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Code Bubbles
Rethinking the User Interface Paradigm of Integrated Development Environments




            

Watch a video scenario here.

Bubbles Metaphor
There are a number of key differrences between bubbles and windows. We developed the design of bubbles to help reduce the effort needed to work with large numbers of fragments, and to support scalability. We provide a brief overview here (a much more complete description is provided in the papers):

- Java code does not readily fit into a small space, so we use syntax-aware reflow to wrap long lines and vertical elision to reduce the footprint of very long functions.

- To reduce the need for managing what is on top, bubbles do not overlap, but instead push eachother out of the way using an automatic, incremental recursive spacer algorithm which attempts to minimize the overall change to a bubble layout.

- There is ultimately a limit to how many bubbles can fit onscreen, so we provide a 2-D, continuous pannable virtual workspace.

- A transient zoom feature allows users to zoom out to switch focus, or to re-arrange/organize bubbles at a higher level.

- Bubbles form persistent nameable groups based on adjacency, and also support other annotations such as connections.

- Bubbles have minimal chrome/border decoration, and are moved and closed by mouse interactions differrent than dragging a title bar or clicking a close icon.

Code Bubbles IDE
We developed a prototype IDE system based on the bubbles metaphor. The system supports a number of fragment types, including code (methods, member variables, classes), notes, visual flags, bugs, and Javadocs. The system supports multi-tasking and interruption recovery through the workspace bar, which allows users to create resizable task-oritented partitions within the 2-D workspace, which can be named and shared, or which can be persisted to the Task Shelf for recovery later. Group information is also persisted, and can be used to discover related methods.

The system also features a breakpoint debugger based on bubbles that allows the user to see multiple functions in the stack frame, and data structures sampled from those functions, side-by-side. Multiple debug sessions can be loaded side-by-side in channels for comparison, persisted for use later, or annotated and then shared.

If you are interested in participating in the Code Bubbles beta, please sign up here.