Why save files to a Project?

[JohnJSal]

I know this question stems from my lack of experience with UE Projects, but I'm just curious, what is the point of adding files to a Project (via Project Settings) when you can simply open that Project later and all the files you had open will open again? Is there some real functionality to adding them to a Project list, or is it just a matter of controlling what gets opened each time?

(The only thing I can think of right now is that maybe you don't have all the files of a Project open when you close UE, and then when you open the Project later, it will open all of these files for you. But is there more than this to it?)

Thanks.

Edit: Just did a test where I had two files open, saved them both to a Project, then closed one of the files. Then I closed and reopened the Project. I expected both files to open, but only the one that had been opened when I closed the Project was reopened. Is this normal? Now I'm even more baffled by the point of saving files to a Project as opposed to just having them open while the Project is open.

[PaoloFCantoni]

John,

YMMV, but, in general, projects offer a convenient way to group files of various types and spread over various folders to be grouped together as a consistent unit that can be searched:

(*)Project Files

It can also limit the search requirements for CTag accumulation.

And you can define a Syntax Highlighting file specific to the project.

I've also asked for a specific macro file to be nominated for load of a project, but IDM haven't actioned that yet.

In my case, I use projects most of the time.

HTH,
Paolo

[JohnJSal]

Thanks for the responses guys. I understand the idea of bundling files together, but I'm still a little confused. If opening a Project does not open all of the files associated with that Project (as it seems not to do), then does creating a Project offer any benefits other than these advanced things such as wordfiles and ctags?

[PaoloFCantoni]

If you don't do global refactorings, then probably Projects don't help you much. I must admit I used UE for nearly 4 years before I discovered (understood) projects. Know I know what I know, I would have started a lot earlier... In fact, I now have a number of project files that overlap each other in scope...

As I said in my original post, your mileage may vary...

It may be that you "don't get it" - it is a paradigm shift. The problem with paradigm shifts is that before you see it, you don't really get it, then after, you wonder how you couldn't have seen it..,

Paolo

[JohnJSal]

Yeah, I just discovered them recently and only started using it today (though I haven't used UE as long as you). But oddly enough, the next time I tried to open a Project, it *did* open the files that are in it, so as long as it does at least that much, then it's a great feature to have to simply open multiple related files like that.

[Mofi]

John, you have to distinguish between projects and workspaces. You use workspaces.

A workspace remembers just the files which were opened when the workspace closed last time and reloads these files. It remembers also the cursor position in every file and if you have enabled it in the configuration dialog also the bookmarks set and the blocks folded. It also remembers which file was active on workspace close. But a workspace does not have files which have been specified as part of a project.

A project is an extended workspace. It has also all the features of a workspace. But additionally the user has specified files or folders with project files which are part of a project. This gives the user more support for working with many files in a project.

Ctags or IntelliSense (UEStudio) offers you to find symbols in other project files quickly even when the file is not open. You have access to function names in other project files which are currently not opened with the auto-complete feature. The function list can be switched from showing only the functions of the current file to all functions from all project files. The File Tree View or the Project Files/Settings dialog gives you fast access to a project file currently not open. Find In Files and Replace In Files can be used on only the specified project files. That's very important if you would have files which are shared between different projects like I have. Running a Replace In files in *.C for example would have a bad effect on other *.C files not part of the current project but are in the same directory. In UEStudio such a configuration is called a project solution. A project solution is a collection of projects.

If you need only a workspace or a project depends mainly on how many files you have in your project. For example I manage a whole website with a project because it has hundreds of HTML files and a few CSS files. It would be unusable to always have hundreds HTML files open. Also my C/C++/ASM projects, a second HTML based project and a project which contains mainly BAT files and some other files could not be really handled with only workspaces because the number of files is too high. A small project which consists only of 1-3 *.c, *.h and maybe an additional text file for documentation and comments (history) don't need a project and so a workspace is enough to handle it.

[JohnJSal]

Thanks for the description. But as far as I can tell, I am using a project. I created a new one (with the .prj extension) and that's what I open when I want to access the files I'm working on for a particular application.

Is a workspace something that just happens "automatically", i.e. last opened files are reopened on startup? Or do you have to create a workspace too?

[Mofi]

Workspaces must be also created and of course the workspace files also have the extension .prj. In UltraEdit workspaces are projects without project files or folders. Workspaces are just for easy switching from one set of files to an other set of files. You can see the similarity of projects and workspaces in the Project menu. The menu item names are:

New Project/Workspace
Open Project/Workspace
Close Project/Workspace

However, UltraEdit itself also supports remembering and reloading of last opened files without a workspace (project) file. This is like a single workspace with informations stored in uedit32.ini instead of a separate workspace (project) file.

But users who like I use multiple instances of UltraEdit at the same time don't work with the remember function of UE in the INI. For example one UE instance has one of my HTML projects open (internal company documentations). A second instance have a 'C' project open because I want to write the history about the program changes in HTML in the first project. And with a third instance I edit general text files when for example a colleague needs quick support. This third instance is opened with text file A, closed, opened with text file B, closed again, opened again with text file C, D and A. Then a fourth instance is started with files E-O and closed after a fast Replace All in all open files. And so on. Hey, I'm a power user who does nearly everything with UltraEdit/UEStudio and Total Commander. UltraCompare, WinRar, IrfanView and Opera makes the collection complete. More programs are not really needed for 99.5% of my daily work in my company and at home.

[JohnJSal]

Ok, so just to be sure: if I create a project but don't add files to it, I'm using a workspace? And if I add files to it, it becomes an official project? And I guess with a project you can do the extra things like ctags, wordfiles, find/replace, etc.?

[Mofi]

Now you have understood it completely.

[JohnJSal]

Heh heh, thanks!