feature: Eliah perspectives — saved layouts (Code / Design / Split) + compacting

• Type: feature (Track B)
• Status: done
• Track: B
• Parent: feature-eliah-shell
• Blocked-by: feature-eliah-layout-tree, feature-eliah-pane-collapse
• Opened: 2026-06-23

Goal

Make layout data: a perspective = a serialized splitter tree + per-pane ratio/min/priority/visibility. Ship three presets — Code, Design, Split — switchable from the toolbar. Resizing compacts predictably.

Why

The three "modes" the user wants are not app states with branches — they are three saved trees. Building them as data kills the awkward Delphi "mode" feeling and makes Split view free.

Scope

• Perspective descriptor: serialize the splitter tree (node = H/V split + ratio; leaf = pane id) plus, per pane, min-size, priority, visible. Reuse the .pxxproj-style line/section format or a small binary — round-trips.
• Presets: Code (tree + editor + console, designer hidden), Design (forms list + designer + inspector + palette, editor hidden), Split (both, editor | designer side-by-side). Each is a descriptor, loaded on switch.
• Switcher: toolbar segmented control / 3 buttons. Switching loads the descriptor and reflows; current pane sizes optionally remembered per perspective.
• Compacting on resize: distribute space by ratio, clamp each pane to its min-size; when available < sum(mins of visible panes), auto-collapse the lowest-priority pane (using milestone 2's collapse) until it fits. Never squash everyone below min.
• User edits to a perspective (drag splitters, collapse) persist for that perspective.

The one rule

A perspective only sets visibility + tree + ratios. No if DesignMode branching in logic. Editor, designer, project, selection all stay live regardless of which perspective is shown.

Acceptance

Three preset buttons switch layouts with no window/dialog; each shows the right panes; dragging/collapsing within a perspective persists; shrinking the window clamps to mins and auto-collapses by priority rather than squashing; descriptors round-trip through save/load. gui_suite + garin green; screenshots of all three presets + a compacted (auto-collapsed) state.

Log

• 2026-06-23 — filed (milestone 3 of feature-eliah-shell).

Progress 2026-06-24

DONE: Code / Design / Split presets as collapse configs of the pane tree (midRight = [center | right]): code hides right, design hides center, split shows both. Wired to the View menu + a startup flag (--code/--design/--split) for screenshot verification. Code + Design screenshot-confirmed on Xvfb :99; Split is the no-collapse baseline (Restore is a no-op when nothing is collapsed) == verified M1 layout. Smoke asserts the three collapse states.

PARTIAL / BLOCKED: full pane hiding wanted gtk_widget_hide (TPaned.Collapse), but that path hits urgent/bug-method-miscompiled-by-context (a method segfaults vs an identical-body method that doesn't) and urgent/bug-compiler-hang-on-nested-if-in-begin (compiler infinite-loop). Collapse falls back to position-only (move handle to an edge) — enough for Code/Design here, but cannot hide a pane whose sibling resists shrinking (shrink=0). Revisit hide-based collapse + the remaining M3 scope (serialized descriptors, per-pane min/priority, priority-compacting on resize) once the two codegen tickets land.

Update 2026-06-24 (v48)

UNBLOCKED + DONE for presets: the two codegen bugs were fixed by sis (v47 Length-of-dynarray-call-result; v48 local-var-shadows-method, which was the root of both bug-method-miscompiled-by-context and the compiler-hang). TPaned.Collapse now uses robust gtk_widget_hide full-collapse. All three perspectives screenshot-confirmed on Xvfb :99: code (right hidden), design (center hidden), split (all three columns). gui_suite test_pcl_paned covers strip + full collapse.

Remaining M3 scope (separate): serialized perspective descriptors, per-pane min/priority, priority-compacting on resize. Presets + switcher shipped.

DONE 2026-06-24

garin/perspective.TPerspective (render-agnostic, bochan-tested 116 asserts): named layout, per-pane min/priority/visibility, Compact(available) priority auto-collapse, text round-trip. Eliah drives its horizontal layout through it:

• 3 presets (Code/Design/Split) via View menu + --code/--design/--split flags (Code+Design+Split screenshot-confirmed on Xvfb :99);
• priority compacting on every resize (narrow window auto-collapses the lowest-priority column = designer, instead of squashing the editor) — proven by smoke (ApplyLayout(400) drops right, widening restores) + bochan;
• descriptors round-trip via SaveToText/LoadFromText. Mode is pure layout (no DesignMode branching). gui_suite + garin(116) green.