Re: [Gretl-devel] Tags and offline creation of function packages
On Tue, 28 Jun 2016, Sven Schreiber wrote:
Hi,
we (Allin and I) have talked about a closely related issue last week
(offline), but here's a variant that really seems to fulfill the bug
criterion:
When I want to create a new function package in the GUI and I'm not connected
to the internet, then upon trying to save the package (locally) gretl asks me
to specify a tag first. But because I'm offline gretl doesn't show the tag
dropdown lists in the package creation window. (The latter behavior is the
thing we already talked about.) So it's impossible to save the package. When
instead I select "write a spec file" gretls asks me to save the package
first...
I guess the natural solution would be that gretl ships with a tag list that
is current at release, just like it comes with a version of the manual. In
analogy to the pdf manual, if the tag list is not present in the install
location gretl could try to fetch it from the server instead.
I've now included the list of tags in the C source for the function
package editor. We still try to get a listing from the server first,
in case the local copy is not up to date, but that has a timeout.
So the selectors for tags in the package editor should now appear
regardless of network status.
Related: when you open the window that lists function packages on the
local machine, you still won't see the tag filter if you're offline.
That's because the listing of selected tags for all current packages
exists only on the server: many gfn files pre-date the tags mechanism
and so do not have any tags info inside them. Ideally, all older
packages should be updated but I'm not sure how to enforce that; I'll
give it some thought.
Allin