Re: [StrongED] Re: Fresh 4.69a7 installation

[Harriet Bazley <harriet.bazley@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 24 Feb 2013 as I do recall,
          Martin Bazley  wrote:

> Could you not allocate a new, specialised "LoW" filetype, which StrongED
> claims when double-clicked?  It doesn't just have to be a text editor,
> y'know - you are allowed to define run actions as well.
>
> The nice part about that is that you can pass as many parameters as you
> like to each file - window position, caret position, iconised status,
> etc. This could then become the equivalent of a 'project file', which
> restores all of its status when double-clicked.
>
> Perhaps you could add the ability for entries in an LoW to be selected,
> moved up and down the list, and into and out of definable groups?

A more 'RISC-OS-like' approach would be simply to define 'group' as
'files loaded by/listed in a specific LoW file', equivalent to a Filer
window view (rather than a complex tree view hierarchy like the Windows
Filer).  If LoW files could themselves contain LoW files (which would be
quite hard to exclude, I should have thought) you could then implement
all or most of this without any need for a group manager:  drag a LoW
file (or any other new file) to an existing List of Windows, and you
automatically have a new entry or dependent child list.  Close the file
and it gets removed from the 'group'.

I'm not sure I particularly like any of this since it provides scope for
endless confusion over what is actually loaded where, and the
possibility of simply losing documents because you're looking in the
wrong LoW and assume that they aren't loaded at all.   (As a method of
working, it's also apt to lead to vast numbers of loaded yet hidden
files hovering permanently in memory, but I suppose the
multiple-source-file working techniques already described as being in
use are already doing that.)

[snip]

> Not sure how you'd handle opening files which should be in the same
> group, but currently aren't open (so not in the LoW).  I know there's
> the 'hide' function, but do you really want to load your entire project
> every time?  You could store a list of 'filenames which should be
> claimed for this group' (probably using pattern matching similar to
> ModeWhen) in the LoW file, but what happens if more than one currently
> open group tries to claim the same file?  Prompt the user to
> disambiguate?
>
> Could you save an empty, but named, LoW to represent a project which
> knows where its files are but just doesn't have any of them loaded at
> the moment?  What happens to a group when all its associated windows are
> closed - does it continue to exist?
>

This is sounding very much like Fireworkz' behaviour with sets of
'linked' files (e.g. loading one file automatically summons others;
closing one file prompts query as to whether others should be saved).
But of course in that case there is the explicit reference from one
spreadsheet to another written into the files themselves....


-- 
Harriet Bazley                     ==  Loyaulte me lie ==

Justice: A decision in your favour.

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