Inconsistent behavior between Visual-D and Mono-D

[Rainer Schuetze via Digitalmars-d-ide]

On 02.10.2015 23:12, beannaich wrote:
> Mono-D generates some fairly standard looking project files, while
> Visual-D generates a completely custom project file.. Why? Why can't the
> two Windows IDE use the same, mostly standard looking project files?

Mono-D seems to be using msbuild-project files, while Visual D predates 
VS2010 which introduced these for C++. You might have been familiar with 
these before that time if you were using C#, but not me.

>
> If I want to use Mono-D to edit, and Visual-D to debug (which, by the
> way, is a pain in the ass in itself) then I have to make /2/ project
> files, and rename one of them (they both use the .dproj extension).

The project files for Visual D have extension .visualdproj, so they are 
different.

> I realize at this point, that changing the format of the Visual-D
> project files will cause a lot of project files to simply break, which
> might cause a lot of backlash. But in my opinion, this needs to be done
> sooner than later.
>
> Side note: The syntax highlighting options in Visual-D are almost
> comical. Why should I have to tell it which types to highlight?
> Shouldn't this be automatically deduced by a semantic parser?

Getting any semantic analysis correct for D is not a small task. Mono-D 
and Visual-D share the same semantic analyzer, though, so VD could get 
the same highlighting, but that never got high priority. I notice 
identifier highlighting when coding C++, but it always seems pretty 
random to me...

>
> Side note 2: Why does the "add folder" menu in Visual-D add a filter? As
> near as I can tell, filters do absolutely nothing, aside from confusing
> the user. Mono-D just adds a folder to the file system, as you'd expect.
> Since D's file scanning functionality is based on paths, doesn't it make
> sense that the "add folder" menu should actually add a folder?

There will be two new-item commands available "Add Filter" (that's for 
the current functionality which is also what happens with C++ projects) 
and "Add Package" (that's what you and C# people expect) in the next 
release, but it was not as easy as you might expect because there is no 
official information how to change entries in that specific sub-menu.