[PyKDE] Eric misc questions and wishlist

[Jürgen Urner]

Hello Detlev

Before I start bothering you with another entry for the Eric4 wishlist
there are a few things I would like to ask:

1. I  wonder if there is a reason why you do not host eric on sourceforge?
    Wouldn't this make a perfect environment for eric to reside in?
    As far as I know QT4 has pretty good windows support and license
    and way more users could get attracted to Eric. Could be easier to 
handle
    the masses on Sourceforge :-)

2. I wonder why there is no documentation on the user interface? I Think
    Eric would well deserve one. Although I do not like to raise my hand 
for
    something I could try to take over to at least make a start if not 
done by
    someone already. Just for you to see that I halfway know of what I'm 
talking
    about take a look at http://home.arcor.de/jurner/python/ for some 
TRAC based documentation.
    (ups... what did I say ...glad noone is listening :-)


Now on to the wishlist
-------------------------------

Maybe s.o. pointed something similar out already but the wishlist is not 
publicly
available, so I post it anyway.

There is one thing I'm missing cureently in "Extras"
I do frequently use python scripts to perform various tasks.
Some scripts are working on the currently selected text (mark-up for 
inclusion
in HTML pages for example), some do have a fixed argument set, some do not.

There is pretty much space left in "Extras" to make up a user defined part
of the menu, right at hand. What I would like to suggest is an approach 
taken
from an editor I used to use wich did make perfekt sense to me.

Details:
One never knows how many tools a user uses. Can be plenty and may include
various common tasks.
So a group switcher would come in in handy. Enabling the user to define 
groups of tools
up to a certain limit.

Each group can be assigned various tools. Pretty much like the current tools
menu.

A tool could provide the following options:
. name of menu entry
. executable/file to launch (...)
. arguments
    + $(filename), $(dir), $(text), $(current selection), ... see KATE 
for example

<o capture output?>
<o redirect output to current file (current cursor pos)?>
<o replace contents of current file with output?>
<o prompt for arguments?>

So the "Extras" menu could look like this:

- macros
- scripts
- wizzards
---------------
- new tool group... --> popup
- select tool group
    - group default (the group eric comes shipped with)
    - user defined 1
    - user defined N
-----------------
tool 1 of current tool group
tool N of current tool group

This may look surprisingly familiar to anyone happening to know 
EditPlus- windows that is :-)

Apart from grouping related tools the group awitcher has the additional 
advantage to
give the user the opportunity to select tools depending on the current 
script or project
he is working upon. One for C projects one for Python, one for HTML, one 
for
documentations (eric docs, python docs) and so on, whatever suites the 
users needs best.

Sorry for flooding the wishlist and not coming up with any patches at all.
Eric is running _to_ slick so there was not much need to dig into the 
code base.

Thanks for everything

    Jürgen