On Feb 16, 2007, at 2:04 AM, Charilaos Skiadas wrote:
On Feb 16, 2007, at 1:54 AM, Allan Odgaard wrote:
On 16. Feb 2007, at 05:59, Chris Thomas wrote:
It seems elegant, but maybe it should be in addition to the fixed
category hierarchy.
The overwhelming reason for wanting the category system is to
present new users with a simpler view of bundles. I.e. disable all
but just a handful by default, then give them a browser with the
above categories (on first launch or so).
The user should feel that he is not overlooking anything, and by
showing him around six categories (which will likely each need a
longer description), it should be easy for him to drill down into
the Markup / Prose, if he just want TextMate for Markdown, or
ignore the SCM System if he does not work with version control
system, etc.
With a tagging interface it would either be to show him everything
and let him filter (which would be too much information at once for
new users, i.e. >100 bundles) or we could show nothing, and let him
search, but then new users will miss out on stuff (or at least feel
this way).
At the same time it seems redundant to have a category system and a
tagging system, as there is a huge overlap -- maybe do the tagging
system, but promote some tags to take the role of forming the
initial hierarchical index?
I totally agree with Allan's reasons for wanting the categories. I
would suggest having the categories and bundle browser as described
above, and for each bundle an array of "keywords", instead of
"tags" (though I guess there's not much of a difference between the
two). Somewhere in the interface, perhaps in a second "bundle
browser mode", the user would be able to search for a specific
keyword, and get a listing of all the bundles that have something to
do with that keyword.
"tags" used in the web sense. Keywords.
But we definitely should have a single category to describe what the
main thing the bundle does is.
Put it in a tag. Require one of the six categories to be present as a
tag.
The simple category approach is much simpler, for sure, and has fewer
upfront maintenance costs. There are problems that tags would address
that a simple category cannot:
1. Streamlined first-time experience. Present subsets of bundles by
tag. "Rails development." "Mac applications."
2. Overwhelming bundle complexity -- too many bundle commands visible
at once. Switch between visible bundle sets at runtime by tag.
It's possible this is better implemented through an external mechanism
rather than directly in bundles.
Chris
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