[Lazarus] Lazarus IDE - One Hundred Papercuts

[Graeme Geldenhuys]

On 2015-09-08 23:16, Martin Frb wrote:
> In respect to "fixed locally" (your comment below): How?
> Does it use the storage that can be edited via the "windows" tab in 
> tools/opitons? (like breakpoints)?

That's another problem I have with Lazarus IDE...

In my haste to fix the annoyance (which was really bugging me at the
time) I simply used a local TINIFile in the Procedure List dialog, and
saved the relevant information to that standard lazarus primary config
directory.

The reason I say "another problem with Lazarus IDE".... For somebody
that doesn't work daily with the IDE source code, it is hard to find
info. eg: what must be used to integrate saving new settings into the
existing XML files Lazarus maintains.

The IDE doesn't use form inheritance much - I don't know why, because it
is so useful. If it did, it could introduce a base TBaseIDEDialog form
which automatically saves and restores window state (width, height,
position) and surface functionality which allows saving other info like
Grid or ListView column widths etc.

If you can let me know where I could find the information on using the
existing XML infrastructure of Lazarus IDE, then I'll modify my patch.


>>   * BreakPoint list window - select a breakpoint, press DEL...
> The focus is on the list (at least on win32), but no entry selected, 
> using up/down arrow will select (next to the deleted entry).
> You mean selection, not focus? You want the next entry selected?

Sorry for the confusion. Yes I meant selection. The window now forces me
to press the up or down key first - just so I can do the action I wanted
- deleting some breakpoints after a debug session. I don't see the point
it forcing me to press an extra key between every delete action.

Also when the window is opened for the first time, why is the focus set,
but no selection. It is such little annoyances that I consider "papercut
bugs".

Developers are creatures that like efficiency. ;-)  At least that is me.

> 
>>   * Editor - no editor function (single shortcut) to duplicate a line
> Can be solved via editor macro. But if you have a patch...

I use a few copies of Lazarus IDE - in various VM's. In two of them I
can't find any reference to Macros in the IDE menus or how to record a
new macros. Searching the wiki for "macros" brings up the paths and
filename macros - not what I wanted.

So I wrote a IDE add-on package which does what I want, and include it
in my local "custom-mods" branch.

Is macros support an IDE add-on package that must be installed? It is
such a useful feature of any IDE or text editor, so why can't Lazarus
IDE come standard with macros support, and put it right there in the
main menu, easy to find. See attached screenshot of EditPad Pro - can't
get more clear than that!


> Just adding them to mantis (patches subproject), and mention "patch" in 
> the subject.

That's find for the ones I have fixed, but what about the other 95
papercut bugs - that don't have patches yet. Could we have a separate
sub-section in Mantis to file these easy to fix (1-2 hours max) bugs -
or should we simply attach a tag to an existing Mantis report. Again I
know tags exist in Mantis, but I don't know how useful they are in real
life.


> The issue is not just if the can be fixed in a line or two, but also if 
> that is deemed the correct solution.

Obviously, and why it needs to be discuss - hence my preference to file
them in Mantis, instead of simply listing them in a Wiki page.


> Adding column widths may be easy too, but it should not be a one window 
> only solution. It needs to be apply-able to all similar windows.

See my reply above - Lazarus IDE could make this easier to accomplish -
for somebody like me, that doesn't fiddle daily with the IDE source code.


Regards,
  - Graeme -

-- 
fpGUI Toolkit - a cross-platform GUI toolkit using Free Pascal
http://fpgui.sourceforge.net/
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