RFC: Save the last target that the user has connected to?

RFC: Save the last target that the user has connected to?

[Fernando Nasser]

Someone is arguing with me that we should save which target the user has
connected to last, so when he launches insight again he does not have to go
through the target dialog.

In case you haven't notice, all the settings for a certain target are remember,
the only thing we "forget" is which of the targets we last connected to.

Any reason not to do that?  Can I make this change to make this person happy?

Thanks for any comments/advice.


-- 
Fernando Nasser
Red Hat - Toronto                       E-Mail:  fnasser@cygnus.com
2323 Yonge Street, Suite #300           Tel:  416-482-2661 ext. 311
Toronto, Ontario   M4P 2C9              Fax:  416-482-6299

Re: RFC: Save the last target that the user has connected to?

[Duane Ellis]

fernado> Any reason not to do that?  Can I make this change to make this person happy?

Damn! That would make me happy.

90% of the time i'm going in/out of the same debug session.

If this was saved - I would probably make it save in the 'current
directory' or something like that, and *NOT* back in my home
directory, ie: ~/.gdb-last-target would be really bad.

-Duane

Re: RFC: Save the last target that the user has connected to?

[Fernando Nasser]

Duane Ellis wrote:
> 
> fernado> Any reason not to do that?  Can I make this change to make this person happy?
> 
> Damn! That would make me happy.
> 
> 90% of the time i'm going in/out of the same debug session.
> 
> If this was saved - I would probably make it save in the 'current
> directory' or something like that, and *NOT* back in my home
> directory, ie: ~/.gdb-last-target would be really bad.
> 

That was probably why it is not being saved currently.  Insight uses a
preference database to save this things.  Currently there is just one
global database (in you home directory).

I agree that we should have a set of per-project (i.e., current directory)
set of preferences as does the command line interface.  This would tae a
little longer to do, however, and would have to wait.

So I rephrase my question:

  Knowing that, for the time being, the preferences saved are global, do we still
  want to save the last target we connected to?


P.S.:  Unless you press the Run button or Connect menu item immediately after the
       source window show up, you can go and change the target.  You'll be only doing
       this when you switch targets, as opposed to every single time you invoke insight.


-- 
Fernando Nasser
Red Hat - Toronto                       E-Mail:  fnasser@cygnus.com
2323 Yonge Street, Suite #300           Tel:  416-482-2661 ext. 311
Toronto, Ontario   M4P 2C9              Fax:  416-482-6299

Re: RFC: Save the last target that the user has connected to?

[Fernando Nasser]

Keith Seitz wrote:
> 
> Fernando Nasser wrote:
> >
> > Someone is arguing with me that we should save which target the user has
> > connected to last, so when he launches insight again he does not have to go
> > through the target dialog.
> >
> > In case you haven't notice, all the settings for a certain target are remember,
> > the only thing we "forget" is which of the targets we last connected to.
> >
> > Any reason not to do that?  Can I make this change to make this person happy?
> >
> > Thanks for any comments/advice.
> 
> I think that something like this would probably be okay... Actually, I
> thought that it should be doing this already; the difference, though, is
> that IMO Insight should ALWAYS ask for a target on the first run of a
> session, even if it just means hitting "OK" or return.
> 
> In many of the places I have been and on many of the projects I've
> worked on, I would frequently switch the debugger from target A to
> target B.
> 
> Perhaps we can strike a compromise? By default, don't ask (unless target
> is unknown) and use the last target. A preference, though, could be set
> to make insight ask every (first) time...

Yes, this second option sounds nice.  Some option on the line:
[ ] Show this dialog at beginning of the session

> Or perhaps we can do as Duane suggests: writing out a "project"
> preferences file with this info. I know we discussed doing this several
> times, but we never did. This would seem like a good reason to move
> toward this ideal...
> 

Sure, I agree.  The "project" preference is a very good idea.  We should at least 
add it to the TODO list.  Someone may eventually volunteer to do that.



-- 
Fernando Nasser
Red Hat - Toronto                       E-Mail:  fnasser@cygnus.com
2323 Yonge Street, Suite #300           Tel:  416-482-2661 ext. 311
Toronto, Ontario   M4P 2C9              Fax:  416-482-6299