[Qt] the RPC Console should be a QWidget to make window more independent #5258

fix issue #5254

ACK on concept. Moving away from using QDialogs for widgets that are embedded into other windows makes sense.

• After this you can no longer hide the debug window using <ESC>. IMO that was useful. That's why the following code was there, but I'm sure a similar thing can be done with QWidget.

if(windowType() != Qt::Widget)
    QDialog::reject();

• It doesn't solve #5254 here, I've tested on Ubuntu. This may be due to Ubuntu prefering this, as in other programs with multiple windows (like Gimp) the same happens (On the other hand in Firefox it is possible to have multiple windows open as well as minimize them separately, as there is no clear 'parent window'). Current behavior is:
  • Minimize debug window → debug window minimizes
  • Minimize main window → main window as well as debug window minimizes

@laanwj: Hmm... I just did some test on my ubuntu 14.04 VM.

When i have both windows open, i click the "-" symbol at the top left of the main window and ONLY the main window does minimize.

Screens:

Both windows open, then press "-" at top left of main window

Results in:

ESC-Key: yes. I can bring back the esc key. I just thought because it's no longer a dialoge esc makes no more sense. But you right. It's kind a handy.

Huh! Why do you get that. I tried exactly the same on Ubuntu 14.04 and get the behavior as described. Will do a rebuild from an empty tree.

If you have 3 buttons at the top left of your debug window (close, minimize, maximize) you should have built it right. If you have only two icons "close" / "maximize" you are still running a QDialog.

It does work after making the debug window wholly independent

-    rpcConsole = new RPCConsole(enableWallet ? this : 0);
+    rpcConsole = new RPCConsole(0);

@laanwj against which qt version do you build? This maybe helps me to reproduce your issue.

@jonasschnelli About Qt shows 5.2.1

But anyhow - if your goal is to make the window independent, passing a parent window is counter-productive.

Okay. Now i see. Thanks. Let me change that and re-implement the ESC-key behavior.

Making it an independent window does change some things:

• The window has to be manually deleted in the destructor - this will no longer happen automatically
• Initial positioning will be different, it will no longer appear in the middle of the main window as before. The shutdown window is another case of this; it cannot be a child window, but we still want to position it correctly, so maybe this code could be factored out to an utility function

    // Center shutdown window at where main window was
    const QPoint global = window->mapToGlobal(window->rect().center());
    shutdownWindow->move(global.x() - shutdownWindow->width() / 2, global.y() - shutdownWindow->height() / 2);
    shutdownWindow->show();

@laanwj i did update some things. The app now only gets terminated when both windows are closed. Users can now keep the RPC window open when the main window is closed. ESC-Key implemented again.

There are still a few issues where i could need some advice.

1. Does it make sense to keep the RPCConsole open without the MainWindow?
2. Currently the Menu disappears when the MainWindow get's closed
3. How could the user reopen the MainWindow when closed once? (TryIcon?)
4. When reopening the MainWindow, the Menu comes back but the menu-titile says "DebugWindow".

Closing the main window should exit the application, IMO. Let's not make this too complicated. Minimizing the windows individually is enough.

Agreed. This will simplify things for me a lot. :)

@laanwj: updated again.

1. rpcConsole instance variable get's deleted now, destructor/store geometry gets called again.
2. MainWindow close events terminate app as it was before.

positioning:

    RPCConsole::~RPCConsole()
    {
        GUIUtil::saveWindowGeometry("nRPCConsoleWindow", this);

isn't it so, that the position is managed by the GUIUtil? Or do you think the initial position must be set if no previous geometry was stored?

isn't it so, that the position is managed by the GUIUtil?

You'd say so, but I noticed a difference in positioning when I tested your code. I don't personally care that much if it's centered, though, although in my case it ended up on the other side of my other desktop.

@laanwj I think your last test wasn't with the change where the RPCConsole gets properly deleted in the destructor. Without that the position wasn't stored.

ACK apart from above nit (tested with wallet mode, disablewallet mode, and compiled without wallet support).

@rebroad can you confirm that this fixes #5254?

ping @rebroad