New Project/workspace should not auto close currently open files

skeletor · May 12, 2010#12010-05-12T21:44+00:00

I'll explain the problem in real life terms...

You have just opened a bunch of files and realize "Whoa I should save this off as a project because it took a long time to find these files.". You see the project->new project/workspace entry and use it.
A nice dialog pops up and you enter your project name and click OK.
Then with no warning WAMMO! The files you painstakingly searched for all the dependencies and opened are now gone from your editor.
Thank you very much UltraEdit for deleting my past 4 hours of work.
I know it would have been far too hard to select File->Close All Files (ctrl-shift-f4) myself!

This has to be THE worst feature ever implemented in UE. It sometimes (and rarely because I have already opened the files usually) saves me 1 keystroke and for the price of a saving of 1 keystroke costs me hours of work.

Here is the very complicated fix. Do not auto-close files when opening a new project.

Here are two bad possible fixes I will shoot down before they are attempted:

I don't want to see a yes/no dialog as answering that dialog is the same effort as typing ctrl-shft-f4.
I don't want to see a configuration option to change the default behavior to automatically not close the file or close the files.

One accidental closure costs thousands upon thousands of ctrl-shft-f4 presses.

rhapdog · May 13, 2010#22010-05-13T02:09+00:00

Actually, depending on the projects I'm working on, I WANT all those open files closed when I open a new project. This is a feature I want. I know in UEStudio, it is configurable, and you can decide if you always want it to close them or never to close them. That's the beauty of this product... since not everyone wants to work the same way, it is still configurable for everyone. You just have to take the time to learn and configure it to your preferences.

Mofi · May 14, 2010#32010-05-14T08:40+00:00

I completely agree with rhapdog.

There is the configuration setting Close all files when opening or switching projects at Advanced - Configuration - File Handling - Miscellaneous and I suppose that this setting is enabled by default because most users working with projects work like rhapdog and I.

When on start of UE or UES last used project is reloaded, but we want to work now on a different project, we just open the other project and UE/UES first closes the loaded project, second closes all open files from that project, third opens the project we want to work with now and reloads the last opened files from that project. We don't want that files of project A are still opened after switching to project B. And when we create a new project we want that first all currently opened files are closed, and then we setup the new project.

You prefer the opposite. You first open all files you want in a project and then you create a new project and want to add all open files to this project. That is possible when unchecking the configuration setting posted above. But this method is definitely not the preferred one for most users working with projects and therefore the configuration setting is by default enabled.

mwb1100 · May 14, 2010#42010-05-14T17:40+00:00

Closing or leaving open files when you to open an existing project seems like a debatable situation that's best left to a configuration option (personally, I think that leaving open files open, or at worst prompting, is the proper thing to do, but I can understand that others might have a different preference).

But does closing all your open files make much sense if you're creating a new project? A very common use case is exactly what was originally posted - I'm working on a bunch of files (regardless of whether it took hours to locate them all or not), and I think to myself - "hey, these would make a nice project". It seems to me that a better way for the editor to work is to automatically place the currently open files into the newly created project. Or at least give me a "Project/Create Project from open files..." menu item.

Mofi · May 14, 2010#52010-05-14T18:25+00:00

Hm, clicking in UEStudio on Project - New Project/Workspace opens a submenu with the items:

Create New Project...
Create Project Using Templates...

A third one named Create Project From Open Files... is definitely a very good idea.

For UltraEdit it would be required to change the menu item New Project/Workspace also from the command to create a new project/workspace to a command opening a submenu which contains the items:

Create New Project...
Create Project From Open Files...

That's a very good idea from mwb1100 (once again). So whoever wants such an additional command for creating a project/workspace using all open files unaffected by the configuation setting Close all files when opening or switching projects should write an appropriate feature request email to IDM support.

bulgrien · May 15, 2010#62010-05-15T01:20+00:00

I understand the frustration of the original poster. However, in the computer industry, "New" almost always has the connotation of starting with a clean slate. You don't choose "New File" in Word to save the existing file, for example. To change "New Project" to leave files open by default would be violating an established industry standard. I suggest emailing IDM and asking for an enhancement that would add a new top-level option to the Project menu. My suggestion would be:

Save As Project...

This verbiage would be consistent with industry standards on how "New" and "Save" is implemented in other areas. My second choice would be "Create Project..." but I like "Save As" better. "Save As" is less ambiguous and users are more likely to understand the difference between "New" and "Save As" than they would between "New" and "Create".