Added macro support to qgit

Added macro support to qgit

[Marco Costalba]

I have pushed some patches that add macros to qgit.

>From menu bar it is possible to  run a macro created by a fancy new
dialog invoked by 'Macros->Setup macros...' menu.

See http://digilander.libero.it/mcostalba/macros_menu.png
        http://digilander.libero.it/mcostalba/macros_dialog.png

A macro can be associated to a any sequence of commands or to an
external script.

In case of commands sequence, these will be wrapped up in a temporary
script and executed as a whole.

A macro can also ask for command line arguments before to be run so to
allow for maximum flexibility. In case of multi commands sequence
given command line arguments will be bounded to first one only.

While a macro is running a terminal window is shown to display the
corresponding output.

qgit repository is: git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/qgit/qgit.git

Comments and feedback are welcomed.

     Marco

Re: Added macro support to qgit

[Pavel Roskin]

Hello, Marco!

On Thu, 2006-06-22 at 16:04 +0200, Marco Costalba wrote:
> I have pushed some patches that add macros to qgit.
> 
> From menu bar it is possible to  run a macro created by a fancy new
> dialog invoked by 'Macros->Setup macros...' menu.

I'm not sure they can be called macros.  Macro is something consisting
of several commands that are already implemented.  So, a macro-assembler
is a program that allows to combine several supported instructions into
one macro.  Macros in editors record actions already implemented by the
editors.  You may also want to read this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macro

If I understand correctly, qgit doesn't do that.  It calls external
commands that are not implemented internally, and it doesn't aggregate
anything.  Then why not call them "external commands"?

The interface is quite confusing.  I see 5 buttons on top, all of which
are enabled, plus one button labeled as "...", three checkboxes, one
single-line entry and one multiline entry.  I have no I idea where to
start.  Should I click "new" or white something and then click "new"?
And where's "Cancel"?.

That's what I have tried:

Enter "foo bar" in the multiline entry.
Click "New"
Enter "foobar"
Click "New"
Enter "abc"
Select "foobar"

Now "Run external script" is selected and "foo bar" is gone!  I believe
user input should not be discarded without a warning.

I also tried something more meaningful.  I create a "pull" macro as an
external script "stg pull".  It didn't work.  Am I supposed to supply
full path?  Does it understand arguments?  It the script supposed to be
in a certain format?  OK, stg is written in python, but how about
cg-status, a shell script?  It doesn't seen to work either.

I could make macros work when I entered the under "Insert commands to
run".  The output window looks nice.  But I see no indication whether
the script is running or it has finished.  I don't see how to terminate
the script "gently", an equivalent of Ctrl-C.

As far as I understand, the text entries should not be enabled at the
same time.  But it saw it happening when there were no macros at all.
And if I delete all macros, "Insert commands to run" doesn't work at
all.

What happens to the arguments qgit is asking for if a multiline entry is
executed?  I understand they are prepended to the first line.  This is
not quite logical.  Wouldn't it be better to have a shell like notation
for them?

I see the macros are saved in the qgit configuration for the
user .qt/qgitrc, like this:

[Macro reset]
commands=echo\nstg pull\necho 123\nsleep 5
patch_flags=9040
script_path=/home/proski/bin/cg-reset

Shouldn't only one of commands and script_path be saved?  Whouldn't it
be better to save meaningful boolean options instead of the opaque
binary "patch_flags"

And what is "macro_name=New macro" in [General]?

I think I should write you what I would like to see in qgit, but that
would be a separate e-mail.

-- 
Regards,
Pavel Roskin

Re: Added macro support to qgit

[Marco Costalba]

Hi Pavel,

> If I understand correctly, qgit doesn't do that.  It calls external
> commands that are not implemented internally, and it doesn't aggregate
> anything.  Then why not call them "external commands"?
>

Or just "commands"? in any case I agree "macro" was not a good choice.

> The interface is quite confusing.  I see 5 buttons on top, all of which
> are enabled, plus one button labeled as "...", three checkboxes, one
> single-line entry and one multiline entry.  I have no I idea where to
> start.  Should I click "new" or white something and then click "new"?
> And where's "Cancel"?.
>
> That's what I have tried:
>
> Enter "foo bar" in the multiline entry.
> Click "New"
> Enter "foobar"
> Click "New"
> Enter "abc"
> Select "foobar"
>
> Now "Run external script" is selected and "foo bar" is gone!  I believe
> user input should not be discarded without a warning.
>

The bug is qgit lets you write the first foo bar, before you press NEW
button. It shouldn't. Also some buttons enable/disable policy could be
good.

> I also tried something more meaningful.  I create a "pull" macro as an
> external script "stg pull".  It didn't work.  Am I supposed to supply
> full path?  Does it understand arguments?  It the script supposed to be
> in a certain format?  OK, stg is written in python, but how about
> cg-status, a shell script?  It doesn't seen to work either.
>

You are not supposed to supply full path, any executable file should
be OK and yes, you could supply arguments. You don't see nothing
because of a silly bug.

> What happens to the arguments qgit is asking for if a multiline entry is
> executed?  I understand they are prepended to the first line.  This is
> not quite logical.  Wouldn't it be better to have a shell like notation
> for them?
>

I thought of commands sequence as a quick way to run some simple
commands as git pull, git push or similar without writing a bash
script, i.e. no $1 for arguments. If you need something more complex
the external script is supposed to be the proper way.

Perhaps we could remove the external script single edit line and use
only the multiline edit to let user insert commands or script.

> I see the macros are saved in the qgit configuration for the
> user .qt/qgitrc, like this:
>

Well, this file is really not meant to be view nor to be modified by
hand, it is mainly a qgit 'private' thing stuff. Being qgit a GUI tool
with a (nice ;-)  ) settings dialog, configuration file is mainly used
for persistency, not for browsing/setup.

I hope to fix the external commands interface bugs this week-end.

Thanks for your reports
Marco

Re: Added macro support to qgit

[Pavel Roskin]

On Fri, 2006-06-23 at 19:44 +0200, Marco Costalba wrote:

> Or just "commands"? in any case I agree "macro" was not a good choice.

For a menubar entry, something short is preferred, so "Commands" or
"Actions" would be better than "external commands".  Emacs calls it
"Tools".  But for a menu entry and the dialog title, "external commands"
would be better.

> The bug is qgit lets you write the first foo bar, before you press NEW
> button. It shouldn't. Also some buttons enable/disable policy could be
> good.

Definitely.

> > What happens to the arguments qgit is asking for if a multiline entry is
> > executed?  I understand they are prepended to the first line.  This is
> > not quite logical.  Wouldn't it be better to have a shell like notation
> > for them?

I meant appended, sorry.

> I thought of commands sequence as a quick way to run some simple
> commands as git pull, git push or similar without writing a bash
> script, i.e. no $1 for arguments. If you need something more complex
> the external script is supposed to be the proper way.

I think the checkbox controlling whether to ask for arguments allows
selection between "simple" and "complex" commands.

> Perhaps we could remove the external script single edit line and use
> only the multiline edit to let user insert commands or script.

I agree.

> > I see the macros are saved in the qgit configuration for the
> > user .qt/qgitrc, like this:

> Well, this file is really not meant to be view nor to be modified by
> hand, it is mainly a qgit 'private' thing stuff. Being qgit a GUI tool
> with a (nice ;-)  ) settings dialog, configuration file is mainly used
> for persistency, not for browsing/setup.

OK

> I hope to fix the external commands interface bugs this week-end.

I'm looking forward to testing it.

-- 
Regards,
Pavel Roskin