At times I wonder if we have too many actions, key bindings, preferences etc in Eclipse. I mean a beginner would probably find number of key bindings in the Ctrl+Shift+L pop-up overwhelming. This pop-up lists a number of 'Show View' key bindings, but I think listing only Quick Access (Ctrl+3) should suffice - at least for beginners.
This raises another question - how many users of Eclipse are beginners, how many some what comfortable, how many expert. I would assume a significant number in each category. Maybe we should have beginner, intermediate, expert modes/perspectives. For example in the beginner mode we can hide (not disable) the actions and preferences which are typically used by power users.
The beginner mode might make sense for beginners, but the big problem is that they might have power user collegues/friends, who might want to help them (that becomes harder if the environment is more scattered).
ReplyDeleteSimilarly, they might find some articles/blog entries where they refer to the hidden functionality.
All in all, this idea has strong points together with drawbacks, it is hard to decide whether to support or not such an idea. Maybe it would be easier to decide if we have a small concept demo, where this could be tested.