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Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2016 07:58:14 +0200 (CEST)
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To: geda-user AT delorie DOT com
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From: gedau AT igor2 DOT repo DOT hu
Subject: [geda-user] RFC: gtk-hid window size save/restore
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Reply-To: geda-user AT delorie DOT com

Hi all!

I've arrived at the gtk hid's "window width/height save/restore" code in 
my conf-rewrite in pcb-rnd. Long story short: the gtk hid tries to 
remember window geometry and tries to restore it to the last known 
state (?) when pcb is started.

Thinking it over, I am not sure this is a good idea (while I totally see 
why many users probably want it).

I am interested in your input, as an user of GUI apps in general (I don't 
think this is pcb-specific) about how this is best done. Conceptually the 
question is, assuming pcb-rnd needs to save/restore window sizes, whose 
property window sizes is? The program's? The user's? The desing's? The 
session's? This gets tricky especially in corner cases like laptops with 
variable screen sizes (large external screen when docked and small screen 
on the road).

Please comment on the following options, or add extra options if you see 
any:

1. Do not try to save window geometry, let the window manager do its 
job. This is how I do it: my wm runs an awk script that regex-matches pcb 
windows and arranges the on the fly, overriding whatever pcb says. PCB 
windows are automatically arranged in the way I like them, no matter how 
big my screen is. This probably won't work for most users because they use 
less capable window managers and/or spend less time configuring it.

2. Save it as an user configuration (~/.pcb-rnd/);
this is good as long as you are running only one instance of pcb. When you 
start running two in parallel, and chose different window sizes,
they will overwrite eachother's settings so it's random which one wins 
(e.g. the one you closed last will overwrite window geometry last). I 
think this is how the gtk hid does it these days, but I am not 100% sure.

3. Save it as a per-design configuration; it's much less likely that the 
same user on the same system opens the same design twice and if he does, 
his save operations will fight anyway; however, editing the same design on 
multiple screens (or multiple systems, by multiple users!) makes it pretty 
wrong to save this setting in the design. Having some local settings 
stored in an unversioned config file next to the .pcb file solves some of 
the problems, but not all (e.g. same user, same system, screen size 
changes)

4. make it an "explicit save" thing so it doesn't try to save it 
automatically, it makes a snapshot only when you explicitly click a 
button. Window geometry is saved in ~/.pcb-rnd/ (user config). So if you 
know you are going to use a given screen size for the next period of time, 
you rearrange your windows, save the arrangement then if you start new pcb 
instances they start with this saved setting.

NOTE: I am not proposing any change to pcb or gschem or geda/gaf.

Regards,

Igor2