Martin schrieb:
...let me explain a bit more what I tried to explain before (and had in
my last mail too)
It would only help, if you totally abandon all global config. don't even
look for a global anymore, only check the exe folder, nowhere else.
Why that?
When multiple directories are in a search path, the search stops on the
first item (file...) found. That's common practice, isn't it?
But if the search order for config would be:
- exe-dir
- global as current
Then as soon as a global config exist you are back to were you are now.
Something seems to be wrong with your list. Mine looks like this:
1) explicit -pcp
2) EXE dir (meaning the Lazarus dir from which the EXE was built)
3) global dir
- download a new lazarus, into some folder "lazfoo"
- now lazfoo does not yet contain config, but the global folder does.
so in your way, one has to first create a config in lazfoo.
This is an explicit action the user must undertake, same as adding the
-pcp.
The IDE already *is* clever enough to handle non-existing or
inappropriate configs. Remains only to specify where the updated config
should be stored.
=> But if the user is unaware of the issue, he will not ad that config
to lazfoo, and run with the global config => same as now
When no global (default) config exists, the new config (eventually) can
be stored there, else the obvious place is the Lazarus(~EXE) directory.
Let me guess, now you say, then every lazarus should come with a local
config?
That is the same as abandoning the global config completely (because if
always a local conf exists, it will always use the local, never the
global) => but the proposal was an optional local, that would be found
first, if and only if present.
Perhaps we should separate two cases:
1) When the IDE can determine the Lazarus directory to use, then the
entire (remaining) config *can* be stored in a common place. This
applies at least to Windows.
2) When the IDE can *not* determine this, it must either look into an
common place, or a pcp must be supplied on every invocation. This seems
to apply to Linux?
Case [2] deserves no further considerations, no automatism can be added.
But this is not a valid argument to force the users of more comfortable
systems <BG> to suffer from poor UNIX functionality.
So were (or how) exactly, in which scenario, does an additional search
for a local config actual help the unaware user?
The IDE can keep certain (required) modifications in the local config,
e.g. an non-standard FPC required to compile this version. This compiler
may be part of the installation, what's just the default in Windows
installations.
Sure, once you know,it may be more convenient to some, but a startup
script is no less convenient to most.
I have no problems with startup scripts, as long as I do not have to
write them myself, must remember where I placed and how I named them,
etc. ;-)
But I have a BIG problem with non-shareable configs. When I have to
configure manually every new Lazarus installation, because it is too
stupid to configure itself, or it overwrites the configs required for my
other installations, then something is wrong :-(
Concrete example:
After every Lazarus checkout a couple of adaptations are required.
- For the bootstrap I have to update the PATH, to include the required
compiler and tools, before I can invoke "make all". This is the point
where that compiler *could* become the default for *this* installation.
- Next I *must* copy a config from somewhere else, create a desktop
icon, and add the -pcp to it.
- Then, in the first run of the new IDE, I have to update the pathes to
the Lazarus and compiler directories, copied from the old config. Then I
must exit and restart the IDE, so that I can hope that it uses the
updated config.
This may look not very complicated, but on the next checkout I have to
remember all the details, what must be updated manually etc.
DoDi
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