Algernon
We feel that Smalltalk is a great language; however, the actual task of writing code using the Squeak environment can be cumbersome. A lot of mousing is required to manage windows and change between classes, categories, and methods in the browser. It can also take awhile to find where things are the system, even if you know what you're looking for.We often wish we could just type what we want to do, hit return, and have the system magically do the right thing. For instance, if we could just type "Brow", hit return, and have the browser launch, then we wouldn't have to go hunting for it in the tool box or the menus. Or if we could just open the file list by typing "fl". Or if we wanted to quickly jump to the OrderedCollection class, we could just type "oc" and we'd be there.
We hope that Algernon will be able to do these things for us, and more. Like our own personal assistant, it will always be ready to activate with a simple system-wide key command. While we plan to start Algernon as a modest launcher and quick code navigator, the possibilities for extending it will be limited only by the amount of time we have. For instance, what if it could learn our most used key commands and suggest those options first?
The concept for Algernon was inspired by similar utilities that exist for Mac OS X, including Quicksilver (http://docs.blacktree.com/quicksilver/what_is_quicksilver), LaunchBar (http://www.obdev.at/launchbar/), and Butler (http://www.manytricks.com/butler/).
Team members:
Joey Hagedorn
Erik Hinterbichler
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- Class projects last edited on 2 April 2008 at 5:20:59 pm by vpn3-144241.near.uiuc.edu