PyCForge 1.3.4 — Classes & Functions loading panel
Date: 2026-10-15
Base: complete PyCForge 1.3.3 archive

Requested behavior
A panel covers the complete Classes & Functions tree area while the list
loads. It contains one short progress bar and no visible loading feedback.
The panel disappears when the list is ready. Existing navigation and Copy
remain available when loading finishes.

Implementation
The existing tree and a themed loading panel share a QStackedWidget slot,
so the panel covers both the header and every tree row. Its centered busy
indicator is 88 x 8 logical pixels. No additional recurring timer is added.
The panel stays visible through background parsing and every 128-row
population batch. Partial rows cannot activate navigation or Copy.
When the last batch completes, the dialog restores the tree, selection,
keyboard focus, and Copy availability. Errors and source changes clear the
loading state. Escape or closing the dialog stops the animation and pending
population; retired worker replies remain ignored. Error messages are retained.
The README and offline Help explain the new loading panel.

Validation performed
- Python 3.12.14, PySide6 6.12.0, Linux, QT_QPA_PLATFORM=offscreen.
- 37 focused navigator, dialog-focus, and steel-theme tests passed, with
  50 subtests. Includes the real background worker, double-click and Enter
  navigation, Copy without moving either split editor, loading over multiple
  batches, resizing, source invalidation, syntax errors, Escape, late results,
  and existing feedback-layout behavior.
- 9 distribution-metadata tests passed, with 6 subtests.
- Total: 46 tests and 56 subtests passed across those two focused runs.
- Visually inspected the themed loading and loaded states. Measured the
  loading panel at 606 x 399 and progress bar at 88 x 8 logical pixels in
  the default 640 x 520 dialog. No loading text or progress text was visible.
- Compared the application source tree with the original 1.3.3 archive:
  all 821 source package files retained, 817 byte-identical. The four changed
  files are the dialog, its theme, workspace Help, and version constant.
  The 821 source files include six Ting review sources excluded from wheels.
- Exact test results, visual metrics, and source comparison are under
  evidence/symbol_navigator_1_3_4/.

Scope and remaining checks
This is a local patch package. No PyPI publication was performed.
The complete regression suite was not rerun. Native Windows appearance and
animation were not executed here; they remain a manual acceptance check.
Application dependencies and conversion implementation are unchanged.
The archive includes an installable wheel and source distribution in dist/.
Distribution verification and checksums are supplied at the archive root.
