GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 503388
No way to tell what file I'm editing in Glade
Last modified: 2010-12-20 09:51:09 UTC
Please describe the problem: If you're a developer (I imagine most people using Glade are) then you've probably got several version of the same Glade file on you system from different branches. Unfortunately, I can't find a way for Glade to tell me which path/file I'm editing i.e. trunk or branch/0.3. Steps to reproduce: 1. Open 2 versions of the same a glade file from 2 branches of a project 2. Try to determine which one is which Actual results: I can't tell which file I'm editing Expected results: The filename of the current editing file to be available somewhere. Does this happen every time? Yes Other information: I'm using 3.4.0 from Gutsy.
The absolute filenames can be shown in the statusbar by hovering over the open files in the "Projects" menu. Maybe that isn't enough? Gedit shows the active document's absolute path in the window title, we could investigate that possibility.
Excellent, thanks for the information. At least I have a work-around now. I have never been a fan of using the status bar for displaying important information. My research on this has indicated that people don't look there unless they know something is there that they need. I guess that this bug is just another example of this. But, you guys are the usability experts so I'll let you tell me. I think that putting the text in the window title is certainly a good idea. Another idea is to have a "File->Properties" dialog. Yet another idea is to have filename as the root node of the widget tree. I'm in no way suggesting that these are ideal solutions, just offering my thoughts.
Starting with the file name in the window title is very convenient, as it allows to identify different files amongst minimized taskbar buttons, while using the full path would have the sad effect of probably making them all ellipsize to the same string. An alternative proposal could be adding the full path after the name and in brackets like this: gladefile.ui [/full/path/to/the/gladefile.ui] IMHO, it would have all the upsides and none of the downsides of the proposed solution.
Created attachment 156580 [details] [review] Simple patch to add a path component after filename
The previous patch can be controversial due to it potentially leading to very long titles that would clutter the window title. Also it could potentially force the window size in some desktop. AFAICT no desktop does this and other applications (browsers, editors) use the document paths to give this information, so the problem should be gracefully handled by the window managers if they want to support editors or browsers with specific hacks.
I'm closing this now as the full path is now quite accessible. As well as having the fullpath in the statusbar when hovering the project menu item (which is not very accessible), now the fullpath is available as a tooltip of the project's notebook tab label (glade now shows notebook tabs to switch the projects).