Hi,
I got file monitoring working through a GFileMonitor (http://library.gnome.org/devel/gio/stable/GFileMonitor.html) and it seems to work quite fine so far.
The old monitoring was simply to compare a file's mtime (modification time) and this check was performed whenever you typed somethng in a document, you clicked in a document or you switched to a document.
With GFileMonitor, we don't need to trigger the check anymore but instead get informed via a callback. So the question comes up how to handle a changed file properly. There are two possibilities: a) once we received a changed notification for a file, we display the dialog box asking the user for an action to perform (reload file?). b) when we receive a changed notification, we store it in a flag 'changed' in the GeanyDocumentPrivate struct and use this flag when the document is active (by typing, clicking, switching as above)
a) could be get annoying when there are files opened which changes often for whatever reason and the user is currently editing any other file and then gets a dialog box asking to reload another opened file. In other words, this would inform the user also when not the current document changes but another document.
b) represents the current behaviour just with a different 'backend', i.e. the user gets informed about a changed file *only* if this file is the current document.
I'd prefer b) to keep the current behaviour and not getting annoyed by dialog boxes for 'inactive' files. We would still have the advantage that the user get the changed notification directly without any delay for the current active document.
While writing, I'm thinking of a third possibility, or better an addition to possibility b): when an inactive document has changed, we change it's tab label colour to yellow or orange and when the user switches to this document, i.e. make it active, the dialog box is presented asking to reload.
What do you think?
Regards, Enrico
On Thu, 2 Oct 2008 18:44:55 +0200 Enrico Tröger enrico.troeger@uvena.de wrote:
There are two possibilities: a) once we received a changed notification for a file, we display the dialog box asking the user for an action to perform (reload file?). b) when we receive a changed notification, we store it in a flag 'changed' in the GeanyDocumentPrivate struct and use this flag when the document is active (by typing, clicking, switching as above)
a) could be get annoying when there are files opened which changes often for whatever reason and the user is currently editing any other file and then gets a dialog box asking to reload another opened file. In other words, this would inform the user also when not the current document changes but another document.
b) represents the current behaviour just with a different 'backend', i.e. the user gets informed about a changed file *only* if this file is the current document.
I'd prefer b) to keep the current behaviour and not getting annoyed by dialog boxes for 'inactive' files. We would still have the advantage that the user get the changed notification directly without any delay for the current active document.
While writing, I'm thinking of a third possibility, or better an addition to possibility b): when an inactive document has changed, we change it's tab label colour to yellow or orange and when the user switches to this document, i.e. make it active, the dialog box is presented asking to reload.
What do you think?
My vote for current behaviour. (a) can be very annoying if you work with generated files.
IMHO it is sane to assume that if you don't edit or browse file, you don't care too much about it's representation in geany. It is really important only when you decide to browse or edit document. So geany should not bother users with unnecessery questions.
CON: you don't get symbol list updated as soon as files changed on disk.
On Thu, 2 Oct 2008 18:44:55 +0200 Enrico Tröger enrico.troeger@uvena.de wrote:
Hi,
I got file monitoring working through a GFileMonitor (http://library.gnome.org/devel/gio/stable/GFileMonitor.html) and it seems to work quite fine so far.
Cool.
...
b) when we receive a changed notification, we store it in a flag 'changed' in the GeanyDocumentPrivate struct and use this flag when the document is active (by typing, clicking, switching as above)
...
I'd prefer b) to keep the current behaviour and not getting annoyed by dialog boxes for 'inactive' files. We would still have the advantage that the user get the changed notification directly without any delay for the current active document.
I think this is best.
While writing, I'm thinking of a third possibility, or better an addition to possibility b): when an inactive document has changed, we change it's tab label colour to yellow or orange and when the user switches to this document, i.e. make it active, the dialog box is presented asking to reload.
This would be good.
Regards, Nick
On Thu, 2 Oct 2008 18:44:55 +0200, Enrico Tröger enrico.troeger@uvena.de wrote:
Hi,
I got file monitoring working through a GFileMonitor (http://library.gnome.org/devel/gio/stable/GFileMonitor.html) and it seems to work quite fine so far.
Update:
attached is a patch with my current progress so far. I think it is basically ready, maybe it could get a little cleanup but it should work. Except for the issue that monitoring remote files mounted with FUSE doesn't work currently, see http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=557951.
And this is why I still didn't commit the code because it doesn't make much sense as long as it will break existing functionality.
Regards, Enrico