kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Bernhard Stegmaier <stegmaier@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Yes, but some of the problems seem to be no OSX specific issues.

E.g. pl_editor is run this way (kicad/mainframe.cpp):
    Execute( this, PL_EDITOR_EXE );

while eeschema/pcbnew related things are run this way:
    KIWAY_PLAYER* frame = Kiway.Player( FRAME_PCB, true );

I don’t know if it is done like this on purpose, or if it just has been missed when introducing the kiface modularization.
The other question is why gerbview or pl_editor do have a kiface, but bitmap2component doesn’t (IMHO all of them don’t have a relation to a single project like maybe eeschema or pcbnew have).

Although I am also pretty emotionless about which way to go, for my taste the one single bundle fits better the modular idea of the kifaces (given that it is done consistently for all applications).

There is one thing that also makes things a bit complicated when doing it the individual apps way:
The usual wxWidgets ::GetDataDir(), etc. methods return something like ~/Library/Application Support/<appname>.
So, if you start pcbnew via KiCad launcher it will point to ~/Library/Application Support/kicad, but if you start it via its own bundle it will point to ~/Library/Application Support/pcbnew. Some new code would have to be added so that everything is found consistently independent from how you launch, e.g., pcbnew.
If have seen this being a problem at least on OSX, according to the wxWidgets docs for ::GetUserDataDir() it should/could be the same problem on other OSes:
Unix: ~/.appinfo
Windows: "C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\appinfo"
Mac: "~/Library/Application Support/appinfo"



Regards,
Bernhard


On 04.10.2014, at 19:21, Garth Corral <gcorral@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> 
> I’m afraid that’s not true in this case.  It does launch separate processes for some some of the applications, gerbview for instance.  They show up in ps and as Bernhard pointed out, the launcher even shows you the pid when it launches them.  If it isn’t supposed to do this then perhaps just solving this issue makes the rest go away.
> 
> 
> Garth
> 
> 
> On Oct 4, 2014, at 6:17 AM, Wayne Stambaugh <stambaughw@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 
>> 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_______________________________________________
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>>> 
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>> 
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