[Qt-creator] Updated .user-file saving mechanismn

[Tobias Hunger]

On 02.02.2010 19:22, ext Danny Price wrote:
> I'm so used to trashing those files I've almost stopped thinking about it :(

In which situations do you trash those files? I have not had complaints 
about those files breaking. The exception being going back and forth 
between stable and unreleased versions of creator. My change should 
improve this situation a bit by keeping the stable versions .user-file 
around. So now you can at least copy the old version's file back when 
heading back to a stable release.

> How do you set project dependencies then? I have a huge set of libraries
> and I have found Qt's 'session' system (which is based around those user
> files)

Sessions are meant to store one users state (open files and projects, 
bookmarks, breakpoints, etc.). It is not meant to be shared in a team.

I have not really looked into the session system yet, so I can not 
comment on the implementation details. It is very much separate from the 
.user files. From what I understood so far sessions reference projects 
(in the QMake case: .pro-files), not .user files. So they should at 
least not be effected by .user-file trashing to much:-)

> to be absolutely useless because those files cannot be used
> across platform or even among teams on the same platform.

They contain user-specific setups and are not meant to be shared in a team.

> You guys are clearly spending time polishing Creator's 'Project' screen
> (I see the layout has changed again in the master) but I cannot use it
> at all.

These changes should be even more important to people trashing their 
.user files regularly:-)

Seriously: There will be more changes to that soon to ease working with 
device SDKs.

> I have to set build settings and project dependencies (where
> possible) in the .pro files.

Yes, information meant to be shared in a team is better kept in the 
build system itself. Dependencies can e.g. get encoded by SUBDIRS 
template in .pro-files (which can then be shared in a team).

Best Regards,
Tobias