enhanced project file management/handling

Got an idea for enhancing PureBasic? New command(s) you'd like to see?
Bitblazer
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enhanced project file management/handling

Post by Bitblazer »

In a decently large project, it is common to add a new sourcefile to a project. I like to keep the names in alphabet order sorted by "modules" - Like a subdirectory called AudioDB had the Files AudiobookToolbox.pbi, AudioFileName.pb, AudioRecord.pb, AudioXML.pb and Dictionary.pb.

The project has about 40 sourcefiles in different subdirectories (ok i should convert some of these to modules but back when the project started, modules didnt exist at all). Current Situation:

40 files, 6 Directories - adding a new file to the project, appends the name to the end of the sourcefile list. So i have to close the project, open up notepad++ and manually shift the entry for the newly added sourcefile to the appropriate position to match the alphabetic order - to keep the project from becoming an (even bigger) mess.

My feature suggestion/request would be to be able to drag&drop names of files inside the project files display of the IDE to avoid manual editing of the .pbp file. Because people shouldnt (have to) tamper with .pbp files like this for multiple reasons.

Tbh. the current project file handling is kind of worrying me anyway because it doesnt really reflect the project much - you can include 20 files and never add them to the "project file" and it will compile fine anyway. Thats obvious from a technical and historical point of view, but for a new user this is probably just confusing and seems messy. It was a good start, but it probably needs a thorough redesign :)
HanPBF
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Re: enhanced project file management/handling

Post by HanPBF »

The handling with different sub folders is a problem.

Alphabetic sort does work in one folder.

On windows, and I guess OSX/Linux, You could create hard links to Your original files and create a somewhat clean structure for the project(s).
Maybe that helps?
Bitblazer
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Re: enhanced project file management/handling

Post by Bitblazer »

HanPBF wrote:Alphabetic sort does work in one folder.
How?
HanPBF wrote:On windows, and I guess OSX/Linux, You could create hard links to Your original files and create a somewhat clean structure for the project(s).
Maybe that helps?
I really dont want to add additional maintenance tasks like hard links, as it creates more complexity. More complexity = more chances for something to fail/break. In that case, i can just live with the current manual editing of the .pbp file. I should switch to modules anyway.

It's just possible that (for whatever reason) the .pbp file is changed into a binary format in the future, plus i wonder why i see that simple option of dragging and dropping lines in many kinds of software, but the PB .pbp file handling seems to be like random (by loading order into memory probably, as it keeps the order once you manually ordered it in a .pbp file).

Personally i like the drag&drop handling of bookmarks that firefox uses and its not a huge task to implement :)
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