Ever since I have installed version 2.3.6 of the IDE, I have noticed that when I open up a second sketch, while another is still open, that it opens up in read-only mode. To work around this I have to first close the first IDE window - thereby making the second sketch the current one - and then close the second IDE window so that the IDE remembers this as the last edited sketch. I then re-open the IDE and the second sketch now opens in normal read-write mode. At first I thought it was a glitch, but it has happened several times consistently now.
I am working on Linux and at this point do not know whether the problem also afftects Windows or Mac users. It does not appear to be unique to the computer as it happens on both my desktop and laptop system. I did not notice this problem in version 2.3.4. I skipped 2.3.5 and went directly from 2.3.4 to 2.3.6.
Thanks. Its a bit of a nuisance, but a relatively minor inconvenience in the scheme of things and I can work with it. I was just trying to establish whether anyone else has encountered this problem before reporting it on IDE GitHub issue tracker, but yes, reverting back to 2.3.4 for the time being is certainly one option I can consider.
I tend to download, unpack and copy the contents of the ZIP file version to a specific location on my system as I find that easier to manage on Linux, so its relatively straightforward to do.
Which hits me. Likewise I usually can get around this by simply closing the sketch and then reopen it from recent. Although a few times I have
tried to reopen it from recent, and it shows two tabs with the same file, one regular and one read-only... That time I closed that window, and opened
the sketch using the open command and browsed to the directory and opened the sketch.
Yes, as it happens. The IDE is installed on the system drive (/opt/arduino2/), whereas the Arduino sketchbook directory is on the separately mounted Data drive (mounted in /mnt/ntfs/Data/). The Arduino sketchbook directory accessed via a symlink (/home/username/Arduino/), so a sketch would be accessed in a sub-directory to this, for example /home/username/Arduino/MyBlink.
Since I am working on a Linux OS, the system drive is formatted ext4, but the Data volume is formatted NTFS because it is shared with a Windows virtual machine, although I use the IDE only on Linux, so its not a case of the file being locked because it is being used by another application. I fire up the Windows virtual machine only when needed and the problem ocurrs regardless of whether it is running or not.
The problem does indeed sound like the one described in the linked issue #1863.