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Features: Preference System

Features: Preference System

Preference System

There are several types of preferences we can think of. There are the current view printed preferences such as B<Show newlines> or Show Line numbers and there are the project and file oriented preferences such as the use of tabulators or white space for indentation.

Currently some of the preferences are accessible via the Edit => Preferences menu options, others via the View menu option.

We have to make sure that when changing the preferences via the GUI it change for the correct things.

E.g. when changing the Use Tabulators preference it currently applies to all the files open currently or in the future. It should probably apply to the current file and/or the current project. Such options - when changing them - might even be applied retroactively. That is when I change the tabulator/space mode of a file or a project it should ask if I want to reflow the file with the new method of indentation?

On the other hand the Tabulator display size is purely a local, editor oriented preference. It should probably apply to all files currently open.

There are other aspects of preferences as well that might not exactly overlap with the above set:

The developer might work on the same project on different machines. In such case some of the personal preferences should apply only only on one computer while others apply in both places.

In particular if Padre is installed in a Portable Perl it might run on machines with different parameters. Screen size and resolution might be different along other parameters. We would like to make sure the relevant preferences are separated from those that are constant even when moving between computers.

Editor or view oriented preferences

  • Size and location of windows
  • Files recently opened
  • Files that were open last time, cursor location
  • Highlight indentation guide (TO DO)

This should be a separate option available only if the Show indentation guide and brace matching is on.

If SetHighlightGuide is set to 8 then when the user reaches one side of a pair of braces the indentation guide - if there is one on column 8 - will be highlighted. (in green).

As I understand Padre should constantly adjust the SetHighlightGuide so that in every block the "correct" indentation guide is highlighted.

  • Tabulator display size
  • Allow experimental features

In order to allow the experimental features one needs to manually turn on the experimental flag to 1 in config.yml. As Padre keeps overwriting this file you'll have to make this change with another editor and while Padre is B<not> open.

The config.yml file is in ~/.padre/ on Linux/Unix and in general in your home directory on Windows. In any case the Help/About box will show you the path of the .padre directory of Padre.

Once you set the experimental flag when you start Padre you will see a new menu on the right side of the menu bar called Experimental.

  • Open file policy

What files to open when launching Padre? nothing, new, those that were open last time?

  • Max/Min number of modules to display in POD viewer

File and Project oriented preferences

  • Indentation should be by tabulators or spaces
  • In case of using spaces for indentation, the width of every indentation level