Areas and Working Sets: why?

[Oliver Maurhart]

#!/bin/hi *

> > > > - why this Areas are good?
> > >
> > > Because they allow you to group views, especially toolviews depending
> > > on what you want to do. For example I don't want or need a "Variables"
> > > toolview while I'm coding. Area's give a nice way of switching between
> > > different things I want to do inside the IDE and storing the UI layout
> > > I've used when I last debugged/coded.

I see. Well, KDev3 had this feature already, didn't it? Switching between 
coding and debugging changed the set/view of available tools. So, "Code" and 
"Debug" are clear, but  what about "Review"? Why an extra view? And while you 
are at it: if we have "Review", why not make an arbitrary user defined set of 
views then?

For me, I don't see any use for the "Review" area currently ... or any other 
than "Code" and "Debug", since what I would do by reviewing the code, I'll 
presumedly do in "Code" anyway.


> > > > - why Working Sets are good?
> > >
> > > Note: I don't use them.

Then that's a count of 2 now.

> > > Presumly they allow you to easily switch between different sets of
> > > files. So for example you work on feature X and along the way notice
> > > bug Y. Now you first want to fix bug Y before going on with the
> > > feature, so you close your workingset (which has all files necessary to
> > > work on feature X) and start a new one by opening a file that you need
> > > to fix bug Y.

In such cases I type "TODO" with a small comment in the code. KDev and a lot 
of other tools react on this and highlight it. Also I don't need KDev to 
search for any open issues, since any fgrep will reveal any open issues I 
temporarily stopped working on.

Even more: the TODO is accompanied with some context, be it a comment or the 
pure code itself, whereas the Working Set represents itself with a random 
icon.

So, for me this argument seems a bit weak.

> > > In current svn I didn't see any problems with simply not using them,
> > > i.e. always working in the same workingset (except when switching
> > > areas).

They catch may attention every time, when I find myself having 3-4 working sets 
shown up in the left top corner. Then I think to myself "What the heck ... ?" 
and start clicking & closing them.

They are not a problem. They draw my attention away from coding right to some 
"idiosyncrasy" of KDev and leave me confused.

But maybe I get used to them. =)

> > Can we make them optional, though?
> 
> Not without bloating the code and frankly I don't see a reason for that. I
> don't use them and they're not in my way in any way (I'm talking about
> Workingsets), so one can simply ignore their existence and be done with it.
> Writing lots of extra code just to not show the icons is not worth it IMHO.

Ok. But, ... hm ... without looking at the code: instead of opening up a new 
working set, open up the default one all the time and don't show up any 
working set related widgets ... is hard to implement? o.O

Well, maybe. Sure there are much more tasks with higher priority than this 
one.

kR,

Oliver