[Development] QmlImportPath

[Koehne Kai]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Wehmer, Matthias [mailto:Matthias.Wehmer at draeger.com]
> Sent: Friday, October 26, 2012 10:43 AM
> To: Koehne Kai; chris.adams at qinetic.com.au
> Cc: development at qt-project.org
> Subject: RE: [Development] QmlImportPath
> 
> The problem is also, that it causes inconsistencies under Windows, i.e. there
> are now some cases where the case of the letters matter and some others
> where it doesn't matter at all. We've discussed the paths in the QtCreator,
> so they distinct between Upper and lower letters.
> But for example it is possible to import libraries in .pro files without taking
> care of Upper and lower cases (LIBS += <PATH> -lLibrary with windows is
> the same as LIBS += <Path> -llibrary), such that this .pro file may not be unix
> compatible.
> So whatever solution may be chosen for this matter (case sensivity with
> windows) in my opinion it should at least be consistent within Qt and its
> qmake system.

Well, the solution is obviously not be to make the rest of Qt case sensitive on a case insensitive file system!

Actually I'd like to ask for a decision here whether we:

* keep the current behavior
  - adding a (bold) section to the documentation of e.g. Q[Declarative|Qml]View::setSource() , Q[Declarative|Qml]Engine::setBaseUrl explaining the matter
  - adding an official API to make paths correctly cased on Windows
* change behavior in one of the ways I proposed.

For the reasons I already explained I would prefer the latter.

<rant>
I understand that the current behavior had its place when QML was mostly about targeting a device, with Windows or Mac as the development host. But if we're serious with QML in Windows applications the current behavior is just not acceptable. We're replacing easy to spot problems in the development process (Added file, doesn't work on the device, let's see) with bugs that happen only to the 110th user who happens to type "C:\PROGRAM FILES" when installing your software. And no software I know cares about cases in paths on Windows. Only QML does.
</rant>

Regards

Kai

 
> Greetings Matthias
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Koehne Kai [mailto:Kai.Koehne at digia.com]
> Sent: Donnerstag, 25. Oktober 2012 12:36
> To: Chris Adams
> Cc: Wehmer, Matthias; development at qt-project.org
> Subject: RE: [Development] QmlImportPath
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Chris Adams [mailto:chris.adams at qinetic.com.au]
> > Sent: Thursday, October 25, 2012 2:23 AM
> > To: Koehne Kai
> > Cc: Wehmer, Matthias; development at qt-project.org
> > Subject: Re: [Development] QmlImportPath
> >
> > [...]
> > I believe that the problem is that (as Aaron states in that change
> > request) if we don't enforce case-sensitivity, we get the unfortunate
> > situation that an application which works on Windows, or Mac OS X, might
> not work on Linux.
> > By enforcing case sensitivity, we ensure that the application works on
> > all platforms without requiring any changes.  In the past, we had
> > heaps of bug reports about this exact issue, until we started
> > enforcing case sensitivity on all platforms.
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I understand the reasoning, but there's pain on the other side too: As soon as
> you integrate QML like Qt Creator does, you're likely hit by problems. Just
> look at the list of linked bugs in Qt Creator under
> 
> https://bugreports.qt-project.org/browse/QTBUG-17529
> 
> Absolute paths that work for the rest of Qt break for QML ... The counter
> measure is 'normalizing' paths handed over to QtDeclarative/QtQml, but
> there's not even a Qt API for it. Now you could argue that Qt Creator is
> somehow special, but Matthias isn't the first external one complaining
> about this, there have been others before too ...
> 
> So all in all, I think the current strict checking does more harm than good.
> Alternatives I see are:
> 
>  - normalizing paths handed over via public API (this is what my patch does)
>  - change error into a warning
>  - just check for file names, not directories
>  - get rid of the check altogether, and maybe warn about potential problems
> in the Qt Creator IDE
> 
> > I've added Martin Jones to that change request to get his opinion, but
> > I would be surprised if changing this behaviour at this point in time
> > is sensible.
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Chris.
> 
> 
> PS: Is there any other interpreter / compiler being so strict about file casing
> like we are? I don't think I've encountered one ...
> 
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