[Geany-devel] project build dialog - Re: [ANNOUNCE] gproject - yet another geany project plugin

[Jiří Techet]

On Thu, Jun 10, 2010 at 14:59, Lex Trotman <elextr at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 10 June 2010 21:23, Nick Treleaven <nick.treleaven at btinternet.com> wrote:
>> On Thu, 10 Jun 2010 11:44:24 +0200
>> Jiří Techet <techet at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> >> Yes, it's pretty confusing. Once you create a project you don't expect
>>> >> that what you see in the build tab changes based on what change you
>>> >> make in the global settings (until you modify the commands in the
>>> >> project for the first time). This makes the project totally unportable
>>> >> because it depends on the global settings of the current instance of
>>> >> geany. So if I move the project from my home computer to work, things
>>> >> just can stop working because I have different global settings there.
>>> >>
>>> >> What I would suggest is that upon project creation you make a complete
>>> >> copy
>>> >
>>> > Thats just what I didn't want to do, remember there are filetype
>>> > commands and execute commands too makes each project copy big.
>>>
>>> Then I would suggest that there are no per-project filetype commands
>>> and you just copy the global ones. In project you care about a set of
>>> files so global/general/non-filetype options are the ones you want to
>>> change. This seems to be the most reasonable solution now.
>>
>> I have argued that project filetype commands are useful, but you have a
>> good argument here. Perhaps the complexity is not worth it when project
>> non-filetype commands could suffice.
>
> You could probably make an argument that non-filetype commands are
> sufficient for C/C++ and other "building a big thing" type languages,
> but other filetypes supported by Geany are more centred around the
> individual file.
>
> And don't think just in terms of compile/link type operations.
>
> I don't think that the potential uses of filetype commands have been
> explored much, even for C/C++ there is code analysis tools,
> prettyfiers, hey I'm giving myself ideas here..

But why can't these be configured globally? You'll have several
alternative commands per filetype one of which you chose. The
complications are just not worth it IMO.

>
> And then it becomes important to be able to configure them per
> project.  Also don't think of it as one project file per source tree,
> I'm using multiple project files to save the differing configurations
> when using differing tool sets for the same source tree.

Could you give me concrete example where you need different
per-project filetype commands? (And why it can't be solved with
several global commands?)

>
> We also have the filetype dependent execute commands to consider,
> pointing to the executables in the build directory rather than in the
> source directory is likely to be common.

Ahh, the execute commands are also per-filetype? (I don't use them, so
I don't know.) But there is absolutely no indication in the dialog
that they are! Is there any need for that? Now it's getting
Eclipse-ish (I hope I haven't offended you too much with such a strong
word ;-). The only person who currently understands how it works is
you - and that's pretty bad. The whole project configuration needs
serious simplification.

File types are defined globally, so I would define file type commands
globally too. You already have three "slots" that you can fill in with
different commands. Instead of adding file type commands per project I
would rather suggest:

1. to increase the number of slots
2. to make the number of slots unlimited

Then you can add several alternative commands for every file and just
chose the one you wish in whatever project you are. It will also be
clear what you run - "compile" will always mean the same while now it
can mean different things for the same file depending on what project
is open. Why do these have to be per-project and not per-geany? I have
serious usability problems with constantly thinking in which mode I am
(think about why you prefer geany to vi ;-)

>
>>
>> I also like the copying non-project commands into the project idea.
>
> Makes the whole thing easier to implement of course, but then for the
> common things, the user has to change it in all project files.

Projects should be independent, not to have an invisible magical link.

>
> I don't think its a good idea for filetype commands though, and even
> for the executes it is a bit of a load copying all languages just to
> edit one.

See above, I would just use several global filetype commands available
everywhere.

>
>>
>>> > Seriously, yes the whole thing should be in one dialog so that you can
>>> > see what overrides what and edit the one you want, thats part of v2.0.
>>> >
>>>
>>> No, seriously, it shouldn't. How will it work with different project
>>> plugins? Please describe how you imagine the dialog should work so I
>>> can tell you why it's not a good idea ;-).
>>
>> I agree with Lex here but only if editing non-project commands when a
>> project is open is necessary.
>>
>> Geany's project concept is integrated in a number of places, not just
>> for sessions or build commands. Project plugins should not aim to take
>> over Geany's project functionality, but work alongside it IMO. That may
>> require API additions, but less so than rewriting all Geany's
>> project functionality.
>

I think that:

1. the GeanyProject structure should be private for the project
implementation and contain those things that are relevant to the
session-project (I have similar private structure for my project)
2. app->project should contain a structure GeanyProjectSettings that
contains only those members relevant for geany (from looking at the
sources, it's mainly base_path - I've seen also file_name and
build_filetypes_list, but I'm not sure if these are so much
necessary).
3. plugins should be able to change the members of app->project (or
just replace it)

Cheers,

Jiri