[Lazarus] IDE flaws

[Hans-Peter Diettrich]

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 :-(

> 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...

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?


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...

DoDi