Last week we released a nightly build of Komodo that has restored much of the project functionality from version 5. Over the last few months, we’ve heard loud and clear that you need to work with multiple projects simultaneously, and that you need to store references to files and folders in those projects.
So, they’re back, at least in the nightlies. The new Projects pane is still at the bottom part of the Places sidebar, but it no longer just shows a list of your most recently visited projects. Instead, it shows your loaded projects, just like the good old days.

Folders and Groups

There are a few changes from v5. First, projects can store only references to files, folders (which we used to call “live folders”), and groups (which we used to call “folders”). The “folder” nomenclature all falls in the for-historical-purposes category. Long ago, Komodo had only virtual folders, so when live folders came along, they were given a derivative name. Folder references can be to local or remote folders.
However, we’ve avoided making the project tree look or work like a file manager. There were too many bugs reported in that area, and some new customers said they found it confusing. So if you want to do file management on a folder that’s in a project, you can double-click on it to view it in the Places sidebar. The recognized downside is that you won’t be able to see two different file system trees at the same time.
We also aren’t bringing back the Project pane filter (at least not in this batch of nightlies). It always slowed down when it hit large directory trees. We haven’t given up on it completely, but we do hope that the FastOpen dialog grows to offer all the functionality the filter did.

Bugs

I notice that the toolboxes for loaded projects currently [build 59959 – Dec 17] aren’t loading. There are no doubt other bugs in the new/old project system, but that’s what nightlies are about—great for people who like to live on the edge. If you’re not that kind of person, you could still install nightly and released builds in separate directories and run them side-by-side.
You can download the latest builds from:
https://www.activestate.com//products/downloads/
If you have feedback on the re-implementation of this functionality, let us know on the Komodo Beta forum.
Visit www.activestate.com/komodo-ide to check out all Komodo IDE’s features, or create an account on the ActiveState Platform to try Komodo for free today!