slickedit 2012 - multiple instances - any changes?

[tcolgan001]

Have any changes been made to slickedit's handling of multiple instances?  This has always been one of my biggest gripes about SE (and I'm a fan).  I know you can run multiple instances with the "+new" command line option, but it has limitations - separate configurations cannot be maintained and when closing all but last instance the message "Failed to save configuration to ..." appears (and has to be closed).

If anyone else is annoyed by this shortcoming please respond to this post.  Maybe we can get noticed for the next release.

[sdayts]

To get around the "Failed to save configuration to ...", you can use the fexit() command.

[Benoit]

What do you mean by fexit() ?

[sdayts]

You can use the SlickEdit command line to exit. Activate the command line by pressing the Escape key or by clicking on the message line with the mouse, then type fexit, enter.
fexit command will force exit without saving of the configuration.
Excerpt from SlickEdit help:
"Exits the editor without saving files or doing anything. This command is mainly useful to a macro hacker and the developers of SlickEdit. You might want to use this function to test our AutoSave feature."

[Benoit]

Thank,
But what is the difference between configuration and feature.
When I change some options in Editing menu(Options->Editing).  Do I change feature or option ?
"Autosave Feature" ?

[Matthew]

@Benoit:
The 'configuration' is the actual directory on disk where all your options settings are stored. Any time you make and commit a change to a setting by opening the Tools > Options dialog, you're going to be affecting the contents of that directory.

@tcolgan001:
We hear you loud and clear about the shortcomings when using multiple instances. Changing this behavior is going to require quite a bit of rework to how we store options. Some settings are stored in discrete files, but a large number of options are stored in what is known as the "state file", which is the vslick.sta or vslick.stu file at the root of the configuration. That's the thorny part. We are looking at changing our options storage to unify it and make it work better with multiple instances, but this area requires us to tread very lightly.

We are working on some big changes to our MDI architecture for the coming release, which will allow you to work with multiple groupings of file tabs. While this won't address the "multiple instances, one config" problem directly, it will address the reason that many folks might want to otherwise use multiple instances.

[sreddy]

I have been using SE for several years now.  And the ability to launch multiple instances always worked for me.  Until I got the new SE 2012 version.  Now, I get this "Failed to save....vslick.stu" message when I try to close an instance.  Since this feature was working before, I am not sure I understand why it is going to "require quite a bit of rework".

[JakeMontgomery]

Here is what I do, and it works just fine, though it does take a bit of extra disk space. When I want to run an 'extra' instance of SE, I locate my configuration directory. Say its, "C:\Users\Me\Documents\My SlickEdit Config\17.0.3". I then copy that to a new location, say "C:\Users\Me\Documents\My SlickEdit Config\Alt\17.0.3". I then run SE, not only with +new, but also with +sc, to use the alternate configuration location. So my command line looks something like

Code: [Select]

"C:\Program Files\SlickEditV17.0.3 x64\win\vs.exe" +new +sc "C:\Users\Me\Documents\My SlickEdit Config\Alt\"

Note that the +sc location does not include the "17.0.3".

This way there is no conflict at all, with config files, nor with global tag files. It works well. The downside (or upside, depending on your point of view), is that configuration changes made in my alternate SE instance don't apply to my 'normal' SE instance.