourselves some hassle by making all components do the same thing by
> default, but make tha behavior configurable.

I can certainly make all of these components come up docked by  
default.  Making that configurable (i.e., "midori doesn't have a  
Configuration Manager in her layout, but whenever she asks for one,  
make it floating rather than docked") would be non-trivial.  We can  
put that on the Features request list.

>
>> Whilst we are on the subject of naming, is "manager" the best name
>> for these things?
>
> "Manager" is good for the Configuration Manager, but the Reasoner  
> Manager
> is just an on/off switch, plus a little "reasoning completed" report.
> There's nothing much to manage. Could it just be called "Reasoner"?

Reasoner suggests that that little panel is actually *doing* the  
reasoning, whereas in fact it's just a control that turns reasoning on  
or off (though it is true that if you turn reasoning on it immediately  
invokes the reasoner to do the reasoning on the spot--but after that  
it runs quietly in the background).

I'm going to write a separate note about the SemanticParser Manager so  
it doesn't get buried in this note.

	Nomi