Hello all

I've been using Processing for a little while now - and often things get quickly complex, so I jump over to using Netbeans and use Processing from there.

I was wondering: what are the chances, at some point in the future, that the sketchbook might get an optional 'method list' or some-such. This would present the user with a clickable list of the methods / inner classes they've made, in a document-map stylee. (All classes are inner classes in the sketchbook, of course.)

I know there are arguments against this: it goes against the sketchbook ethos, it crosses the line from simple editor to 'wannabe ide'...

To make the opposite argument, though: sketches grow organically. This is great and the sketchbook is a far better format for doing this than, say, Netbeans. But that organic growth soon leads - at least for me - to a *lot* of time spent scrolling, trying to  find a particular method. A clickable panel with those method names would, I'd argue:

a) speed up sketching, and lead nicely from sketches to compositions(!)

b) help people new to programming get their heads around the advantages of breaking code down into more manageable, more intuitive method chunks.

For me, that one simple change might mean the difference between whole projects executed in the sketchbook and shifting them to Netbeans. I know it's a big cheeky ask and everyone's probably got plenty of substantive Processing-code-related things to be working on, but since we're now on V1, I thought I'd throw the idea out there...

Actually, I wonder, how hard would it be for me to try it out? What's the editor based on?

Dan

Excellent, thanks. Some links from the readme.txt for others:

===
In future releases, we are considering the following features:

1. How shortcut keys are handled.
  http://dev.processing.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=140

2. Whether to allow tools to dock into the Preferences panel.
  http://dev.processing.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=883

3. A means to run native code from the Tools menu.
  http://dev.processing.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=884

4. Methods for reorganizing the Tools menu, or placing contributed
  Tools inside other menus (such as Edit or Sketch).
  http://dev.processing.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=885
===

On a related note, I think the Sketchbook menu should be it's own 1st level menu. Constantly going into File > Sketchbook is a real pain. Since it's such a crucial part of the Processing IDE, and yet one I've seen people misunderstand, I think it would allows easier access to it, plus would help build a better idea of how the sketchbook works in peope's minds.

Phil - yea, I'm sure a lot of people use that. However, I think the sketchbook menu is quite important, and a lot of beginners do use it, so it would be of benefit to quite a few people.