#271 Code Formatter: format all units of the current project (patch attached)

[Ian Branch]

Hi Thomas,

The Code Formatter only works on the unit in the active editor, and it would be useful to format all units of a project in one go. We have implemented this and tested it in Delphi 13.2, including on a real 55-unit project; the details are below. The implementation is attached as GExperts-FormatProjectUnits.patch, made against trunk r5881 and checked to apply cleanly to r5884 (only the CHANGES hunks shift by a few lines); svn patch applies it from the working copy root.

What it does

A new editor expert, Code Formatter for Project Units, registered in GX_eCodeFormatter.pas next to the Code Formatter, so no new unit and no change to the .dpr files.

• Which files: the .pas units the project lists that are in the project's directory or below it. Units the project uses from elsewhere (shared libraries) are left alone, and so are the project file itself, packages, resources and .inc files.
• Settings: each unit gets the settings that apply to it, so {GXFormatter.config=<name>} and GXFormatter.ini work as they do for one unit, and - excludes a unit.
• Confirmation first: a question box says how many units will be formatted, how many are open in the editor, how many are changed on disk, and how many were left out.
• Open units are formatted in the editor buffer, through the same code path as the Code Formatter, so unsaved edits are included, the change can be undone, and bookmarks and breakpoints are restored. They are not saved.
• Closed units are formatted on disk with TCodeFormatterEngine.FormatFile, the routine the stand-alone formatter uses.
• Errors: a unit that fails is listed in the summary at the end instead of stopping the run.
• Delphi 13 with Parnassus Bookmarks: one "the IDE is busy" notice covers the whole run, and the summary waits until it closes, as the single-unit command already does. Closed units never reach Parnassus.
• Menu only: CanHaveShortCut returns False, so changing a whole project, partly on disk, is never a single keystroke.
• Inactive by default from XE on, like the Code Formatter, and it uses the Code Formatter's configuration.

Implementation

• GX_CodeFormatterExpert.pas
• The body of TCodeFormatterExpert.Execute moves into a routine that shows no messages, FormatSourceEditor; Execute keeps its checks and messages and behaves as before.
• New TCodeFormatterExpert.ExecuteForProject.
• TfmParnassusBusy records the instance currently shown in gblParnassusBusy (cleared in its destructor), so a run never keeps a reference to a notice that has already released itself, and ShowParnassusBusyIfSlow returns that one instead of opening a second.
• GX_CodeFormatterBookmarks.pas: TBookmarkHandler.Create takes the source editor to work on (nil means the current one, as before), and skips an editor without a view.
• GX_CodeFormatterBreakpoints.pas: SaveItems takes the file name and saves only that file's breakpoints (see the next section).
• Documentation/CHANGES-1.4.0.md: a feature entry and a bug-fix entry. Please reword them as you like.

A breakpoint fix in the same patch (found by reading the code, not reproduced)

TBreakpointHandler.SaveItems saved the breakpoints of all files, and RestoreItems translates every saved line number with the line map of the unit just formatted. A breakpoint in another unit would then get a line number that means nothing there, would not be found among the breakpoints the IDE still has, and would be created again on that line. That translation came in with r5614 ("breakpoints on lines that formatting moved could end up twice or disappear"), so it was never in a release.

The patch saves only the breakpoints of the file being formatted, which is also the only file whose breakpoints the IDE removes when the source is replaced. A breakpoint file name without a path is matched by name only, in case an IDE reports it that way. I have not reproduced the original problem in the IDE. It matters more with this feature, because a project run would otherwise repeat the remapping once per open unit. If you would rather keep it separate, it is the self-contained change to GX_CodeFormatterBreakpoints.pas plus the matching call in FormatSourceEditor.

Two things I noticed but did not change

• A message box's default button is ignored when the box is shown. TGxMsgBoxAdaptor.GetDefaultButton is documented as "Button to be used as the default", but ShowGxMessageBox always calls frm.SetFocusButton(0), so the first button is focused whatever it returns; the value is only used as the result of a suppressed box. The two boxes in GX_Backup.pas that return mbCancel therefore show with Yes focused. I wanted No as the default for this feature's confirmation, but fixing it centrally changes other boxes, so I left that to you.
• Parnassus Bookmarks before Delphi 13. The busy notice exists only for Delphi 13, where Parnassus is ParnassusIDE370.bpl. In Delphi 10.x to 12 Parnassus Bookmarks was a separate GetIt plugin; if it delays those IDEs after a buffer replace in the same way, GExperts shows nothing there, for the single-unit command as well. This was already the case before the patch.

Testing

• Builds: both DLLs for Delphi 13 (DelphiXx130, DelphiXx130_64), full builds: 0 warnings, 0 errors, no hints.
• In the IDE (Delphi 13.2, 64-bit IDE, GExperts as the IDE's formatter):
• A project with 2 units in its directory and 5 outside: counts correct in both boxes, outside units untouched.
• A larger project, 55 units in its directory (1 open, 54 closed) and 5 outside: 53 formatted, 2 unchanged. The Parnassus notice appeared once and the summary waited for it.
• On the 53 changed files, compared byte for byte against a copy taken before the run: every UTF-8 BOM, every CRLF, every non-ASCII byte and the trailing newline unchanged. With whitespace removed and case ignored, the code is identical; string literals are identical including case; comment and directive text is identical apart from white space. The project compiled and ran afterwards.
• Ctrl+Alt+F on a single unit behaves as before.

Environment caveat

• Tested only on Delphi 13.2, 64-bit IDE, Windows 11. Delphi 13 is the only version installed here, so Delphi 6 to 12 have not been compiled, including the 2007 and 6 builds your CLAUDE.md asks for. I kept to constructs that exist there: anonymous methods only inside the existing GX_DELPHI13_UP blocks, units selected by the .pas extension rather than IOTAModuleInfo.ModuleType, and only Ota helpers and RTL routines other units already use without version guards.
• Not tested in the IDE: breakpoints (the fix above), undo and bookmarks of an open unit after a project run, and a unit that fails to format.
• The formatter unit tests were not run; the engine is unchanged.
• The patch was written with AI assistance (Claude Code). I reviewed it and ran the tests above myself.

Regards,
Ian Branch

[Thomas Mueller]

Implemented in revision 5894, with your patch. Thank you!

The breakpoint fix from it went in separately as bug #544 (r5891). While testing, two older problems showed up that made "-" unreliable for excluding a unit; they are fixed as bug #545 (r5893), so excluding a unit with "-" in GXFormatter.ini or with {GXFormatter.config=-} as its first line now works for the project run as well.