[self-interest] Re: Self 4.1

[Jerry Bell]

Quick question:

Is there anything in Self like the Outliner but meant more for the end
user?  I'm thinking of something where you could enter new values directly
into the data slots, instead of using the evaluator.  It would provide
different editors for different 'types' of slots, and would hide
implementation details.  For example, you would have a drop-down list of
(Rigid, Flexible, Shrink-Wrap) instead of looking in the comments for
useful values for hResizing.

I've looked at Properties a little, but it seems like I want more of
a'different' outliner, possibly accessed by a toggle on the current
outliner.  I also don't want to build a separate interface morph for each
object, I am impressed by the Outliner etc and think the system could do a
very nice job on its own (which could later be customized by the user).    

I don't want to stop the end user  from 'getting under the hood' and
actively changing the world, that after all is what Self is about.  But I
think it may be useful to have a "I'm Using this object"  view of the
outliner, and a "I'm mucking around under the hood" view as well.  Think
boring database type objects like an Employee or a Department, where you
have lots of bits of mostly textual data. 

I have more vaguely formed ideas about this which I would like to share for
feedback, but I don't want to blather on about it if something like this
already exists.

Thanks,

Jerry Bell