1 + 1 = 3

We often run user center design (UCD) session here at the lab where users come in, sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), and are then either shown prototypes of new features or given a task to complete with an early driver of the next release.

During the recent rounds of UCD sessions I noticed something: programmers used to using the 5250 development tools generally focus on one WDSC view or editor at a time and ignore the rest. Naturally this comes from the fact that a 5250 session only has “one view” (yes you can open up a second emulator but I think that is somehow cognitively different).

But the power of an integrated development environment comes from using multiple views, editors and actions in combination. You use the outline view with the editor (and perhaps the snippets view or one of the table views). The properties view is often used with other views to get additional information about a selected object. And the debugger takes this to the max with lots of views being used simultaneously for controlling, viewing source, setting breakpoints and viewing fields.

Learning how to use the various views, editors and actions together takes time and experience. I’ve been using Eclipse for around 7 years now and I still learn new ways to do things. Recently I came across the Alt + Shift + Q, O shortcut to show the outline view (press Alt + Shift + Q then let go and press O). This is really handy because you can make the outline view a fast view then use this keyboard combination to display it without using the mouse. Use the keyboard to navigate the outline view and press F12 when you are ready to jump back to the editor. This should work for any WDSC editors (LPEX, Java, etc…) This example seems a bit cumbersome at first, but after a couple weeks it becomes automatic.

And if you are interested in participating in one of the UCD sessions just send me an email (my_last_name @ ca [dot] ibm [dot] com). You don’t have to live in Toronto, we can do remote sessions too.

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