Ok. I think it would be a handy feature to have, and easier than using a wizard every time you start a new program.
I tend to agree with you on this. I'm not much of a fan of the way POIDE creates new projects. I find having to go through the wizards each time rather cumbersome.
A simple Wish List:
1. A settings tab, under Tools, Customize, to allow us to select which wizards are displayed in the initial panel. I only use 4 (Win32 Console App, Win 32 Gui App, Win32 DLL and Win32 Lib). It would be nice to hide the rest.
2. The Project Wizard tool should be optional. The New menu should have separate entries for
New Project and
New Project Wizard. The new project option should bring up a dialog with a space to name the project and set some general settings -- optimization strategy, simplified debug settings, type of file to build...
3. Default project settings --one set for each type of output file-- stored by POIDE and called up when a new project is started. (I don't even want to guess how often I've had to check the same options over and over.)
4. Default #defines (eg. WIN32_DEFAULT_LIBS) loaded when a new project is created. Again, one set for each mode.
5. Multiple open projects in the same copy of the IDE. While it's possible to fake this by opening multiple copies of the IDE it is sometimes rather difficult to keep track of what you have in which copy and having to open each in turn hunting for a file can be quite annoying.
6. User added files. If I am working on a project I should be able to list reference files (public headers, previous versions etc.) that are not part of the compilation in my projects. (You can fake this by using the open dialog, but opening the same files over and over is a pain).
7. Unlimited number of open files. POIDE currently hits the wall at about 60 files.
8. Multiline file tabs. The horizontal scolling tabs are a real pain.
9. Ability to run the Resource editor outside the IDE. This would be nice as it would allow simple revisions and internationalization for which you have no other reason to open POIDE (eg. to fix a spelling mistake or when you don't have the source code.) I've even suggested that Pelles Resource Editor would make a fine second product for just this reason.
10. Search and Replace buttons on the tool bar. (Ok minor grumble but while making lists...)
Pelles-C is probably the best C language implementation going. It's my compiler/linker of choice.
But like most implementations it's actually the IDE where you run into shorcommings. There was one IDE (Watcom, I think) that didn't have a horizontal scroll bar in it's editor... massively annoying, a deal breaker in fact. Another has so much junk in it as to be confusing. Still another was so underfeatured that Notepad was better.
I'm sure Pelle is interested in developing the entire package and in the past he's been very responsive to user requests. But one can hardly blame him for not wanting to share source code after the amount of work he's obviously put into his product.