it's not that simple because you can for example press [run with debugger] and immediately switch to another instance. When debugger module connects to the dbglistener, how would listener decide what IDE instance the event is targeted for? Debugger module does not distinguish them and does not provide any info for listener to route the event.

In the instance that's not connected, the debugger options would simply be disabled, so that you don't have to worry about the user starting a debugging session unexpectedly. The instances would share a mutually exclusive lock on debugging, so the listener would just have to know which one has the lock and send everything there.

Basically, it's what you have now (from what you said), but with a little bit of added communication between instances and the listener to implement an explicit lock that is explicitly switchable among instances by the user.

Hope this makes sense....

hmm. Lock is not a solution. They both can start debugger simultaneously. Indeed, why not?

How would that happen? The whole purpose of the lock is specifically to prevent more than one instance from trying to debug. It's no different than, say, when CVS gives you a lock on a file. The only tricky requirement is making sure the lock itself is atomic, but since this is such a common problem in computer science, I'd be willing to bet that Windows provides the means to do this very easily.

Why would it limit you with just one debug session at a time?
Technically, it's possible and may not cause any problems, other than I mentioned.
I'd prefer to wait and think more

I'd like to post a suggestion to the devs and a mod for the community for this. I run multiple desktops as well, so I need the "Open In New" functionality. The following registry code will add an option in the right click context menu underneath all the Open With PhpED default option for PhpEd associated files. This option will be called, "Open With New PhpED" and will open the PhpED associated file in a new PhpED instance!



It would be great if this was integrated into the installer !