[Qt-creator] QTCreator + CMAKE Project View.

[Michael Jackson]

Hello Tobias,
     As far as the Project View in QtCreator goes I am including a 
screen shot comparing QtCreator with VS2015 for the exact same 
project(solution) and showing the same Target/Project. First things 
first up front, our CMake based project uses CMake's "Solution Folder" 
to organize the Visual Studio sub-projects in a reasonable form 
otherwise it is very cluttered, maybe as much as QtCreator is now. With 
that out of the way a few things to note in the screen shot:

The CMake predefined targets are all in a few top level "sub-folders" 
which are easy to get to. Not sure what the exact complaint from other 
users were but I would love to find out their use case.

Next, I am purposefully showing the same sub project that we tend to 
work on everyday. In Visual Studio getting to it by drilling down 
through the hierarchy is very quick as it is only 3 levels deep. That 
same target in QtCreator is 6 levels deep and the first few times I 
really had to go looking for that target to find it. I became more 
dependent on "Command-K" and just typing a file from the target in order 
to reveal it in the side bar Project View.

Does Creator get the "Solution Folder" property back from CMake-Server? 
would it be possible to honor those settings in QtCreator (I know, lots 
of work with that request). That might go a long way to allowing 
developers "customize" how QtCreator shows the project? If 
SOLUTION_FOLDER is not used then just do what you are doing now (Maybe 
with a bit of cleanup) but if they specify SOLUTION_FOLDER then honor 
those organizations for their codes?

I know when I found out about SOLUTION_FOLDER in CMake I spent a day 
just organizing our codes so that our Visual Studio developers didn't do 
crazy trying to navigate our project. (I'll include a 2nd screen shot of 
our project WITHOUT Solution Folders active). While all targets are 
listed in alphabetical order that list is really long (As you can tell 
from the scroll bar).

Maybe some of this helps for the next version of QtCreator. Thanks for 
listening

--
Mike Jackson

Tobias Hunger wrote:
> Hi Michael,
>
> On Mon, Jul 3, 2017 at 4:45 PM, Michael Jackson
> <mike.jackson at bluequartz.net>  wrote:
>> I am not sure what you are seeing but this is what I see with QtCreator
>> 4.3.0 on macOS 10.10.x
>
> Creator does not show how files relate to targets in the old tea-leaf
> mode (the one relying on Codeblocks files and a bunch of others).
> Server-mode does show this information though. For server-mode to be
> used in creator 4.3 you need cmake>= 3.7 with server-mode enabled
> (the default when building cmake).
>
> Server-mode is getting adopted by other projects and is not exclusive
> to Creator anymore. I had hoped that this would be the case when I
> implemented it based on a prototype by Steven Kelly. These projects
> recently have started to contribute new functionality they need to
> cmake upsteam! I want to spend my time enabling support those
> improvements in Creator, so I do want to deprecate tea-leaf mode from
> creator as soon as possible and I will not spend time on bringing
> features to tea-leaf mode.
>
>> When you go between Visual Studio and QtCreator (We do all the time) there
>> is a "mental mapping" that one needs to do.
>>
>> QtCreator Project = Visual Studio Solution
>> QtCreator Target = Visual Studio Project.
>>
>> Maybe there needs to be a "Target View" in QtCreator that just lists the
>> targets in alphabetical order?
>
> How would that be useful? You say yourself that the current view is
> cluttered and reports seem to indicate that much of the clutter is due
> to too many targets being displayed.
>
>> I like the hierarchy view but with the latest
>> use of CMake-Server there is a lot of clutter to get around.
>
> Any ideas to de-clutter it that still leaves the targets in and shows
> how files relate to targets? Maybe I could move all the utility
> targets into a subfolder?
>
> I have tried hiding the utility targets, but users that trigger these
> utility targets via the context menu of the project view complained
> about that.
>
>> I know the QtCreator Devs work *hard* on good CMake support.
>
> Actually that is just me working on CMake support:-/ Any help is appreciated!
>
>> It has gotten
>> better and better over the years and they do respond well to feedback that
>> includes concrete cases and reproducible bugs.
>
> Thanks!
>
>> I would suggest starting a topic about your concerns and having a discussion
>> about features that would enhance the CMake/QtCreator experience.
>
> Yes, please!
>
> I do not use CMake that often -- I spent most of my time working on Qt
> Creator, using qmake. I do miss paper cuts (or even real big problems)
> that are obvious to more cmake-centric users. Please tell me about
> those so that they can get fixed! :-)
>
> Best Regards,
> Tobias
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