[TxMt] Tabbed Interface Observations

[Gerd Knops]

On Oct 15, 2005, at 16:14, Edmundo Ortega wrote:

> This issue is dear to my heart and has been discussed both in this  
> list and on the wiki:
>
> http://macromates.com/wiki/pmwiki?n=Suggestions.TabsVersusPullDownMenu
>
> I think that the last sensible conclusion was that there are two  
> kinds of users:
>
> 1. The kind that close tabs when they are done with them.
> 2. The kind that don't.

Seems to me either way the tabs are a waste of precious vertical  
space. The only time I use the tabs is to occasionally close the open  
files. To navigate between files I typically use the 'Go to File...'  
dialog, or sometimes the project drawer.

I don't like a pull-down menu as an alternative either. I think a  
hierarchical 'Window' menu would be a better solution. In the olden  
days of NeXTSTEP the context menu actually was the windows menu. That  
was a quick way to navigate between windows, but I believe the  
context menu is quite useful for actual contextual actions (though  
currently under-utilized in TM), and that may be a better use for it.  
Either way, wether windows menu or pulldown menu, neither are well  
suited to quickly close a selected set of open files.

Maybe a list (actually a table) in a drawer would be a better choice.  
Every entry should have a close button,  and an icon representing the  
revision control status (svn/Perforce/whatever). If the list gets to  
long it'll have a scroll bar, and if you want to see longer filenames  
you can adjust the size of the drawer.

The drawer(s) is/are pretty valuable screen real-estate too, so  
sooner or later there will also be a need to have a UI that selects/ 
switches what is visible in the drawer(s).

BTW jEdit has plugins for most of the above solutions, and as far as  
I can tell none has crystalized as superior. Each has many users.

Gerd