[PyKDE] Eric3 first impressions.

[Andreas Pakulat]

On 29.01.06 00:07:52, Roy Dragseth wrote:
> My first impression is:  Wow, that's a lot of buttons!!!

Me too.

> Coming to Linux from the Unix side (HPUX, and before that VAX/VMS) I'm hardly 
> touching the mouse when I'm coding, so the buttons are just a waste of 
> screenspace.

I basically only need the run-button and the ones for debugging...
That's the point where it is kind of sad that eric3 is only PyQt and not
a PyKDE application... 

> So, first question:  How do I get rid of the buttons?

Have a look at the Window menu, the last option should be called
toolbars in english.

> Doubleclicking the bars just detaches them from the eric window,
> dragging themback just made the mess worse.  Since my screen is much
> wider than tall, it would also be nice to put the button bars
> vertically, I can admit that some of the buttons might be useful...

You can bring them to the side, by drag&dropping them there. Just did
that and it worked fine...

> Second question:  What are the API files for?  I mean, why do I want them?  I 
> plan to code some kde app in python using eric and started to import the ones 
> I found listed, but gave up after a few as I couldn't select more than one at 
> a time in the gui.  Can someone point out to me why it is worth the trouble?

API-files are for code completion but I didn't find eric3's code
completion very useful because it doesn't know the type of the current
object and thus always assumes all "names" it can see from the API file
are possible. In fact the problem is IIRC QScintilla which provides the
editor of Eric3.

> Also, the fonts looks much uglier than in the kde editors like kate.  Might 
> just be a config question, but it would be nice if eric could pick up the 
> font setup from kde.

Check your fonts with qtconfig and maybe install PyKDE. I also had an
issue once when building eric3 with a self-built Qt3 (installed in my
home) and a KDE supplied by my system. eric3 looked like it's not
picking up any style at all...

> Eric looks like a great tool, I'll be in touch...

For all the key-codes check the settings menu, the first ones I added
where navigational keys for the tab-mode (how should one use Ctrl-Alt-Tab
to move through the windows with only 2 hands??? ;-)

Andreas

-- 
An exotic journey in downtown Newark is in your future.