Bug 284474 - Kate doesn't open 1 instance per activity
Summary: Kate doesn't open 1 instance per activity
Status: RESOLVED NOT A BUG
Alias: None
Product: kate
Classification: Applications
Component: general (show other bugs)
Version: unspecified
Platform: Gentoo Packages Linux
: NOR wishlist
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: KWrite Developers
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2011-10-19 16:20 UTC by Elias Probst
Modified: 2019-05-19 15:03 UTC (History)
11 users (show)

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Description Elias Probst 2011-10-19 16:20:54 UTC
Version:           unspecified (using KDE 4.7.2) 
OS:                Linux

When using multiple activities and having an already running Kate instance in another activity than the currently active one, an external opened file changes the current activity to the one where Kate runs and opens the file there.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Make sure to have multiple KDE activities
2. Open a file in Kate
3. Switch the activity
4. Click on a file (e.g. in Dolphin) which will be opened in Kate

Actual Results:  
The current activity switches to the one where Kate is already running
The file is opened in the already running Kate instance in another activity

Expected Results:  
Kate should be activity aware and only open a file in an already running instance if it is in the same activity from which the file was opened.
If there's no Kate instance in the current activity, a new one should be started to open the file.

The current behaviour affects the usability of KDE as a whole heavily.
Not only Kate might be affected by this issue, but as I heavily rely on Kate in my daily work, it was the first where this issue became really obvious.
Comment 1 dominik.baumann 2012-08-15 23:08:35 UTC
Can confirm this for the following environment:

Kate 3.8.4
KDE 4.8.4 (release 2)
opensuse 12.2 RC2

The bug is very confusing especially when it happens the first times: What you namely think is happening is that all the open windows disappear, and kate opens, but not just with the file you wanted, but also with other (apparent arbitrary) files. You think: WTF!!, did i lost data now??

But also when you know what really happens, it's still very annoying, majorely because it counters the purpose of the KDE activities, disturbing (instead of supporting) your workflow.

It's also frustrating and sad from another, fundamental point of view: Activities are one of the key features of KDE 4.8, kate is one of its flagship projects. So how can it be that this bug isn't resolved during 10 months (or longer)? Many people (as far as i know, and including myself) had really problems to understand, accept and get used to Activities. Just to  see after some time that the key editor doesn't work with them.

And a second question arises for me: Don't kate developers use Activities? If no: Why not? If yes: How could they live with that bug so long?

And last but not least: Thanks for your efforts developing KDE!

db
Comment 2 Christoph Cullmann 2012-10-28 19:58:01 UTC
Hi, actually I guess the problem is, neither me nor any other Kate dev I know uses activities ;)
If somebody comes up with a patch for Kate to be more activity aware, we will for sure merge it, otherwise, this will stay the way it is I guess.
Comment 3 Ivan Čukić 2013-03-04 19:14:44 UTC
This could be solved in two ways:
 - as proposed, creating multiple kate instances
 - kate filtering the opened documents based on the current activity
Both have advantages.

I'm adding myself to the report so that I can keep a track of it. If nobody volunteers, I'll have to find the time to do it :)
Comment 4 GSC 2014-01-16 12:25:46 UTC
I just found a file is opened in kate instance of another activity, even the current activity has an instance of kate running.
Comment 5 Dirk Sarpe 2015-04-25 18:32:21 UTC
The bug is still present in kate 5.0.0 (Frameworks 5.9.0, Plasma  5.2.95). Sorry if this is not much more than a "me too" but if activities should become a pillar of Plasma, I think this needs to be fixed. Eike Hein suggested that the culprit might be found inside the "reuse active window" code (see comments on https://blogs.kde.org/2015/04/25/building-new-pillars-activities-and-kpeople-plasma-53 ).
Comment 6 Pascal d'Hermilly 2015-05-06 07:09:11 UTC
I just got hit by this (kde 4.13). If kate does not have support for activities then it should appear on all  activities like other programs that does not support actitivies - It's very confusing when e.g. my "coding" activity changes to my "sales" activity just because I'm opening a text file to edit and kate is already open in "sales".
Comment 7 Ivan Čukić 2015-05-06 08:40:51 UTC
> might be found inside the "reuse active window"

Yes, this part needs to be patched. We will have to patch quite a few applications for these isues.

> I just got hit by this (kde 4.13). If kate does not have support for
> activities then it should appear on all  activities like other 
> programs that does not support actitivies

All programs are on a single activity when started, regardless of whether they support activities or not. Except the programs that do not use kwin's window decoration.

> It's very confusing when e.g. my "coding" activity

I agree.
Comment 8 Bhushan Shah 2015-05-21 03:13:13 UTC
*** Bug 347963 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 9 Christoph Cullmann 2019-05-19 15:03:33 UTC
Dear user, this wish list item is now closed, as it wasn't touched in the last year and no contributor stepped up to implement it.

The Kate/KTextEditor team is small and we can just try to keep up with fixing bugs.

Therefore wishes that show no activity for a years or more will be closed from now on to keep at least a bit overview about 'current' wishs of the users.
If you want your feature to be implemented, please step up to provide some patch for it.

If you think it is really needed, you can reopen your request, but keep in mind,
if no new good arguments are made and no people get attracted to help out to implement it,
it will expire in a year again.

We have a nice website https://kate-editor.org that provides all the information needed to contribute, please make use of it.

Patches can be handed in via https://phabricator.kde.org/differential/

Greetings
Christoph Cullmann