[Geany-devel] Build system branch 2.0

[Thomas Martitz]

I'm still thinking that - if Geany wants to call itself an IDE - we 
should allow the maximum of build configurations because there is about 
an infinite amount of that out there. I can agree with grouping it, but 
*limiting* it intentionally for no obvious reasons (the advanced parts 
can be hidden until "advanced settings" is checked") defeats the goal of 
being an IDE.

Before the v1 build system was committed into trunk, I didn't even dare 
to call it an IDE, because build settings belong to it. This, and an 
integrated debugger, is what an IDE seperates from a simple text editor 
(hence my remark in the very first sentence).


The current dialog is a bit bloated indeed. I could imagine to solve it 
by hiding advanced settings (like the working directory), by providing 
an assitant which leads through the configuration or by a multi-tabbed 
interfaced to group similar build-system settings.


I must admit that I worked a bit with visual studio in the meantime. I'm 
not saying this bloody bloat thing (it's really huge, but it runs fast 
and has a lot of features[I probably used only 2% of it]) is the way to 
go, but (as I mentioned) its integrated debugger and build settings is 
what I expect from an IDE.


The "integrated debugger" is a plugin. Fine. But the limited build 
settings it had before committing the branch basically made it a text 
editor, not an IDE. I now more or less depend on the new capabilities of 
the build settings, so if you remove features I'm going to be dependant 
on the bloody terminal (VTE) feature again which simply sucks for just 
building a project.

Best regards.