[Qt-creator] Kit and device concept in QtCreator

[El Mehdi Fekari]

Hi all,

I want to cherry pick a topic we discussed on the QtCreator session at 
the last Qt CS regarding "the kit/device concept" here :)

Since then, we had a back and forth discussion about the way kit/device 
coupling are percievied, but I am not sure the concern is clear enough.

This topic was originally triggered by internal developers 
feedback/requirement, who use QtCreator for BlackBerry 10 (internal) 
development, and find the current way to switch device with the current 
"Kit == Device" paradigm very tough.

As for today, there are two ways to change a target device for an active 
project:

1. Go to the kits information config UI and change the device ([linux] 
Tools -> Options -> Build & Run -> Kits -> "target's kit" -> Device).
2. Clone/Create new Kit with a different device set.

(1) That's too much clicks for a simple operation. This could be painful 
with huge list of kits (with almost similar display name).

(2) This would be nice option when having few set of kits and devices, 
but when dealing with lots of build configurations and various set of 
devices then this is no longer a very optimal way. For instance (our use 
case), BlackBerry internal developers/testers are dealing with different 
versions of NDKs and different set of devices (secure/unsecure, 
different OS images, different screen size, ...) and they will end up 
with a huge list of kits (bigger than what it already is). Most of them 
are basically identical (expect for device input).

I suggested to have a UI option to switch the target's kit device from 
the run configuration UI (at least in the Qnx/BlackBerry plugin)  since 
the build step is independent from the device input, and only depends on 
the NDK target's APIs (at least in for BlackBerry 10).  This enables 
developers to easily test/deploy a built app on different devices. But a 
the idea + proposed patch was rejected for being a violation of the 
concept of a "ready to use kit" concept.

Any chance to 'tolerate' such change (at least for the BlackBerry 
plugin)? If not, any fair-enough reasons or suggestions ? :-)

Cheers,
Mehdi

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