New in GExperts 1.3.26: Auto Switch Desktop

At the Pascal Conference 2025 in Sundern Heiko Rompel (kralle) made a presentation about a plugin (or was it a patch?) for Lazarus that automatically switched between two desktop layouts whenever you toggled between the form designer and the code editor with F12. The reasoning was simple: some windows, such as the Object Inspector, are only useful while you work in the form designer, while others only make sense next to the code editor. So why not show a different arrangement of IDE windows for each? I found that to be a useful feature and tried adding the same capability to GExperts. It turned out to be easier than I thought and the result was the Auto Switch Desktop expert, which shipped already in GExperts 1.3.26, but I never blogged about it. The Delphi IDE has supported named desktop layouts for a long time (the “Desktops” entries in the View menu and the toolbar combo box). You arrange the IDE windows the way you like, save that arrangement under a name, and can recall it later.…