Implement "reasonable defaults" depending on graph size and shape

[pstutz]

It would be nice if the defaults used in the Console would depend on what the graph looks like. For example, for small graphs (<=500) vertices, the vertex count could be set to the number of vertices, so that the entire graph is shown by default.

[cshapeshifter]

What do you mean by this? Explain it where? What do you mean by "enabling"? The tour in the Console has the following instructions in step 4:

"Exposing vertex details allows you to view any information a vertex is exposing through its 'expose' function"

The Inspectable code is commented now (closing #112), so the programmer should also have enough information. There is nothing to "enable". You can call expose() on any Vertex that implements Inspectable, and this is now documented in Inspectable. Is this sufficient?

[pstutz]

Thanks, found it.

Sorry, I should have done the tour again. Is there a good reason not to enable the feature by default?

[pstutz]

Maybe one could move the less often used options to an 'Advanced' or 'Performance' tab at the bottom that is collapsed by default. The 'Add and remove vertices from the canvas' tab is now cluttered with many options that do not seem directly relevant to adding or removing vertices.

[cshapeshifter]

Well, it significantly slows down the graph loading speed and since the idea is that the user implements the 'expose' function on their vertex implementations, it's a liability. I.e. it could be very slow and the user should be aware of the conscious choice of enabling it. At least that was my thinking.
It's still fast though... It could be enabled by default and disabled only for really large graphs.

What less often used options do you have in mind? The options that don't directly add or remove options are already grouped in the very first section "options affecting performance".

[pstutz]

Is the performance really affected that much?

As a personal preference I like reasonable defaults and would probably hide away options that you would not expect to be used often.

[pstutz]

I agree that the reasonable defaults differ a lot between small and large graphs.

How about determining the graph size first and choosing defaults based on that?

[pstutz]

Maybe there could be a switch and a message in case a large graph is detected. This way the process would not be so magical to the user.

[pstutz]

Or have a simple switch between the large/small defaults and hide all the advanced stuff.

[pstutz]

On an unrelated note: Using the console on multiple machines at the same time works impressively well. It's amazing!

[cshapeshifter]

I've enabled the vertex details by default now. But I suppose implementing a "reasonable defaults depending on graph topology" strategy is low priority. I'm leaving this issue open for future generations ;-)

[cshapeshifter]

Renamed the issue