Give more choice for whitespace display

Depends on !48 (merged).

By addressing #44 (closed), this MR extends whitespace display to what GtkSourceView 3.24 allows (so bumping its version in configure.ac.in):

• four white space types: space, tab, newline, non-breaking space;
• three white space locations: leading, trailing, between words.

To achieve this, I chose to use a GtkPopover in the preferences dialog, built from a GMenuModel whose actions lie in MousepadApplication (since these settings make sense at the application level). This is what it looks like:

The binding with GSettings is done also in MousepadApplication, while the view properties are bind to the application properties (one for the space type flags and one for the space location flags).

added 1 commit

• f41adc21 - Display whitespace as allowed by GtkSourceView 3.24

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A piece of my work branch that I had forgotten! (where I use spell checking)

changed the description

mentioned in issue #71 (closed)

added 3 commits

• 53e96a7d - 1 commit from branch apps:master
• 6e7ebe6a - Switch to schema-id format for the setting names
• 3646e919 - Display whitespace as allowed by GtkSourceView 3.24

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I finally decided to include the switch to schema-id format for the setting names in a preliminary commit, because it makes the commit dealing with the new feature more clearly separated, and establishes it on a more compliant basis.

I like the idea, but my immediate reaction to the screenshot was: "Isn't that overkill?!"

Maybe yes! Can you elaborate a little? (which aspects in particular are exaggerated)

Being presented with 9 checkboxes could be quite confusing for the user. Every single of them is probably a valid configuration option, but is it really necessary to expose them all?

Well actually, there are only seven checkboxes of real choices, because the first one in each section is only used to select all. And I figured that since these are choices directly available in GtkSourceView, and since it seems to me that we need to add a submenu anyway so as not to invade the dialog box even more, we might as well offer everything to the user, who can always select everything in two clicks.

But we can reduce the range of choices if you find it's really too much, knowing that the space/newline distinction already existed, and that the initial request in #44 (closed) is to add the distinction for trailing whitespace, which means already four checkboxes.

Then it comes down to the "All" checkbox being somewhat redundant I think. Maybe it is worth to check how this is done in other text editors or IDEs.

What do you think of using the popover only for white space locations (three checkboxes), and keeping the current state for the rest? (i.e. "Display line endings" as a separate checkbox in the prefs dialog, and display all white space types indistinctly when checking "Display whitespace")

It can't be obtained with the current MR code, and I didn't put the "Display line endings" checkbox back, but just to give an idea of what it would look like:

That certainly looks less confusing. Can the title text be removed or is needed/helpful?

I was wondering while posting the image... I think it could be removed now, especially since the descriptions of the checkboxes are explicit.

By the way, if you have better proposals for these descriptions… Don't know if "Between words" is better than "Inside a line of text"…

Another more customary approach could be to use another row in the vbox below "Display Whitespace", indented with an alignment and contain an hbox of 3 checkboxes for "start", "middle", and "end". Like:

• Show line numbers
• Display whitespace
  • Start - [ ] Middle - [ ] End
• Display line endings

Or perhaps even better would be to just have a single GUI preference that enables displaying all whitespaces and then having a non-GUI setting for advanced users to select specific of the sub-options. Might help keep the Preferences dialog less cluttered.

Ok, I'll add a commit with a non-GUI setting.

changed the description

added 2 commits

• 11af6027 - Switch to schema-id format for the setting names
• cf3d6201 - Display whitespace as allowed by GtkSourceView 3.24

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Move a little change from one commit to another: no change in the end.

added 3 commits

• 01f35663 - 1 commit from branch apps:master
• 412bc1ad - Switch to schema-id format for the setting names
• 67e17484 - Display whitespace as allowed by GtkSourceView 3.24

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Another data exchange between commits and variable renaming.

added 5 commits

• 65de78d8 - Switch to schema-id format for the setting names
• c624af9c - Code refactoring around GAction-GSettings binding
• 501b6283 - Reformulate "Home/End Keys" setting description
• 856fe888 - Display whitespace as allowed by GtkSourceView 3.24
• 58ad29b9 - Restrict choices to space locations

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changed the description

Update to depend on !48 (merged) and restrict choices in the popover to space locations.

Here is what it looks like now:

added 9 commits

• 58ad29b9...241438f3 - 4 commits from branch apps:master
• 6b64b278 - Switch to schema-id format for the setting names
• 64e3012e - Code refactoring around GAction-GSettings binding
• 35d5b668 - Reformulate "Home/End Keys" setting description
• 838bbfcd - Display whitespace as allowed by GtkSourceView 3.24
• 0150130d - Restrict choices to space locations

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Small data reorganization.

added 1 commit

• 42c9fc7b - Hide the whitespace location settings

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Just remove the whitespace location settings from the prefs dialog, keeping all the underlying structure (flags computation at the application level, only once, then binding between the application and the views).