Reintroducing documentation "link" in class context menu

[anonymous]

In OMEdit of older OpenModelica versions (1.13 and older iirc), if you opened the context menu of a class in the library or in the schematic view, it provided the option to view the documentation for that class directly.
This feature is lacking in 1.14 and newer. Please consider reintroducing it, or an equally convenient alternative.

To view the documentation of a class right now, one has to open the class explicitly first, and then check the documentation. This is very inconvenient. For learning it is a big hindrance - be it learning modelica standard libraries, or third party libraries/models.

Furthermore, due to opening the class it is now in the "open class" tab bar -> so after reading the documentation of some classes they have to be all closed manually again.

[casella]

See discussion in #4983. I'm not sure what you are asking for is compatible with the requirements stated there, can you please check and comment on that?

[anonymous]

Replying to casella:

See discussion in #4983. I'm not sure what you are asking for is compatible with the requirements stated there, can you please check and comment on that?

I dont see it as directly related or conflicting. #4983 is about documentation not updating, when switching between class windows.

This is about being able to view the documentation of a subcomponent or different class in the library quickly, on user demand without having to loading the specific class in the entire "class window" with text view and everything. Since this is on user demand, there is little chance for confusion.

After checking documentation of a sub model, the user could return to the documentation of the original model by clicking on the little documentation view button (next to schematic and text view buttons)-or by doubleclicking on the library again.

When switching to another class in the "classes tab bar", the documentation window should reset to the documentation of that specific class, so that there can be no confusion.

[anonymous]

An alternative could be to allow a second "auxiliary" documentation window just for this purpose - but i dont find it necessary.
From "end user" perspective, the previous behaviour of the documentation viewing was never confusing to me, when i started using it in 2014. I understood documentation window to be not directly coupled to the schematic/text/document view. This made sense to me, because the quick access to documentation was immensely helpful to learn and understand and fact check in case of errors, and continued to be until it was changed.

[casella]

@adeas31, what do you think?

[adeas31]

I don't have any strong preference there. Its more about OMEdit users. Both alternatives as mentioned in comment:2 and comment:3 are possible. The question is which one to pick.

comment:2 is easy to implement. Keep the current behavior but if user explicitly requests documentation of another model lets say by right click on the model we show the documentation of the model but if user switches to another model then OMEdit automatically updates to the documentation of that model.

comment:3. In my opinion the second "auxiliary" documentation window is an overkill. But if we want to do it then I suggest that we should have the current model documentation in the center widget like schematic and text views, so the center window can be either icon, diagram, text or documentation view. And then the Documentation Browser is not coupled to the current model i.e., the old behavior.

@cerelo, @dietmarw what's your opinion?

[dietmarw]

I'm for the comment:2 option. The additional browser window would just be something in the way and confusing when then showing different documentation than the built-in documentation view.

[ceraolo]

I'm also in favour of comment:2 option, and I also miss the old behaviour of having info directly accessible by right-clicking.