[Lazarus] Why does a project have to be open?

[Martin]

On 18/03/2012 14:29, Jürgen Hestermann wrote:
>
>
> Sven Barth schrieb:
>> Also this is no "feature", it's currently one of the core concepts of 
>> Lazarus and it was so for years. So I doubt that this will be changed 
>> in the near future (before 1.0 at least).
>>
> Although I have arranged with it now it annoyed me too. No other 
> program (including Free Pascal text mode IDE) forces the user to have 
> a file/project open all the time. It's a bit weird that it was 
> designed like this. What was the reason for doing this? What advantage 
> does it have?

Currently the IDE simply needs the project structure.
E.g. If you open a file in the editor, info about it is added to your 
session (CaretXY, Topline, Tab, ...), which is part of the project.

This is simply how things have gone over time. I doubt someone will 
remember, why some decision was taken 5 or more years ago.

There is no rule that says it can not be changed. But to do so (and to 
do so in a way that is compatible: e.g. can read and use old config, 
session, projects...) is a major task.
So the reason it isn't changed now, is lack of time / other priorities.


Of course, there would be a quick fix: Instead of showing the modal 
dialog, disable ALL menus and ALL keyboard, except new/open project. 
(Must include installed packages, as they also may (may or may not) rely 
on an open project)
That is not really useful at all either.