mu_code path issues

[bennuttall]

Currently, when you click load, and want to load a few files from a path other than mu_code, you have to browse to the file location each time. It would be nice if Mu remembered the last path you browsed to, rather than defaulting to mu_code. Alternatively, if you could select multiple files to open together, that would be handy.

Similarly, it seems the path ~/mu_code/ is hard-coded as the pwd, so if your file is located in ~/Projects/project_bob/src/, the following code:

with open('file.txt') as f:
    print(f.readline())

will attempt to open ~/mu_code/file.txt. But if you run the script from the terminal from within the src directory it would use ~/Projects/project_bob/src/file.txt. I think the pwd should be the location of the file run, not always mu_code.

[ZanderBrown]

I believe @ntoll decided not to implement this in favour of expecting people to use the workspace_dir setting (#87)

[carlosperate]

While mu_code is by design always as the default location for loading/saving scripts (for the reasons stated in https://github.com/mu-editor/mu/issues/126#issuecomment-236389947), I'm not so sure if that's also applicable to the cwd.

In the example given by Ben, when executing just open('file.txt') most people and online tutorials/guides would usually assume that file ends up in the same directory than the script that is running.
Yes, if you know everything starts by default in the mu_code directory, then you'd always look there, but this is mostly a "hidden" feature, only visible when opening and saving files.

I think I'm with Ben on this one, and that when a file is run the cwd should be script directory.
@ntoll any thoughts?

[ntoll]

So, ironically, I was told that all user code and file "activity" should be stored in a single location and Mu should never deviate from this location. @bennuttall, it's a "feature" requested by your colleagues.

However, I believe your suggestion is the correct behaviour and will take it as an excuse to change things as per your suggestions. ;-)

[ntoll]

To be clear, Mu will continue to work with mu_code as the default location. But if the user's script is in a different location then the cwd should reflect this (and be remembered in the file-selection dialog).

[bennuttall]

Thanks @ntoll I think it makes sense to have a default directory so people who don't (yet) care where their script is saved don't have to worry, but the issue was with change of behaviour (from a normal python prompt) when you save elsewhere and refer to relative files.

But if the user's script is in a different location then the cwd should reflect this (and be remembered in the file-selection dialog).

Absolutely :+1: