Keep application open when last window closed

[Hedley Finger]

All platforms.
All versions of Inkscape.

I find it annoying when you close the last document and Inkscape quits. I realise it is an SDI with a new process for each document. However, GIMP manages to continue running when all documents are closed, by having a floating palette from which to create/open windows. UNIX versions of FrameMaker also floated a small palette with, from memory, New, Open, Exit and Help buttons. Notepad++ is an SDI and, when you close the last document, it immediately creates a new blank document and keeps running.

I POSTED A SURVEY on this issue on this list, 5/05/2008 4:08 PM, as follows:

<email address hidden>
Who would like Inkscape to keep running after you close a single
document or the last document so that you can immediately start a new
document without relaunching Inkscape? I find this behaviour very
annoying and contrary to the way most document-oriented applications on
all operating systems work.

MDI type applications (such as OpenOffice.org) keep a blank grey window
frame open into which you can start a new document. SDI type
applications (such as the open-source Notepad++ on Windows) open a new
blank document when you close the last open document. Gimp keeps a
small "launch" palette open when all documents are closed.

File > Close should close documents (creating a new empty document if
only one document is open).
File > Quit should close ALL open documents (giving you the chance to
save unsaved work) and then close the Inkscape application.

The window frame should have an application-instance close [X] icon at
the RH end and the menu bar should have a document close X icon at the
RH end.

Please post your preference to the list and identify yourself as an
end-user, developer, or both, and what platforms you use Inkscape on. I
am just an end-user on Windows and Ubuntu, using v. 0.46.

HERE are summaries of the responses:

<email address hidden>
Just FYI, MDI itself was generally considered a poor choice once computers could run more than one program at once, and Microsoft themselves officially deprecated it as of the release of Windows 95.
/* This is an architecture. I think the behaviour is the problem, and is solvable while still maintaining the SDI paradigm. */

<email address hidden>
I think that just keeping a blank document open is a nice way to have
inkscape pre-loaded and not having to relaunch it each time.

What I would really request instead is that, whenever Inkscape is
executed, it to check for already existing instances. If one such
exists, then it just creates a new document in that instance of
Inkscape, instead of opening a completely new instance of the
application. This would be nice because:

- The time to open a new inkscape document would be greatly reduced
once you already have a running instance -- whenever you click on the
inkscape icon in your launch bar, or type the command in the terminal,
you'd get a new empty document to play with.

- The new document would join the previously running ones, and
copy-and-paste would work between them. Right now, if you re-launch
inkscape you can't copy-paste between the two instances.

<email address hidden> /* in reply to previous post */
This is something I would very much like to see as well.

Currently I usually start Inkscape by clicking on a document, then use
the file browser for any others I need, but this is vary inconvenient.

<email address hidden> /* slighty off-topic */
I wonder how this behaviour would 'influence' one of Inkscape's most annoying draw-backs: the inpossibility to copy objects between unrelated inkscape-instances. I'm not a programmer, but I can image that if one window stays open, the chance is much bigger that two open windows are 'instances' of eachother, so that copy-ing and pasting between Inkscape documents goes much easier. :/ :\ *thinking*

Even if this idea is voted out, it might solve the copy-problem maybe? If Inkscape could always be 'sleeping' somewhere in the background, but instantiating a document-window whenever somebody 'opens' Inkscape?

<email address hidden>
Hedley, I am an end user and use win2000. I am all in favour of having Inkscape keep running after closing the last document. The current switch-off behaviour has driven me quietly insane for so long. There may have been a good reason for the present behaviour in the distant past but if so I've long since forgotten what it was but the current behaviour continues to irritate. Erik

<email address hidden>
In UNIX, there is a sticky bit. When set, it keeps the image of the
program in memory for a short time after the last close; the exact
amount is determined when the OS is compiled.

To set it on your machine:

  sudo chmod a+t `which inkscape`

<email address hidden>
I agree that something along these lines would be better than the
current way Inkscape behaves. I'm not sure that just staying open with
a blank document would be the best approach, but it definitely sounds
better than how it behaves currently.

I am currently only an end user, on Windows XP and Ubuntu and Fedora.

<email address hidden>
One more vote in favour of keeping Inkscape running in some way after
closing the last document, so that the next one can be opened without a
need to re-load Inkscape.

I am an end-user, using Inkscape on Linux, Windows 2000 and XP.

<email address hidden>
my vote would be as follows :
- keep the existing SDI with one change
- when you choose File | Open, it should check to see if the document has
changed, if so, it should ask whether you want to save it
- after the prompt has been dealt with, it should load the new document into
the existing instance of Inkscape without creating a new instance.

<email address hidden> /* expanding on his own previous post */
> - if Linux requires a time delay to clear stuff, that should not be a
> problem , it will still be much less than currently occurring

Linux does not require any delays in shutting down an application.

What Linux and BSD can to is delay re-using the memory that holds the
application code. Since the code is still in memory, restarting is very
quick. All UNIXes have had this ability since the mid-70s.

<email address hidden> /* in reply to <email address hidden> */
> > What I would really request instead is that, whenever Inkscape is
> > executed, it to check for already existing instances.

There are some subtleties which would need to be addressed, but generally
I think this is a good idea.

> > - The new document would join the previously running ones, and
> > copy-and-paste would work between them. Right now, if you re-launch
> > inkscape you can't copy-paste between the two instances.

This problem is now fixed in trunk actually.

THIS BUG is related to:
#216919 Close action inconsistent with legacy MDI applications
#165348 Close confirm follows last dialog
#170550, open blank document on 'close'
#171935, OSX Don't close the application when closing Inkscape window
#171596, Reorganize UI when closing document [MDI]
#170803, Close document vs. Quit program