Re: editor settings list

[Dirk Vangestel <dirk_vangestel yahoo com>]

--- jeroen <jeroen xs4all nl> wrote:
> Hi Dirk,
> 
> On Wed, 22 Aug 2001, Dirk Vangestel wrote:
> > I think you're putting too much functionality in
> the
> > editor. The things you put in 'display' are more
> > suited to be put in an editor interface than the
> stuff
> > you put in 'editor'. Putting too much
> functionality in
> > the editor interface will severely limit the
> choice of
> > editors (for example vi will have lots of problems
> > implementing the stuff in display, let alone the
> stuff
> > in editor).
> > But that's just IMHO of course :)
> 
> I think you're still thinking about the "old"
> situation. The current
> situation for properties is this:
> 
> - Use bonobo-conf (bonobo-config in GNOME 2.0) for
> settings
> - Separate editor settings from the rest

<rant>

I know. I actually wrote the TODO file, and was going
to write the properties stuff until Real Life
interfered...

> Bonobo-conf allows you to put all your settings in
> the Bonobo component
> itself and also to put the actual GUI for
> manipulating those settings in
> there too! This is how it works: gIDE queries the
> editor component (in
> this case scintilla) for the PropertyControl
> interface. With that interface, 
> bonobo-config is able to create a settings dialog
> (bonobo-conf only
> creates the dialog with notebook, all the actual
> contents comes from the
> scintilla component).

Doesn't change my concern. I'll try to explain it
differently: if the writer of the specific editor
component (be it scintilla, emacs, vim, ...) is
totally free in specifying the properties box, all of
them will be totally different. Hence I would prefer a
split in settings that are generic for all editors
(like tab settings) and settings that are specific to
the editor in question (like code folding). Ideally,
the generic settings would migrate over the different
editors (if I change the tab settings for vi and later
switch to emacs (like that'll ever happen :) I want to
see the same tab settings).

> When you modify any settings, bonobo-conf
> immediately notifies all
> instances of the scintilla control that the setting
> has changed (you're
> also supposed to be able use an "Apply" button, but
> how to do that is
> currently unknown. So for know, all settings are in
> "instant-apply" mode).

If you haven't yet, read the gconf documentation. It
explains very well what should be possible from a
settings dialog. One of my main problems with PoNG is
that it does not implement this, and by the look of
things bonobo-conf(ig) is even worse.

> The end result is that when you change a setting in
> gIDE and you also have
> a nautilus window open browsing source code with
> scintilla, the setting
> will also immediately take effect in nautilus.

I for one would absolutely hate that 'feature'. I have
to use different code styles for different projects,
either because they are imposed or because they are
simply in a different language. If I have to inspect
code written by someone who uses 4 spaces for tabs, I
want to be able to change those settings for just that
file or project, not for all instances of my editor.
The multi-language situation is similar. Are you
planning to make the settings depend on the file type?
I think they should be.

> Using this mechanism, you've separated the editor
> settings from gIDE.

That's ok for the settings, not for the GUI. You don't
want a dialog for the editor settings, and a dialog
for each plugin, you want a single preferences dialog.

> Using bonobo, you were never able in the first place
> to predict which
> component a user would use to edit source code.

That was the whole idea of using bonobo :)

> AFAIK, there is also no Editor idl. Please correct
> me if there is.

? If there is no interface for the editor, how is gIDE
going to know how to use it? See gdl/idl/*.idl

> I also think the other settings (plugin settings)
> can also be best done
> using the PropertyControl interface.

That was not the issue. The issue is how to combine
all the settings into one single dialog which looks
acceptable. That's probably not an easy problem to
solve...

> Hope this clarifies things,

No really ;)

</rant>

Dirk


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