Suggestion for IDE improvement: "Quick add" dialog like Spotlight

General
1

Since the first release of Xojo, navigating in the IDE has been subject to controversial discussions. I don’t want to kick-off another of those threads now but offer a new idea instead.

I mostly work on my 27" Thunderbolt Display and the navigation with the mouse can become tiring very quickly. To navigate through the system in general, I heavily rely on keyboard shortcuts and I often use Spotlight to do various things (e.g. open applications etc) – that’s way faster than navigating through menus and folders.

Xojo does provide keyboard shortcuts for a small set of operations. However, particularly the insert menu lacks many keyboard shortcuts or comfortable keyboard navigation. Adding controls, events, properties and project items in a new project is quite cumbersome. Hence, I hope at least some Xojo developers would welcome a feature similar to spotlight: a “quick add” dialog that is context sensitive and can be called with a keyboard shortcut. Something like that:

What do you think? Is it worth creating a feature request – or would it most likely not get implemented anyway?

2

I would support such a feature request – I would be very happy if I could do everything by keyboard shortcuts.

In addition to your suggestion a lot of commands do not exist in the menu (an example: “Show/Hide bottom panel”) which makes it impossible to link a keyboard shortcut and one is forced to use the mouse/trackpad.

3

If you think you would find it useful then submit the feature request
If you want others to also vote for it then post it here as well
Broad support for a feature is one way to get it implemented

4

Side note:
You should be able to get from one side of your screen to the other with the flick of your wrist.
The setting is adjustable in System Preferences.

5

Here we go: <https://xojo.com/issue/41024>

Feel free to throw some points at it or leave a comment.

6

[quote=218002:@Tim Parnell]Side note:
You should be able to get from one side of your screen to the other with the flick of your wrist.
The setting is adjustable in System Preferences.[/quote]

Thanks for the hint, didn’t know that!
However, it’s not only about the distance. I often find myself searching the menu for the option I’m looking for, altough I exactly know how it is called.