Re: [anjuta-devel] Project manager: changing installation directory

[Sébastien Granjoux <seb sfo free fr>]

Hi,


Le 05/05/2011 10:02, Johannes Schmid a écrit :
> The idea was to only have to display "plugindir" as installation directory
> and give the user the possibility to edit plugindir (which is a group
> property) through some shortcut.

Adding a shortcut is not very difficult but I think it will look strange 
for someone not knowing autotools.


> > Perhaps it's better to hide completely this directory variable
> > displaying and requesting only the directory variable value.
> What name would the directory variable have?

The backend can create a name automatically, taking the value and 
removing all strange characters ($, (, )...) or replacing them with 
underscore. So if you enter "$(anjuta_plugin_dir)/data" it can create a 
variable named anjuta_plugin_dir_data_dir by example.


> How would the user know it existed?

He will not know it unless it know autotools. But I don't think it's 
needed. Else we can put as value "name=value". By example 
"anjuta_plugin_dir_data_dir=$(anjuta_plugin_dir)/data" when the user 
enters "$(anjuta_plugin_dir)/data", so he will see that there is 
something special and can change the variable name.


> How would you delete the variable if nothing is referring to it
> anymore?

It will be removed when no target use it. Eventually, it will be a 
problem if this variable is used in another expression and the backend 
don't see it but I think it's quite uncommon.

I takes care to limit the change in the project files, so it's always 
possible to edit them with a text editor and I think it will be always 
needed for complex case.


> I feer that users will start to add random values as installation
> directory while they should never use something hardcoded there but always
> something like $(distdir)/bla/bla. Maybe we need some kind of hinting for
> this.

This value has a default value, I suppose most user will not change it. 
I think we can use a combo box to propose valid values.


> It just has to much information. For source files it should only display
> executable and library targets (just like the upper half of the
> project-manager window). Same probably for other targets. I guess we just
> shouldn't display the dialog at all if there is only one target to add
> source files too.

Only the valid targets are display above but even for simple project you 
have several targets (one is used for distributed files).

I think it would be better to display only a file chooser dialog if the 
"Add Source" menu item is selected from the project view context menu.
But then I don't know how to handle the case where the "Add Source" menu 
item is selected from the main menu. I can still add the source only in 
the selected target of the project view but it's not obvious anymore.
Another solution is to add a way to select another target but we need a 
dialog for this. Perhaps it's possible to use a customized file chooser 
dialog with a expander allowing to display a part of the project view 
like in node properties dialog.


Regards,

Sébastien