gnusim8085-devel team mailing list archive

[The Escapist <579334@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This  is just a minor UI issue, but it would probably make sense to
disable the keypad buttons (or the whole tab!) while the program is
being run/debugged - currently it is possible to click buttons, which
won't have any effect obviously.

-- 
GUI rearrangements
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/579334
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Status in gnusim8085: New

Bug description:
The UI could benefit from some minor rearrangements to make it more intuitive and less cluttered. For example, for debugging/runtime purposes there could be one comprehensive tab that provides all relevant information at a glance:
 - registers & flags
 - memory
 - stack
 - I/O ports

Likewise, it would be helpful if there were dedicated tabs for viewing/manipulation of memory & I/O ports.

In fact, this would make it possible to optionally hide the original register & flag view, thus freeing precious screen estate. Thinking about it, a full view of all registers and flags could even be provided on top of the editor, for example as a toolbar element where it would not occupy any space within the main window.

Also, for the editor itself it might be a good idea to provide users with the possibility to customize the font size.

As mentioned in another suggestion yesterday, I also feel that it might be a good idea to provide the option to switch to an opcode view of the assembled file by using a corresponding separate tab above the editor area, i.e. two tabs that allow the user to switch between "source" and (annotated) "opcode" view, the latter of which probably should be set readonly by default.

Help and instruction set references would also be best provided within a corresponding "reference" or "Docs" tab, where currently data, stack and the keypad tabs are displayed. This would make any documentation very easily and directly accessible.

Also, if the current register & flag displays are retained the way they're currently implemented, it might add to the UI's readability if there was an obvious difference between register/flag names and their values, this could for example be accomplished by using different fonts or colors for displaying name and values. In fact, it might even be worth to consider dynamically changing a register's font color when it has just been modified, to highlight this change.

A small inconvenience is also caused by the fact that saving a file using the file save dialog doesn't yet honor pressing the enter key, rather one has to really click the corresponding UI button.