[Qt-creator] Ctrl+B start build => Ctrl+B start/stop build

[Curtis Mitch]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Qt-creator [mailto:qt-creator-bounces at qt-project.org] On Behalf Of
> Cristian Tibirna
> Sent: Wednesday, 18 November 2015 8:58 PM
> To: qt-creator at qt-project.org
> Subject: [Qt-creator] Ctrl+B start build => Ctrl+B start/stop build
> 
> Hello
> 
> Consulting the list before writing a feature request to bugreports:
> 
> Currently I happen to do a lot of tentative building of fairly complex
> generic
> C++ code that I kinda write in collaboration with the compiler ;-). This
> C++ means
> that very often I start a build that produces > 1K errors in a few seconds
> and I rather prefer to stop it and fix some of these first errors before
> continuing.
> 
> Since I use almost exclusively the keyboard, I hit Ctrl+B to start a
> build.
> Then, when I want to stop it, I have to hit Alt+B (that opens ... the
> Build menu -- inefficient), make sure that "Cancel Build" item is
> highlighted and hit Enter. This is 1) slow, 2) inelegant 3) feeling half-
> baked, 4) slow ;o)
> 
> Would it be considered a useful improvement to have Ctrl+B mean "start
> build"
> and, in the obvious situation when a build is in progress, mean "stop
> build"?
> For this second occurrence, a small modal popup dialog should be
> displayed, asking for confirmation (perhaps with the "Cancel stopping
> build" button preselected ;-). Thus, without looking up from my build log
> (which is down at the bottom of the screen), I could hit "Ctrl+B/Alt+O"
> (in which Alt+O is
> contextual) to stop a build.
> 
> (NOTE: I know about being able to associate a keyboard shortcut to the
> "Cancel Build" action with the Environment>Keyboard tool, but it's not the
> same thing:
> it becomes difficult to find meaningful (easy to remember) key
> combinations and the probability of inadvertent kerfuffle with
> combinations like Ctrl+B,
> Ctrl+C is ... not inconsiderable).
> 
> So?
> 
> Thanks!

This is a good idea. :) Sounds like it shouldn't be too hard to give it a go and write a patch for it yourself. ;)

About Orgad's suggestion of using Ctrl+Pause; that will work for most people, but some keyboards are strange and have rubber function keys that are terrible to press (Alt+F4 often results in killing one too many applications):

http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/shop/images/1463/advantage-black.jpg

Pretty poor point, I know, but for those of us using these to combat repetitive strain injuries, they're a necessity.

I also think that this kind of functionality is nice for the same reason as the recent suggestion to move the build progress bar to the build button: cohesion and ease of use.

> --
> Cristian Tibirna
> KDE developer .. tibirna at kde.org .. http://www.kde.org
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