[Geany-devel] Build system 2.0, default configuration dialog

[Nick Treleaven]

On Thu, 11 Mar 2010 11:16:46 +1100
Lex Trotman <elextr at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 11 March 2010 04:53, Nick Treleaven <nick.treleaven at btinternet.com>wrote:
> 
> > On Thu, 4 Mar 2010 10:52:55 +1100
> > Lex Trotman <elextr at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > The current trunk arrangement has one major problem though, the project
> > > settings and the non-project settings are configured in separate dialogs,
> > > having settings that interact in different places is very poor user
> > > interface design (which I accept responsibility for creating).  I want to
> > > put them in one place.
> >
> > What about just making the 'Build->Set Build Commands' menu item show
> > the Project Properties dialog with the Build tab displayed?
> >
> 
> I don't want to have a build tab in the project properties dialog any more
> since that still shows things in two places, but project  properties can
> have a button to show the "set build commands" dialog, then whichever way
> you start it, everything is shown.

I thought that it would clearly show the difference between project
commands and default commands. Otherwise we would need some extra label
saying 'these are project settings' (but that would be OK too).

> > > > > 5. for execute commands only, the option to run without terminal,
> > > > checkbox
> >
> > I think this is OK, just squeeze in a checkbox after the working dir
> > field. Maybe just the tooltip can explain what it's for?
> >
> 
> Ok, I was having trouble fitting it :-)

Hmm, I'm not sure that it's good UI design though. See what Enrico &
others think.

> > > > > Things to not make available (to avoid "dialog shock"):
...
> > > > > 4. extra commands in sections (propose simple dialog allows editing 2
> > > > > fieltype,3 make,2 execute)
> >
> > not sure what you mean, but I think trunk is good.
> >
> 
> Hmmm, what I was doing was leaving out the extra commands in the filetype
> and non-filetype sections to get back two lines, so the dialog doesn't grow
> too much when the three project makes are added.  Although I do most of my
> work on a machine with two big screens I also test on a machine with a
> little screen and the dialog is getting up there so lets just see what will
> fit.

Well, the build commands dialog doesn't seem any taller than the prefs
dialog. It seems a shame to hide extra commands, but I don't mind if
others want this.

> > > > > 5. change internal command locations (next/prev error, show dialog)
> >
> > agree
> >
> > > > > 6. project filetype commands (just so the dialog is smaller)
> >
> > It might be worth keeping these. They're shown for the non-project
> > dialog anyway.
> >
> 
> As above, purely for the reasons of dialog size, also note again that I
> don't want a project and a build menu dialog, just one dialog, sorry I
> wasn't clearer on this, 8. below attempts to explain why you need to see it
> in one place.

What I meant was that IIUC (6) would only make the dialog smaller for
projects, not for non-projects.

> > > > > 7. parsing regex per command, source or global
> >
> > Hmm, I see it would be useful/better but not sure yet. Certainly needs
> > to be unobtrusive.

BTW I now think maybe this isn't necessary for the core dialog. (Power
users could maybe hack together a regex that works for several error
message types using patt1|patt2|patt3).

> > > > > 8. viewing settings from non-editable sources ie default, system
> > > > filetypes,
> > > > > plugins/internal
> >
> > Don't really understand this.
> >
> 
> The command that is executed when you activate a build menu item is
> determined by the highest priority source that has an operation configured
> for that menu item.  Sources (highest to lowest priority order) are:
> 
> internal, eg a plugin, not saved by Geany
> project filetype entries, from project file
> project non-filetype entries, from project file
> user filetype entries,from ~/.config/geany/filedefs/filetypes.*
> user non-filetype entries, from ~/.config/geany/config.conf
> system filetype entries, that is ${prefix}/share/geany/filetypes.*
> defaults, hard coded in geany
> 
> You can only edit project and user ones so they are the only ones shown in
> the dialog normally.  It is important to show both project and user at the
> same time since project overrides user and it can get confusing when you
> change a setting and have nothing happen (been there done that, even while I
> was just testing the trunk version!!). But since entries from the other
> sources can also interact, the plugin config dialog has a button to show the
> configuration from these sources as well (but insensitive) so that you can
> see if they are overriding something you are setting.  This gives the full
> "dialog shock" display so I proposed that the simple dialog does not have
> this ability.

I think this would need more discussion before changing the core
dialog. To avoid confusion with editing project and non-project
settings we need to make it clear with a warning label IMO.

> PS Nick, thanks for your input, its appreciated that you take the time to
> think about it and suggest things.

Thanks also for your time on this.

Regards,
Nick