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Bug 367181

Summary:	[Run/Debug History] menus enabled even if history is empty
Product:	[Eclipse Project] Platform	Reporter:	Helmut J. Haigermoser <helmut.haigermoser>
Component:	Debug	Assignee:	Platform-Debug-Inbox <platform-debug-inbox>
Status:	CLOSED WONTFIX	QA Contact:
Severity:	normal
Priority:	P3	CC:	pawel.1.piech, remy.suen
Version:	3.7.1
Target Milestone:	---
Hardware:	All
OS:	All
Whiteboard:	stalebug

Description Helmut J. Haigermoser

2011-12-20 08:00:57 EST

Build Identifier: 

Found an ancient bugzilla, https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=9756, that asks for disabling the "Run History" and "Debug History" context menus in cases where no history is available, that bugzilla is in verified state since 2002.

In 3.7.1 these menus are enabled but show an entry "(no launch history)" instead, can we change that to them being disabled again?

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Open fresh Eclipse
2. Check Run->Run History menu for enablement

Comment 1 Helmut J. Haigermoser

2011-12-20 08:01:16 EST

CQ:WIND00084496

Comment 2 Pawel Piech

2011-12-23 18:33:07 EST

I've had this discussion in the past about other sub-menus.  IMO, it's better to have a sub-menu with an "empty" entry in it than to disable the sub-menu.  When a sub-menu is disabled, user doesn't know whether there are no items available in the sub-menu or whether the whole category of action is not available for some reason (e.g. in this case launching).  Any other opinions?

Comment 3 Helmut J. Haigermoser

2012-01-02 04:24:41 EST

(In reply to comment #2)
> I've had this discussion in the past about other sub-menus.  IMO, it's better
> to have a sub-menu with an "empty" entry in it than to disable the sub-menu. 
> When a sub-menu is disabled, user doesn't know whether there are no items
> available in the sub-menu or whether the whole category of action is not
> available for some reason (e.g. in this case launching).  Any other opinions?

Hi Pawel :)
Opening a menu only to find it empty is a dead end UI experience that seems to be less intuitive than greying out the whole menu but I do see your point, if we had scenarios that wanted to grey out menus even if they had valid content in them ...

Architecturally speaking I think we should try to treat these menus like the majority of other Eclipse menus, is there a design guideline from Eclipse that would help us solve this? I would gladly see this bug in "Reject/WORKS for ME" state referencing the design guideline with no code change necessary if others have already implemented menus this way....

Helmut

Comment 4 Lars Vogel

2019-11-14 03:49:56 EST

This bug hasn't had any activity in quite some time. Maybe the problem got resolved, was a duplicate of something else, or became less pressing for some reason - or maybe it's still relevant but just hasn't been looked at yet.

If you have further information on the current state of the bug, please add it. The information can be, for example, that the problem still occurs, that you still want the feature, that more information is needed, or that the bug is (for whatever reason) no longer relevant.

If the bug is still relevant, please remove the "stalebug" whiteboard tag.