[Lazarus] IDE flaws

[Martin]

On 01/07/2011 16:34, Hans-Peter Diettrich wrote:
> Martin schrieb:
>
>> Actually, I just checked on windows vista, and it works (2nd window 
>> allows cloning back to 1st window). I tested before, but tricked myself.
>
> Oops, *this* seems to be the reason!
>
>> Please not when you test, that there is another restriction. Each 
>> unique file can only have one tab per window.
>
> That's okay, but the IDE breaks even this rule :-(
>
> When a project is loaded, and problems in the resources (.lfm) are 
> found, this file is opened *twice* in the same window. When this 
> happens, it's highly recommended to create a new project and cancel 
> updates of the old project - everything else will lead to strange 
> errors, up to making the IDE unresponsive :-(
I haven't tested that.

But the bug is *probably* unrelated to the above:

The rule for "Each file only once per window" applies to "linked/shared" 
editors. (Edit the file in one place, updates all other places / 
Internally the IDE has that file open ONCE)

Your case *sounds* as if (I have not tested it) the file is opened a 2nd 
time, and the IDE treats it as 2 different files.
Out of interest: did you compare the full filenames (path + name)?



>
>> So if you cloned "unit1" from window-1 to window-2, then it is open 
>> in both windows. This means you can not clone (not move) it to 
>> window-1 as it is already open there.
>
> That's okay so far but, as you see, it can lead to confusion. I've 
> just added another (lengthy) note to issue 19666, that explains what I 
> consider *desired* behaviour instead:
>
> The Clone menu should allow to simply *activate* an already existing 
> *or* newly created clone. Currently it can be very time consuming to 
> scroll through the tabs of the target window, shifting one by one, 
> until an already existing clone is found there.
> I already suggested an pagewise scroll through the tabs, instead of 
> shifting one by one, but this idea was rejected a long time ago...

The display disabled menu entry, instead of display none makes sense.

Jumping to the same source, in an other window, is an interesting 
feature, but should not be unde "move/clone" menu, (imho it would lead 
to confusion there).
There could be a sub menu "find in other window"; though that leads to 
more menu entries in the main popup, and the popup is already very big.

>
> Related issue: can the entries in the Window menu be sorted 
> alphabetically, so that it will be easier to find and activate a page 
> by name?
probably, but I don't know anyone working on it....
Discussions on this and similar had been plenty in the past.
An extension package could also solve this, displaying files in many 
interesting ways in a file navigation window)... but no one has yet 
written it.

> Of course it's a matter of personal preferences, how many files and 
> clones should be open at the same time. At least I can end up in 
> *very* many open files, when a change in source code results in 
> compiler errors and consequential updates of many dependent files. It 
> can be helpful to keep all these files open, in case the preceding 
> updates should be modified again...

I think the maximum of open files (not tabs, but unique files) I have 
ended up with so far, would be around 40.
The maximum number of source windows I ever used would be around 9