A Packages Menu?

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Thu, 06/24/2010 - 08:41 am

Rather than having various packages (scattered) in various menus and sub-menus, could Igor Pro instead have a Packages menu with sub-menus?

Packages
-- Tutorials
-- Examples
... line break (nominally indicating start of "User Installed Procedures") ...
-- Analysis
-- Curve Fitting
... (continues to mimic structure of IgorExchange categories)
-- Utilities
The WaveMetrics thinking goes like this:

Stuff added by packages are placed where a user wanting to accomplish a specific kind of task will find the relevant Package.

Having the Package submenu probably is off-putting ("what's a 'Package'?"), but it is intended to clue repeat users that the feature is implemented using procedures and panels rather than being built into the Igor application.

Changing to an organization like you suggest would mean we expect users to say, "Hmm, nothing in the menus to help me do (whatever), I think I'll go take a look in the Packages menu."

I don't think users work that way. They sure seem to have trouble finding the WM Procedures Index help file, for example.


--Jim Prouty
Software Engineer, WaveMetrics, Inc.

June 24, 2010 at 11:17 am - Permalink

JimProuty wrote:
The WaveMetrics thinking goes like this: ...
....
Changing to an organization like you suggest would mean we expect users to say, "Hmm, nothing in the menus to help me do (whatever), I think I'll go take a look in the Packages menu."

I don't think users work that way. ....


Well, I mostly do, so why shouldn't everyone else ... :-)

In some seriousness though, I might turn that thinking on its head. Presuppose the approach is to be as ...

"Igor Pro is a CORE application for the reliable, accurate, and efficient analysis and presentation of scientific and engineering data. ... [List of example CORE functions] ... Igor Pro also can be readily equipped with PACKAGES to supplement its CORE functionality. Some of these Packages are developed by WaveMetrics and are provided as a standard installation. Other Packages are developed by a (vibrant) User Community. As (at least one) users are known to say ... 'If you do not find what you need to do the job in the Core of Igor Pro, you will likely find it in a Package'."

Presuming such an approach (to me at least) begs the question of how do I (as a user) distinguish a Package from a Core functionality. My (nearly immediate) response is ... by where one gets access to that functionality, via one of the Core menus or from something off of the Package menu. It also means the standard query of "Where do I find something to do this ...?" can always be answered by a standard response "If it is not in the CORE (set of menus), search for it in the PACKAGES (menu)."

Anyway, now that I have presumed to know something, I should likely take a break and re-think it a bit.

Thanks for the comments back.

--
J. J. Weimer
Chemistry / Chemical & Materials Engineering, UAHuntsville

June 24, 2010 at 01:43 pm - Permalink