A few further points:
And No, Sam, I'm not in a vendetta against you. : )
On 4 Jan 2005, at 11:11, Sam Andrews wrote:
disadvantages of too may tabs:
- several keystrokes/mouseclicks to reach hidden tab
Keystrokes: This will be the case with every implementation I can think of, so I can see no advantage in your proposed design / file list.
Mouse clicks: In a BBEdit like list, I guess we could easily click on the chosen file (tab), but we could do the same with my implementation idea. Think folder of bookmarks in Safari bookmarks bar. Click-hold and select file/bookmark.
- we must shift focus to new tab (thereby hiding other tabs)
Might be misunderstanding you here, but isn't that the case anyway ? Alternatively, this could (??) be a preferences option that would indicate how to handle the overflow-tab click event, display selected overflow file or not.
- most tab-bar solutions (ie, drop-down menus) are counter-intuitive
because filenames are still hidden from the user's view - so they can't comprehend at a glance whether the tab they want is available or not
I don't know about your screen, but I've got a lot more horizontal space than I have vertical. (iMac 20"), and I am already toggling folders in the Project Drawer, so I can't see how I - or anyone - could possibly fit in open files and file hierarchy into the Project Drawer. It's a UI disaster in my mind.
As for a single glance view of open files. Normal tabs shows clearly, so we just need the overflow tab to work better than current implementation. Perhaps we could have Apple+Alt+[plus/equals] to display the overflow-tabs menu ? If you use the mouse, then you can just click on the tab and see all open files within it.
advantages of file-list:
- keeps usual keyboard nav, but requires less mouseclicks
Not getting this point at all, but a file list is no easier to click through than tabs. Might require less mouse movement, but that's it.
- "spotlight" filter could be applied to *all* open files
Sledgehammer and nut comes to mind with regards to 'spotlight-ing' open files. If you need to search your open files, then you have too many open.
As for 'spotlighting' / smart groups in the Project Drawer, well, that's a different issue.
As Allan is well aware of, the Project Drawer could be improved in various areas, and will be for 1.2 (??) Perhaps a better way to display open files for some, would be - as I believe has been proposed before - discretely background-highlighting opened files in the Project Drawer. (sort of like current file icon changes on un-saved files now). That ought to give a better alternative to those that don't like the tabs.
On 4 Jan 2005, at 16:37, Allan Odgaard wrote in response to Wayne Larsen:
I agree with this. I am amazed at (and impressed by!) those of you who only work with several files at one time
Clearly this must be task-dependent. The distinction is not really open files for me but more like 'active' files.
So for the next hour or so, I'll have these 5 files “open” and forget about the rest of the project (which contains hundreds of files in a hierarchical structure).
As a general point on the number of open files, which is really at the root of this 'problem'/thread.
I guess we all have our different ways of working and I may not understand the structure of everyone's work, but I would still hazard the guess, that most developers only work on 1-5 related files at any given time. I have found that I too end up with a lot of open files, but have started to learn the process of doing the work required in the file and then closing it down. I can always open it from the Project Drawer within 1-5 seconds, and trust me, I spend a lot more time thinking about the code I am about to write than I spend on re-opening files, so a saving of N seconds here or there is really a mosquito fart in outer space.
The thing about TM is that as you work with the program and it's inherent limitations you can reform your working practices, often for the better. I and many others 'complained' about the lack of code-hinting for our chosen language - and it would still be good sometimes - but now I have created a largish collection of snippets that does my work much quicker and better than any other code-hinting solution I'm aware of. Hell, I've even rolled my own basic CVS functionality into TM. (will share later this week when I'm sure everything is OK for public consumption)
Kind regards,
Mats