[switch-views:] The shortcut "switch views (editor ↔ sidebar)" does not work when starting from only-editor-view

[ralf3u]

Steps to reproduce the issue

1. Open Geany (if sidebar is enabled, then disable sidebar).
2. Press the shortcut "switch views (editor ↔ sidebar)".

Result
Nothing happens.

Expectation
Editor should hide while sidebar should appear.

Annotation
The current shortcut works if the starting point is the editor&sidebar-view.

Remark
To solve this issue, maybe it would be good to add another shortcut maybe with the name "switch views (editor ↔ sidebar) 2". And the shortcut "switch views (editor ↔ sidebar)" could be renamed to "switch views (editor ↔ sidebar) 1".

[xiota]

The script assumes sidebar is visible at start. Press the shortcut twice to sync script state with actual state, or edit it to sync with the startup state (sidebar disabled).

This is a limitation of what information is available to the script. It has to assume start up state and keep track of state itself.

[ralf3u]

[...] or edit it to sync with the startup state (sidebar disabled).

Which documents should I change how?

The script assumes sidebar is visible at start.

So, does that mean that the shortcuts "toggle editor 1" and "switch views (editor ↔ sidebar)" will both not work correctly with the same script because they have different starts – "toggle editor 1" starts with editor&sidebar while "switch views (editor ↔ sidebar)" starts with only-editor?

[ralf3u]

Which documents should I change how?

I found the answer:
In the folder "events" in the document "init.lua":
Change this
sidebar_start = "show"
to this:
sidebar_start = "hide".

It works as long as I don't use Toggle-shortcuts of Preview. So, this is then the problem:

1. Only editor is visible
2. press the shortcut "switch views (editor ↔ sidebar)" (result: only sidebar is visible)
3. press again the shortcut "switch views (editor ↔ sidebar)" (result: only editor is again visible)
4. press 2x the Preview-shortcut "Toggle sidebar visibility and focus" (result: only editor is visible)
5. press the shortcut "switch views (editor ↔ sidebar)" (result: there is an empty tab).

Why is there an empty tab?

[xiota]

It works as long as I don't use Toggle-shortcuts of Preview.

The problem is if you change the state outside the script, the script doesn't know what it is anymore. It's like... if you put blue and red buttons and tell a blind person which button to push. As long as the buttons don't move, they can push the right ones. But if someone comes and flips them, the blind person can't actually see what color they are, so pushes the wrong ones.

Why is there an empty tab?

I don't know. My guess is something triggered GTK to dereference stuff? I'll take a look later.

BTW, which scripts do you actually use? I'd like to retire (remove) the ones that aren't useful anymore.

• auto-sidebar - ???
• switch-views - ???
• toggle-editor - ???

[ralf3u]

BTW, which scripts do you actually use?

At the moment I use sometimes auto-sidebar, sometimes switch-views and sometimes toggle-editor. So, it would be good to keep all of them. The best is at the moment toggle-editor because today I could solve the focus issue. It works absolutely perfect! I will make some note later at issue number 20.

I don't know. My guess is something triggered GTK to dereference stuff? I'll take a look later.

That would be great because in switch-views there are the two shortcuts that I miss in Geany Preview.

[ralf3u]

The problem is if you change the state outside the script, the script doesn't know what it is anymore. It's like...

Well, in switch-views, I started to use three shortcuts (the third shortcut is "Toggle sidebar 1" as replacement for the Preview-shortcut "Toggle sidebar visibility and focus"). Also here there was an issue. I had to press 2x "Toggle sidebar 1" till a change was visible, although there was no change outside the script. So, for me it looks like the problem is within switch-views.

1. open Geany; editor&sidebar are visible
2. press the shortcut "Toggle editor 1" (result: editor is hidden)
3. press the shortcut "Toggle editor 1" (result: sidebar is enabled)
4. press the "Toggle sidebar 1" (result: sidebar is disabled)
5. press the "Toggle sidebar 1" (result: sidebar is enabled)
6. press the "Toggle sidebar 1" (result: nothing happens) (if something happens, then continue to press the shortcut till nothing happens)

[ralf3u]

I'd like to retire (remove) the ones that aren't useful anymore.

I like very much toggle-editor. And I like auto-sidebar and also the auto-sidebar of issue number 12.
About switch-views I can not tell so much, because it is still in development.

I think it would be good to offer two versions of auto-sidebar:
auto-sidebar (see issue number 12)
auto-sidebar-with-toggle-functions

[ralf3u]

The problem is if you change the state outside the script, the script doesn't know what it is anymore. It's like... if you put blue and red buttons and tell a blind person which button to push. As long as the buttons don't move, they can push the right ones. But if someone comes and flips them, the blind person can't actually see what color they are, so pushes the wrong ones.

But the state was not changed, because the situation in step 1 is exactly the same like step 4 of #21 (comment):
Only the editor is visible.
I still don't understand why in step 5 there is an empty tab. Do you have an explication?

---

The shortcut "Toggle between editor and sidebar"
Today I think that I found where the problem is in switch-views when the shortcut "Toggle between editor and sidebar" would be added to switch-views (see problem in #21 (comment)). If one would add the shortcut "Toggle between editor and sidebar" to switch-views – the shortcut works different than the shortcut switch-views-(editor-↔-sidebar), because the shortcut is doing nothing when editor&sidebar are visible –, then the shortcut has an other starting point, because the shortcut starts when sidebar is disabled. All other shortcuts of switch-views start when sidebar is enabled.

The script assumes sidebar is visible at start.

So, the document init.lua is the problem, because it does not check if the Geany-sidebar is enabled or disabled. The starting point is fixed and not flexible to the situation. So, some code has to be added to switch-views in that way, that when pressing a shortcut of switch-views, it should first check if the Geany-sidebar is enabled or disabled, and then define the starting point of init.lua (sidebar_start = "show" or sidebar_start = "hide"). If this would be realized, then one could add the shortcut "Toggle between editor and sidebar" to switch-views.