Re: Release plans for the GUI

[Andriy Shinkarchuck]

Hi, Octave!

I help Jacob to test GUI and to search necessary features to implement.
It is really hard to develop GUI without clear plan now, so
i suggest to discuss here features for «Overall design» of GUI as
Jordi adviced above.

This will help Jacob and testers like me to focus on development of
GUI more flexible and convenient for every of you, not only for Jacob,
me, Torsten and other guys, that tested GUI already and sent their
reviews.

So, i divided gui on the sections and greatly apprecate for your
comments, advices, wishes — down to the smallest detail like even
order of menu items or buttons at the panel :)

1. Global
— main menu items, theirs order, grouping
— subwindow organizing (tabs only or subwindows only or mixed?),
default subwindows layout with subwindows to show and their positions
— status bar and messages in it (help only or some info too?)
— links to official resources (do we need all we currently have?)
— tips and tricks at the start?
— quick start (open editor at the start or switch to terminal by default?)
— some wizard at first launch? (to ask f.e. nick for IRC, select
settings scheme or smth else)
2. Editor
— navigation (go to line - inline or dialog?)
— search/replace (inline like vi or emacs or dialog? do you want
regexp handling?)
— bookmarks (toogle, navigate)
— line numbering
— comment/uncomment code
— indenting/autoindenting code
— autocompletition of functions and operators
— colorizing/color schemes (background, font, current line color...)
— shortcuts/shortcut schemes (KDE-like, GNOME-like, Windows-like, and so on)
— autosaving feature?
— highlight errors in editor feature?
— breakpoints (like in MATLAB®)?
— versioning of files feature?
3. Terminal
— terminal size (default, minimum, color scheme and so on)
— history length in terminal?
4. Documentation Browser
— open locally/from internet?
— single or multiply documentation tabs/subwindows?
5. IRC Client
— autoconnect at first launch or not?
— ask nick at first connect or if default username is set?
6. Settings Dialog
— show all avaliable settins or only the most important?
— dismiss buttin for discurd changes in setting?

Feel free to say «We dont need this feature» or «You havent said about
this feature» or «This should be done in such way...».
All this done to make GUI the best one for Octave ever been

P.S.: If you havent build GUI yet, here is the man
http://xhoch3.dyndns.org/index.php?page=build-gui