[Frescobaldi] Music view sometimes doesn't open

[James Harkins]

First off, I've switched from Emacs LilyPond-mode to Frescobaldi 2. Amazing, 
incredible work! SO much easier to write. (And I love the ease of updating via 
git.)

But... I'm not sure if this is the right place to report a small confusing 
behavior in Frescobaldi 2. Sometimes, when opening a ly file, the corresponding 
PDF (which does exist on disk) is not simultaneously opened in the Music View. 
But, sometimes it does open. I haven't been able to figure out any consistent 
criterion that would cause one behavior or the other. My best guess is that the 
source file might have a later "modified" timestamp than the PDF, but I don't 
have solid proof of that.

I guess the ideal behavior I'd like to see is to open the PDF every time. If 
the source file was modified later, an overlay could appear in the music view 
saying that the music view might be out of date and the user should re-render 
(ctrl-m). It might also make sense to disable clicking on the notes in that 
case, since there is no guarantee that the PDF links will point to the right 
place in the source file anymore.

If that isn't feasible, then it would be better to clear the music view and 
show some text to explain why the view is empty.

Here's an example of where the current behavior gets really confusing:

1. Open one ly file. The music view shows the PDF corresponding to that file.

2. Open another ly file, but for some reason, the music view doesn't update. 
Now you're looking at the source code for one file on the left and the rendered 
result for a different file on the right, with no warning in the interface that 
there is any discrepancy. !

This is picking a nit, I admit, and it's easily worked around by re-rendering. 
But it's not ideal behavior, and if it's a very big project that takes several 
minutes to render, the annoyance factor would increase.

This doesn't change my opinion of Frescobaldi as an [expletive deleted] 
brilliant editor! Seriously, a real joy to use.

hjh


--
James Harkins /// dewdrop world
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http://www.dewdrop-world.net

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