RFC: Opening non-code files embedded or standalone

[Andreas Pakulat]

On 12.07.09 12:14:13, David Nolden wrote:
> Am Sonntag 12 Juli 2009 10:37:29 schrieb Andreas Pakulat:
> > Hi,
> >
> > before I just change things, what are people's opinions about embedding
> > non-code files (via KPart) vs. opening them in the preferred application
> > standalone?
> >
> > Specifically I'm thinking about .ui files, which are currently opened in
> > an embedded kpart which doesn't allow changing the .ui file. So to edit
> > a .ui file I need to start designer on it manually.
> >
> > I'm thinking about doing it similar to what ecplise does, that is allow
> > to open embedded or in external application and remembering that
> > decision based on the mimetype. I'd also like to have a "open as text"
> > too, so I can edit a .ui file inside kdevelop as xml.
> >
> > Opinions?
> >
> > Andreas
> 
> Since an IDE is meant for editing files, and not for viewing them, the read-
> only kparts are not really useful. I think we should by default open files 
> with a component that can also be used for editing.

Well, sometimes I just want to have a quick look at a image or .ui file,
without editing it.

> The nice thing about opening files within KDevelop is that they stay 'in 
> context' with the other currently edited or viewed files.

Well, are you sure? For a file thats being opened in an external
application we won't have a document instance and no view.

> For .ui files, we should use the original Qt designer for now.

Well, I don't particularly like to have another if-case in the
documentcontroller and IMHO we should have the context-menu anyway for
the "open as text in kate" part.
 
> What about embedding the whole application directly within a tab using XEmbed, 

Only over my dead body ;). Its

a) non-cross-platform
b) quite a bit of work (ask the khtml people how easy it is to embed
flash player)
c) totally clutters the Ui - a second mainwindow inside the editor area
simply doesn't work.

> It should also be possible to open any file as text directly within KDevelop, 
> so ideally there would be a right-click menu Open With -> Default editor 
> (KDevelop if it's a supported file type) | Standalon Editor 1 | Standalone 
> Editor 2 | ...

No list of "standalone editor" here, its:

open inside KDevelop (which simply doesn't exist if there's no kpart)
open in default application (using KRun class, IIRC, the user can
already configure this one to his liking)
open as plain text (using embedded kate)

Andreas
 
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