[Geany] Per-workspace instance of Geany

[Randy Kramer]

On Monday 24 January 2011 06:43:11 pm Lex Trotman wrote:
> On 24 January 2011 23:52, Randy Kramer <rhkramer at gmail.com> wrote:
> > On Saturday 22 January 2011 09:07:31 pm Lex Trotman wrote:
> >> 3. It is (I think) a big change to allow Geany to have one
> >> instance with multiple top level windows, how to handle different
> >> projects in different top levels? how to handle different
> >> preferences in different top levels?
> >>
> >> So AFAICT there is no clear solution.
> >>
> >> My personal choice would be 3 because it would then also support
> >> multiple monitor setups, but I believe that there is a lot of
> >> usage issues to resolve and a LOT of work involved.
> >>
> >> Any good ideas welcome.
> >
> > No good ideas, but I'll continue to express biased opinions ;-)
>
> Every opinion is biased, except mine :-)
>
> > I'm not sure I fully understand your number 3, but if that means I
> > can run only one instance of Geany (with multiple top level
> > windows). I would be concerned.
> >
> > It sounds like the way Iceweasel / Firefox is set up, at least as
> > of version 3.0.6, which is what I'm using.
> >
> > My problem with that is that if something happens to that one
> > instance of Iceweasel (with several top level windows open on
> > different desktops), I lose all the open pages.  (For that reason,
> > I continue to use konqueror as my primary web browser--there are
> > pages for which doesn't work, but when one instance dies (hangs or
> > crashes), I lose only the open pages on that instance.
> >
> > (I feel this way despite the fact that Iceweasel allows me to
> > easily reopen all those pages (and, I've finally (recently) learned
> > how to do the same thing with konqueror in conjunction with a cron
> > job...))
> >
> > I don't expect Geany to hang / crash, but 11 years or so ago I was
> > told that Linux never crashes, but I've managed to prove those
> > people wrong (not intentionally, and to my detriment). .-)
>
> Save early, save often :-) after all if the file isn't on disk no
> other tools can access it :-)
>
> Your description of single instance, multi window is correct, yes
> there is a slightly enhanced risk, but IMH(unbiased)O compared to the
> problems with multiple instances this is small, see my scenario on
> another post on this thread.  No software can prevent the same file
> in two instances being different.  With a single instance all windows
> see the same (possibly modified) version of the file.
>
> Whereas multiple instances do not know about each other and chaos
> reigns, the single instance knows about its multiple windows, and so
> can save multiple sets of prefs/projects etc.
>
> The alternative (to continue your browser theme) is the Chrome
> approach where each tab (Geany top level) is a separate process but
> there is a front end controller process that manages them.  But
> Chrome doesn't have to contend with Geany's problem of synchronizing
> modifications to multiple instances of a file.

Thanks for the response!  

I have the same file open in multiple windows (on different desktops) so 
rarely that it is not something I worry about.  When I have the same 
file open more than once, it is almost always on the same desktop.

(I do have some files that I use related to work on more than one 
desktop, but I keep those on a desktop related to only that type of 
file, and go to that desktop to read / edit them.)

So, I guess I'm saying I'm not in a position (atm) to comment on the 
difficulties (or workarounds) related to the same file open on 
different desktops / instances.

Randy Kramer