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Report From: Delphi-BCB/IDE/Refactoring [ Add a report in this area ]

Report #: 48355

Status: Open

Refactoring only works for units explicitly in project

Project: Delphi

Build #: 10.0.2288.42451

Version: 10.0

Submitted By: Joe White

Report Type: Suggestion / Enhancement Request

Date Reported: 7/1/2007 7:03:39 AM

Severity: Infrequently encountered problem

Last Updated: 3/20/2012 2:24:39 AM

Platform: All platforms

Internal Tracking #: 256455

Resolution: None (Resolution Comments)

Resolved in Build: : None

Duplicate of: None

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Total Votes: 15

Description

The refactoring tools should work across all units used by the project. They do not. They are only applied to those units that have been explicitly added to the project (via Project > Add to Project or File > New).

This makes the refactoring tools effectively unusable, unless you have some way to make sure every source file you could ever possibly compile has been explicitly added to the project. I can't imagine how this is supposed to work in a team environment, with multiple people working on the same project, and getting conflicts on the .dpr every time they add a new unit.

In a verbal discussion with Allen Bauer at a BorCon two years ago, he said that he expected the refactoring tools to work with all units compiled into a project, not just for the units that have been explicitly added with "Add to Project". That is not the actual behavior, which is why I'm filing this as a bug rather than an enhancement.

See Steps.

Steps to Reproduce:

1. File > New > Console Application - Delphi for Win32.
2. File > New > Unit.
3. Save the new unit as Unit1.
4. Using Notepad or another text editor (i.e., NOT File > New Unit in the IDE), create a new file, paste in the "Unit2" content shown below, and save it as Unit2.pas.
5. Using Notepad or another text editor, create a new file, paste in the "Unit3" content shown below, and save it as Unit3.pas.
6. Add the following uses clause to Unit1.pas:

uses Unit2, Unit3;

7. Compile (to prove that everything is compilable).
8. Open Unit2 in the IDE, put the cursor on "TFoo", and use the Rename refactoring to rename it to TBar.
9. Try to compile.

Expected: the code should compile. (If it compiled before the refactoring, and it doesn't compile after the refactoring, then it wasn't a refactoring.)

Actual: the compiler gives error "[Pascal Error] Unit3.pas(9): E2003 Undeclared identifier: 'TFoo'". This is because the refactoring was applied only to the current unit (Unit2), and not to any of the other units compiled into the project.

----

unit Unit2;

interface

type
  TFoo = class
  end;

implementation

end.

----

unit Unit3;

interface

uses
  Unit2;

type
  TBar = class(TFoo)
  end;

implementation

end.

Workarounds

None

Attachment

None

Comments

Thomas Mueller at 7/1/2007 8:50:43 AM -

I can reproduce this in Delphi 2007.

btw:

You don't need to use an external editor, just use Add->New->Unit to create all three units and past the content given in the report into them.

Save them and then remove Unit2 and Unit3 from the project using the "Remove from Project" entry in the unit's context menu.

Joe White at 7/1/2007 3:04:18 PM -

Sure, that'll work too. I chose the steps I did because they're closer to what we usually do in practice. (Actually, we usually open a .pas file that's not in the project, do a Save As, and then gut it and put in new content.)

Alex Fekken at 10/5/2007 6:53:50 PM -

In my opinion the real bug is that Delphi allows you to compile a unit into a project that does not explicitly include that unit. Of course fixing that would break a lot of legacy code, so I am not asking for it to be fixed. But I would not like to see that bug extended to the refactoring engine either, even though that might be the consistent thing to do.

Chris Moseley at 7/27/2010 8:51:37 PM -

<i>real bug is that Delphi allows you to compile a unit into a project that does not explicitly include that uni</i>

I'd be happy if the factoring tool detected the problem and ideally gave you the option of adding all the extra units to the project, but failing that just said "this will break your project. Continue?". Admittedly with the ideal solution I'd then refactor purely to get that effect (add one library unit, refactor. Easier than adding all the units one at a time).

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