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Bug 522418

Summary: Quick Access result popup should be bigger
Product: [Eclipse Project] Platform Reporter: Mickael Istria <mistria>
Component: IDEAssignee: Mickael Istria <mistria>
Status: RESOLVED FIXED QA Contact:
Severity: enhancement    
Priority: P3 CC: daniel_megert, Lars.Vogel, ldegruchy, loskutov
Version: 4.6   
Target Milestone: 4.8 M3   
Hardware: All   
OS: All   
See Also: https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=432655
https://git.eclipse.org/r/105375
https://git.eclipse.org/c/platform/eclipse.platform.ui.git/commit/?id=965c3254cc4bbbb436472ff8ea6cf9765987f796
Whiteboard:
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Description Flags
Proposed size (manul) none

Description Mickael Istria CLA 2017-09-18 06:33:34 EDT 
http://ldegruchy.blogspot.fr/2017/09/why-i-switched-from-eclipse-to-intellij.html

It suggests that the quick access results aren't given enough space for efficient reading/usage. We should increase the default size of the results pop-up to keep entire label as much as possible and allow to show a long enough list to easily spot the interesting entry.
Comment 1 Lars Vogel CLA 2017-09-18 15:45:43 EDT 
+1
Comment 2 Luke deGruchy CLA 2017-09-18 21:24:10 EDT 
As the writer of the linked blog, I would add that the Quick Access results should appear in the centre of the page, not off to the side.

I see parallels between macOS's Spotlight and this feature.  Spotlight search results used to be displayed on the top right corner prior to Yosemite.  In Yosemite, they were moved to the centre of the screen and made more prominent.
Comment 3 Mickael Istria CLA 2017-09-19 03:09:49 EDT 
Created attachment 270253 [details]
Proposed size (manul)

Thanks for your participation Luke!
On the attached screenshot, here is a proposal of how this could look like. It's only been done with a manual resize of the box so far, so this would probably be very easy to implement and would probably make a good approach for a 1st iteration.
As you can see, the box isn't exactly in the middle, but is given a lot of space (about 60% width of the application, 80% height) so it's really prominent.

If we want to place this in the middle, it would "detach" it from the box on top-right where user currently fills the info. We could try to do different (some proposed a dialog and so on), but it would be way more work, so I don't think it would easily make it to the top of the TODO-list of any contributor ;)

So, would this proposal already be a good improvement in your opinion?
Comment 4 Lars Vogel CLA 2017-09-19 03:12:35 EDT 
Alternativ implementation would be to open the dialog (already centered and big), as soon as the user types into the Quick Access box. 

@Luke/Mickael wdyt?
Comment 5 Mickael Istria CLA 2017-09-19 03:24:26 EDT 
(In reply to Lars Vogel from comment #4)
> @Luke/Mickael wdyt?

I think it's much more effort for a very similar results. I prefer to think in term of smaller iterations that in term of changing existing UX and bigger work items.
Changing the default popup size is a contribution I would be glad to work on (as it's cheap and highly profitable). Moving to a dialog-based approach isn't something I would work on.

Now, without considering the effort, I don't see how a dialog would be any better than the current proposal and how it would save user any time nor improve UX. Hence, I think it would be a development with no clear added-value for users.
Comment 6 Andrey Loskutov CLA 2017-09-19 04:17:30 EDT 
(In reply to Mickael Istria from comment #3)
> Created attachment 270253 [details]
> Proposed size (manul)
> 
> Thanks for your participation Luke!
> On the attached screenshot, here is a proposal of how this could look like.
> It's only been done with a manual resize of the box so far, so this would
> probably be very easy to implement and would probably make a good approach
> for a 1st iteration.
> As you can see, the box isn't exactly in the middle, but is given a lot of
> space (about 60% width of the application, 80% height) so it's really
> prominent.
> 
> So, would this proposal already be a good improvement in your opinion?

Yes, screenshot looks very good. The toolbar will be almost always on the top right part of the screen, so the code to open the dialog should "just" compute good top left corner location to use at least 50% of available space in both dimensions, and this should work in most cases.

(In reply to Lars Vogel from comment #4)
> Alternativ implementation would be to open the dialog (already centered and
> big), as soon as the user types into the Quick Access box. 

Starting typing in one text box and continue in another... I guess this would be surprising at least, because the focus need to be transferred from one text field into another one, and I can't imagine a good implementation for that. So -1 from me.
Comment 7 Luke deGruchy CLA 2017-09-19 07:56:01 EDT 
I like the suggested implementation in Mickael's screenshot.  I'd be interested in seeing what it looks like with a smaller number of results.  Does the window show up in the centre, or at the top?
Comment 8 Mickael Istria CLA 2017-09-19 07:59:15 EDT 
@Luke: I think it's easier if you try it by yourself by manuallt resizing the result popup of quick-assist
Comment 9 Eclipse Genie CLA 2017-09-19 08:05:48 EDT 
New Gerrit change created: https://git.eclipse.org/r/105375
Comment 10 Luke deGruchy CLA 2017-09-19 08:09:15 EDT 
So that answers my question.  The window would expand from the top, not the centre.  This is not ideal, but I think it's good enough.

BTW, oddly enough, I can resize the Quick Access window in Linux but not on macOS.  Is there a bug for this?
Comment 11 Mickael Istria CLA 2017-09-19 08:18:20 EDT 
(In reply to Luke deGruchy from comment #10)
> BTW, oddly enough, I can resize the Quick Access window in Linux but not on
> macOS.  Is there a bug for this?

Note that I am aware of. Feel free to open a new one, and in case it's a duplicate, we'll flag it later. It's better to take the risk of having an issue reported twice than not at all ;)