[Qt-creator] Qt-Creator: the variant of project's tree

[Tobias Hunger]

Hi Ignat,

yes, we should probably have a more configurable file tree. Many users
seem to want that. In fact there is a really old bug report about this
somewhere if I remember correctly. Nobody bothered to implement this
so far though.

On Wed, Nov 18, 2015 at 8:24 PM, Ignat Awwit <ignatius.awwit at gmail.com> wrote:
> I have a very interesting idea how to create a comfortable file tree
> project.
> (It seems to me that it is really very convenient for developers of C++
> applications)
>
> Now files in the project's tree are grouped by Headers and Sources
> For example:

<snip>

The projects view is actually meant to be a representation of the
build system. So we try to stay as close as possible to how the build
system in use by the project structures the project information.

So for qmake projects we have Headers and Sources (HEADERS and SOURCES
in the .pro-files), for other build systems we have a different
layout. We need to do that since, especially for the build systems
where we can actually modify the build system itself from the UI. We
need the project view for that.

Many users apparently want a tree structure for navigation purposes.
We should have something for those users, but that can not be the
project view IMHO.

> I propose a solution: the files should be grouped according to the names of
> the entities, and the choice of a particular file can occur by clicking on
> the icon of the file extension.
> For example:
>
> - Folder
> Header [h]
> Main [h] [cpp]
> Test [h] [cpp] [inc]
>
> [h], [cpp] and [inc] are the icons of files' extensions.
>
> This option will make the search for the necessary file in a project much
> easier.

If you want to get to any file fast: Hit Ctrl-K and start typing part
of the name or search for the class name or a method name you
remember. That is way faster than scanning a tree, independent of the
layout chosen.

But if you want to scan for a file in a tree, then this suggestion
probably makes sense. There are details like when to group files: Do
they need to be in the same directory to be grouped or can you e.g.
have your include files in a separate folder?

How would you navigate in such a tree with a keyboard?

Should this take project structure (as found in the build system) into
account somehow? Or should this be purely based on file system layout?

> I hope you will read and evaluate my message.
> I'm waiting for an answer from you: what do you think?

We read everything (at least here on the list and in the bug tracker),
no worry. We may not respond, but we do read it:-)

Best Regards,
Tobias