← Back to team overview

kicad-developers team mailing list archive

Re: A few issues with new OS X bundles

 

On 10/4/2014 4:26 AM, Bernhard Stegmaier wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> most of your observations are as far as I can see not a problem of the bundles itself, but of the KiCad modular concept (kiface).
> When you launch pcbnew et al. from KiCad launcher the correct “application” is only loaded as a module, so the main application is still kicad launcher and I guess that’s why you for example see the same name, they do not have their own icon, etc.

KiCad no longer launches executables that run in a separate process.
Since the kiway work was completed, Eeschema, Pcbnew, etc. are actually
child windows of the KiCad application.  Eeschema, Pcbnew, etc. are also
a stand alone programs but they don't get called from KiCad any longer.
 Some users prefer to run the individual applications this way so it
would be nice if we could provide a separate icon and shortcut (or
whatever it's called on OSX) so that the stand alone applications could
be launched.

> 
> For the “dock roulette” there is possibly a way to set the application icon of window dynamically using wxWidgets.
> Something to try… I guess behavior is the same on Linux/Windows, so the might als benefit.
> 
> 
> Regards,
> Bernhard
> 
> On 04.10.2014, at 09:30, Garth Corral <gcorral@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 
>>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I finally had a chance to build and try out the new all-inclusive OS X application bundles and I’ve encountered a couple of issues that tend to reduce the usability a bit for me.
>>
>> First, an observation unrelated to the new bundles.  I noticed with mainline builds on OS X, some of the subsidiary applications, specifically eeshcema and pcbnew, no longer have their own name in the application menu.  Instead they have the name of the main application, KiCad.
>>
>> This is fine and I assumed it’s part of an effort to improve integration between the applications.  On OS X, though, it’s a bit weird because the application menu still has an entry to “Quit pcbnew” and selecting that or Cmd-Q will indeed quit the sub-application, leaving you with a KiCad application menu as it switched back the the main app.  Not really a huge issue but is can be confusing and if you’re not paying attention you can accidentally quit your main app.  Not cool.
>>
>> The additional things I’m seeing with the new bundling is that now the applications the previously did launch as separate applications, even when launched from the main app, now have no icon of their own.  They get the icon of the main kicad.app.  So if I launch, say, gerbview and pcb_calculator, I’ve now got three KiCad icons in my dock with no idea which one belongs to which application.  I have to play icon roulette to find out.  With the new CMakeLists.txt changes for these applications it seems there’s no way to go back to building individual application bundles for them without hacking and slashing.
>>
>> Any chance we can get back the ability to make bundles for these?  I’d go so far as to recommend that the bundles be included wholesale in an Applications directory int the main bundle, but I’d at least like the option of building them as bundles separately.
>>
>>
>> Thanks in advance,
>>
>> Garth_______________________________________________
>> Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers
>> Post to     : kicad-developers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers
>> More help   : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers
> Post to     : kicad-developers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers
> More help   : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
> 




Follow ups

References