[RFC] KDev4 Ui

[Jens Dagerbo]

On Thursday 15 November 2007 23.59.55 Alexander Dymo wrote:
> I haven't read the mail just two days and bah! >50 emails in kdevelop-devel
> :)
>
> 1) We absolutely need to have only one ui mode - let's not repeat our past
> mistakes with kmdi. Given current state of development my choice is to keep
> Ideal and get rid of dockwidgets.

Agreed.


> 2) My preferred ui for the history would be quickopen dialog with ordered
> files in it.
>
> In fact, I'd like to see
> - quickopen opened files
> - quickopen navigation history
> 	list of opened and closed files ordered by access time
> 	with closed files properly coloured to indicate they aren't visible
> anymore - quickopen edit history
> 	list of edited files (opened or closed) with positions inside the file
> 	(or ideally with method names, not only row numbers)

I actually kinda like this idea. Reusing the quickopen dialog gives us 
consistency and a search function. As long as there is also a way to just do 
a quick back-step without invoking a dialog, for the cases when you know 
where you are going.

> 3) Looks like we need to have some kind of filelist toolview, but I
> personally have no use for it, 3 quickopen modes as above would substitute
> it.

The document list also provides an easy launch point for whatever tool you may 
want to use on a specific set of files. It's still quite useful.

> 4) One thing I know for sure (and the sole reason for me still using tabs).
> I need to see 3-4 files I work with. Usually in KDev3 I have tabs with
> those files located one near another (it doesn't matter whether I have 4
> files opened or 40, I just need to see those 3-4 tabs on the screen).
>
> This sounds like David's working set but here I'd like to explicitly say
> that the file belongs to the working set. I.e. I'd like to press a shortcut
> for "add to working set" action and see the tab created.
>
[blinks][scratches head] You know.. that actually sounds kinda useful. :) Only 
drawback that immediately comes to mind has to do with shortcut based 
document switching. If you use the keyboard to step between open files, then 
when a tabbed document comes into view, the tabwidget needs to show the 
correct tab, but when you switch away from it, not much at all will happen 
(the tab could be drawn in a different way, indicating it does not belong to 
the active document). I guess this could come across as rather confusing.

Despite this minor flaw, I rather like the idea. :)

// jens