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Discussion NOT liking the infinite dimensions of work-spaces.

R

renex

Guest
I have a wxga screen and I can have half an object open at any given time. I will make extensive use of dpi override.
 

Mike

nobody important
GMC Elder
Well, I've said in other topics, we're not making VS, and have no intention of going down that route. If you want VS, than it's already there.... We didn't see the point in making a clone of something that's already out there.

I did see the mock up, and I don't really like it. It crams everything into a tiny sidebar which also means as you flip workspaces the contents of it will have to change depending on the workspace. This also means you always fill the wokspace, which I hate. There are many types of window, and filling a whole workspace with them is a waste of time for me. Yes, in scripting for a single object this might work, but very few games consist of a single object and a bunch of scripts. Going this way mean you'd have a single sprite on a tab, or worse yet end up with tabs inside a workspace to switch between sprites. We're forced to have them for fullscreen scripts as a single script on a workspace is useless, but I don't want them for anything else.

The mockup is incredibly limiting as to what you can edit and taxing for swapping between things, I see this as no better - in fact way worse than what we currently have.


As an aside, the new syntax error stuff thats coming will stop the lower dock from continually popping up, which will give you some more space to work in.
 

GMWolf

aka fel666
Well, I've said in other topics, we're not making VS, and have no intention of going down that route. If you want VS, than it's already there.... We didn't see the point in making a clone of something that's already out there.

I did see the mock up, and I don't really like it. It crams everything into a tiny sidebar which also means as you flip workspaces the contents of it will have to change depending on the workspace. This also means you always fill the wokspace, which I hate. There are many types of window, and filling a whole workspace with them is a waste of time for me. Yes, in scripting for a single object this might work, but very few games consist of a single object and a bunch of scripts. Going this way mean you'd have a single sprite on a tab, or worse yet end up with tabs inside a workspace to switch between sprites. We're forced to have them for fullscreen scripts as a single script on a workspace is useless, but I don't want them for anything else.

The mockup is incredibly limiting as to what you can edit and taxing for swapping between things, I see this as no better - in fact way worse than what we currently have.
On my laptop, I can barely fit a whole object + code window. And so switching between different objects is a bit of a pain, having to adjust the view to make sure the code window fits in screen.

Having this as an option would be great to maximize screen real estate, as the current workspace system wastes quite a lit of it.

Switching between different objects wouldn't end up being that much different, as you could just alt+t or use resource tree.

I think a huge problem with the current system is that it assumes code windows will always fit on screen. It displayed information at the top and bottom. On my setup, I always have to spend a lot of time adjusting the view so that I can read the text comfortably, and have the bottom bar where the arguments are shown on screen.
A system that means I don't have to mess around with the workspace view every time I switch focus would be nice.


We are not asking for VS. I already use VS. We are just asking for some quality of life improvements.
I can live with the current system. But the option to make things a bit nicer when on my laptop (I'm a student. Its all year round) would be great.
 

Juju

Member
As an aside, the new syntax error stuff thats coming will stop the lower dock from continually popping up, which will give you some more space to work in.
Noted. Any chance of an option to adjustment how middle click (or alt+left) panning interacts with code windows (i.e. not interacting at all and letting us pan the workspace instead)?
 

TheMagician

Member
@Mike : I don't like your "If you want VS then it's already there" argument. We love GMS for all the things it can do that aren't available in VS. But we're looking for usability improvements / alternatives for different types of users. If that means that GMS will contain an element that looks somewhat like VS (as an optional preference) then I don't think that should be a reason not to include it.

Anyway, I have to say again that my suggestion is not supposed to replace Workspaces but as an alternative of handling objects, especially for people who use the new "Open Scripts / Events in Fullscreen" option.

