[anjuta-devel] Git Tasks Window and GDL status update

[James Liggett <jrliggett1 gmail com>]

Hi,
For over a month or so now I've been investigating why the Git Tasks
window is often floating when you unhide it. My investigation has taken
me deep into the bowels of GDL, which you may know are notorious for
their lack of documentation. ;) Here's what I have so far:

1. When GDL saves its layout to a file, it doesn't consider hidden
docks, so those get treated like they basically don't exist when a
layout is saved or loaded from a file.

2. When you exit Anjuta with the Git Tasks window hidden, it doesn't
exist in the layout when you load Anjuta again, so GDL makes it float by
default because it doesn't remember where it was supposed to go.

3. However, GDL does take into account hidden docks for "saves" that
happen in memory, for example when you maximize and then unmaximize a
dock. Does anyone have any insight into why this is the case? I could
try to address it, but I don't want to inadvertently break something
here...

My best guess on finding #3 is that placeholders aren't really designed
to be serialized and persist between application uses. As a very naive
attempt at resolving this problem, I have considered changing the save
mechanism so that it places hidden docks into the layout XML file,
adding some kind of hidden attribute so that we can build a placeholder
for it when the layout is loaded so the docks take their correct
positions when they're unhidden. The problem is that the saving system
in GDL touches on a lot of different things, like the master and some
other things I don't quite get, especially some tree model that it keeps
for some dialog that lists the dock items in a list view. I have no idea
what that's even doing there. :)

Can someone more familiar with GDL comment on the feasibility of my
solution? I honestly don't know what I've gotten myself into here :)

Thanks,
James