[Gambas-user] My "Gambas developer mode"

Bruce Steers bsteers4 at gmail.com
Tue Mar 9 13:44:47 CET 2021


On Mon, 8 Mar 2021 at 19:43, Benoît Minisini <g4mba5 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Le 08/03/2021 à 13:56, Bruce Steers a écrit :
> > Ever considered anything like this for us Ben?
> >
> > That Not-so-safe thing i have done to load custom controls in gambas IDE
> > (that I am finding a VERY useful feature) I have now hidden behind an
> > unlock feature a bit like an Android phone hides it's developer options
> > till you click "Build Info" a few times.
> >
> > With plenty of warnings about the risks of the functions we should be
> > aware of.
> >
> > Here's a screengrab of me enabling/disabling the feature.
> > http://bws.org.uk/images/screenrecord-2021-03-07_20.51.37.mp4
> > <http://bws.org.uk/images/screenrecord-2021-03-07_20.51.37.mp4>
> >
> > I'm sure there's a number of other things that possibly come with risk
> > but great benefit you would not want to enable for general use but could
> > be handy for gambas developers.
> >
> > Well wishes
> > BruceS
> >
>
> Mmm... No. If I want to test something, I put in the development
> version. Once in the stable version, there should be no reason to hide
> an IDE feature.
>

Aaw Ben you're so ,, er ,,  correct :)
And so is gambas because of it (and that is great)

But I have a great reason to hide a feature , because it's useful for
advanced users but simply put "a hack" and causes unexpected behaviour ;)

Like adding custom controls, the only problem i have come across doing this
is if in the IDE (using the same window) i load the custom control project
and then load another project then go back to the control project without
closing gambas it gets a load error, I just have to be sure to close gambas
or re-load the project into a new window.  (it's a downside i'm happy to
deal with to see my controls in the dasigner)

So my thinking is about "unsafe" features.
I assume getting custom controls to load/unload in the designer safely is
no simple task that would take quite a re-write of some stuff.
So there some workarounds for the not so timid.
I mean , I'm using a development environment that says "USE AT YOUR OWN
RISK" in the title. I really don't mind using some features that have "USE
AT YOUR OWN RISK" in the title too ;)

Maybe not call it "Developer options" or "Tweaks" but call it "Hacks"
shamelessly , features that cannot be corrctly implemented but can still be
incredibly useful, if understood the risks ;)

The benefits of loading a custom control for me are huge, being able to
change alignment / autoresize / etc and see the changes react in the
designer, I do not think i would have understood what Me.Design meant so
quick if i was not seeing things in the IDE.

Just seeing a custom controls icon and its name in a box in the IDE is just
soo , nah , me no like, but properly implementing something like this i
think would be well beyond my understanding of the gambas internals.

but i think I see what you are saying.  This "hidden feature" thing i
propose is how you see gambas-master compared to stable, but I was not
thinking this feature i propose of adding controls would or could be a
gambas addition and only a workaround/hack was possible. hence hide it ,
make someone read some docs/warnings before using it.
But a bonus for someone like me who has reached a level of hand building
controls. and understanding how adding them to gambas is great but has a
down side.

Much respect
BruceS
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