It crams everything into a tiny sidebar
For the mockup I didn't change the size/width of the object's settings window in the Workspace. I simply moved it and it fit in the sidebar perfectly. Yes, there are some more settings for the objects such as parent and physics that you would have to scroll down to if you expand them but you spend significantly less time editing them than working on Events - so most of the stuff you need to access would be visible in the sidebar from the very beginning.

This also means you always fill the wokspace
If I'm working on an object's Events that's exactly what I want. On my laptop I'm happy if I have a fullscreen code editor where I can increase font size and still see a lot of the script. I'm not suggesting that every resource opens in the sidebar - but that there could be an option like "Open Objects in Sidebar".

The mockup is incredibly [...] taxing for swapping between things
Right now if you work with fullscreen scripts and want to open a new Event of an object you have to click back to the workspace and then click on the Event to select it. In my alternative you would click on the event in the sidebar that is always visible next to the code you're currently working on.
Also, if you change from one object's code to another one's in the main window the sidebar would automatically update to the new object as it already does right now with rooms: if you have two rooms open and change from one tab to another in the main window then the fields in the sidebar automatically update.

So just to be clear again: my suggestion would be an add-on to the option "Open Events in Fullscreen" and perhaps you can give it another chance and not think "Visual Studio" right away :)
 

hippyman

Member
I started to read the topic but got bored of reading half way through. I also am not a huge fan of the workspace right off the bat. But since there is word of possibly getting access to editor plugins in the future, we might be able to make our own "workspace" :)
 
M

MeanOgreGrr

Guest
Just want to add my name to the list of not liking the GM2 workspace. I bought the beta and really enjoy the new room editor but the code workspace is such a dealbreaker that I have returned to v1.4.

Please just give me the option for windows. I don't even need fancy windows just bare-bones minimal effort windows that I can drag, resize, sit on top of the workspace, and stay right where I put them until I close them.
 
S

Sam (Deleted User)

Guest
I think one problem we will never get around without some GML change is that each script needs its own window, because of the nature of GML. I think that having the ability to define multiple scripts in a single text file may aleviate a lot of this problem. Naturally, I understand this is a big change for GML. But it truely believe that simply changing the IDE will not resolve the problem entirely. The nature of the language is also at fault.

[edit] Here is a mockup by @TheMagician for another way to edit objects: https://forum.yoyogames.com/index.p...tive-layout-for-editing-objects-events.14218/
Domething simmilar to, or the same as this would be nice to have as an option.
In GM 8.1 you could "export all scripts" in a project to a single file. Opening the file it generated in Notepad would look like this:

Code:
#define scr_script_1
//(script contents)

#define scr_script_2
//(script contents)
...and so on.

I don't see much difficulty in them adding something like that so that multiple scripts could be defined in one textbox, and a preferences item to turn it on/off...
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Just to add my little touch. I still believe that thw rokspace wastes my time and a tabbed version of the workspace using windows instead of tiny workareas would have been better for me. And for those that are complaining about closing multiple windows in 1.4 and older, the problem in closing Windows was when using animation editor and image editor, those are the only windows I usually closed because they prevented me from working behind. Besides that, I could have many different objects opened at once and a simple double click in the tree would bring up that window up front.

So complaining about closing different windows simply means that GUI wise, you were not using it right. This whole workspace thing just makes a messy use of the mouse that I just can't bare at all. If they would have regrouped that in tabs (not tabs in workspace but tabs withing the properties window) that would have helped a-lot INCLUDING a tabed code window in the opbect properties with the events. Now we're just lost in the whole space of workspace that on my 24" monitor, I just keep scrolling and scrolling because of all the GUI surroundings, tabs, properties, tree and menu, they take up space too and weirdly, you have not put those in the workspace??? Well, If menus and buttons don't belong in a workspace, then the windows of object properties don't either.
 
S

Sam (Deleted User)

Guest
We didn't see the point in making a clone of something that's already out there.
Where have we seen this before? lol

I'm flip flopping a bit. I'm anxious to try it out myself and have a more validated opinion.
 
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