Simpler UX for Creating Swings

For the first creation of a playground / sandbox environment, it would be nice to be able to reduce the cognitive effort required to get to a working, running Swing.

Right now, these are the steps:

1. <kbd>cmd</kbd>-<kbd>shift</kbd>-<kbd>p</kbd> -> CodeSwing: New Swing...
2. Get thrown into a file selection window, which is confusing and distracting, figure out that you need to choose a folder for the files to go
3. Create a new folder in this dialog, with no good suggestion for a default folder name (“untitled folder” is the default on macOS)
4. Get a long list of options that the user needs to choose from (if the user <kbd>cmd</kbd>-<kbd>tab</kbd>s away from VS Code, this disappears, leaving the empty folder behind)
5. Choose one of these options
6. Start coding

In this amount of time, it is pretty easy to forget that little idea that you wanted to try out.

For comparison, let’s look at CodeSandbox:

1. Visit https://codesandbox.io/s/new?file=/src/App.js
2. Start coding

Suggestion 1: Here’s a suggestion for a possible workflow:

1. <kbd>cmd</kbd>-<kbd>shift</kbd>-<kbd>p</kbd> -> CodeSwing: New Swing.... This will automatically create a folder with an auto-generated name to hold the Swing files within some VS Code directory, which can be customized afterwards if the user wants.
2. Get a long list of options that the user needs to choose from (this stays, even when user <kbd>cmd</kbd>-<kbd>tab</kbd>s away from VS Code). The last-used templates are listed at the top in reverse-chronological order.
3. Choose from the list of templates
4. Start coding

Suggestion 2: And something even faster, for those who know what they want:

1. <kbd>cmd</kbd>-<kbd>shift</kbd>-<kbd>p</kbd> -> CodeSwing: New Swing with Last Template. This will automatically create a folder with an auto-generated name to hold the Swing files within some VS Code directory, which can be customized afterwards if the user wants. It will use the last-used template that the user chose.
2. Start coding

[lostintangent]

Yep I appreciate the feedback, and can see the confusion in the name now 😁 I’m implementing the MRU list right now, and will rename this command, and introduce the “new swing from last template” command as well. I should be able to release an update this weekend, and I’ll ping this thread to get feedback 👍

[karlhorky]

Great, this UX feels pretty nice, thanks!!

One last detail would be to be able to do 6. for new swings, in a single step. I can think of two options for this:

A. An extension setting (could be default-off, if you think that users would more commonly want to start in the same window) to Open all new swings in new windows B. New commands for opening the new swings in new windows eg. New Swing In New Window...