[TxMt] how do you close excess tabbed files?

[Sam Andrews]

ok, i guess what i'm trying to say is that tabs are not, and never have been, a 
good visual metaphor for large lists. however they are handled, they become 
unintuitive and ugly. i have *no* problem whatsoever using tabs when i know they 
are all visible. i was just throwing an idea around for when tabs aren't viable 
(ie - as soon as there are too many for your workspace)

disadvantages of too may tabs:

- several keystrokes/mouseclicks to reach hidden tab
- we must shift focus to new tab (thereby hiding other tabs)
- can't currently drag from end of tabs to beginning (mats addresses this, though)
- 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

advantages of file-list:

- keeps usual keyboard nav, but requires less mouseclicks
- "spotlight" filter could be applied to *all* open files
- expandable list area means the user can easily see at-a-glance what files are 
open even in very long lists.
- easily maintains drag re-ordering even if you've scrolled to the bottom of the 
list and want to drag back to the top

anyway - as i say, it's just my preference and i would see it only as an option 
for the user. :-)

Mats Persson wrote:
> 
> Here's my two cent's worth of input.
> 
> 
> On 4 Jan 2005, at 09:35, Sam Andrews wrote:
> 
>> i often work with pretty bloated projects, and the tabs don't really 
>> work for me, either.  my personal preference would be for a list of 
>> active files displayed in the drawer - so split the drawer between 
>> that and the project file list, as shown in this mockup:
>> http://dev.samandrews.com/misc/tm1.jpg (121k jpg)
> 
> 
> Sam, please accept my apologies as it's not personal, but I have to pass 
> on the following comment to your proposal.
> 
> Allan, I sincerely beg you - on my knees, hands firmly clasped - to 
> PLEASE NOT implement anything like that in TM. It reeks of BBEdit, and 
> is in my mind a completely flawed implementation.
> 
> 
> A far better improvement on the current implementation would - in my 
> mind at least - be a larger sized overflow ">>" tab at the end of the 
> bar to handle the overflow files.  The size of this tab should be of 
> dynamic size to fill the space between the last normal tab and the end 
> of window, and big enough to display the same widgets & text as a normal 
> tab, but also a  [ N ] (number of files in tab).
> 
> On selecting the tab - via mouse or keyboard - a pop-down tab menu would 
> appear, with the standard tab layout ( ie close widget + file name). 
> Using the normal tab navigation key commands, would highlight the 
> selected file in the pop-down menu, and then the top tab text would 
> display the active file name. Think HTML Select pop-up menu functionality.
> 
> If you wish to move a file from the overflow tab, then you would just 
> move it as a normal tab, and the last normal tab in the existing tab bar 
> moves into the overflow tab. (Hope you followed me there ? )
> 
> While I'm at it. How difficult would it be to implement the following:  
> Apple+Alt+Shift+ <left/right arrow> to actually move the order of tabs 
> via the keyboard ???
> 
> To me that solves much of the problems, as the overflow tabs follow the 
> same functionality as normal tabs. Love to hear your views.
> 
> 
> On 2 Jan 2005, at 19:55, Allan Odgaard wrote:
> 
>> So a group is configured how? And should it be possible to do ad hoc 
>> grouping by e.g. dropping one tab on another tab (to make it into a 
>> group), and exactly how does a group affect navigation?
> 
> 
> I too like the idea of group based tabs, where all .css files were 
> stored in one single tab and so on, but I can't see how that 
> implementation would work any better than the current implementation. 
> What happens when you select a file in a group tab, does it take over 
> the visibility of that tab, or open in a new tab ?? How would you 
> navigate this group tab scenario with the keyboard ??
> 
> 
> On 4 Jan 2005, at 06:53, Allan Odgaard wrote:
> 
>> Tabs allow me to quickly navigate in this hot set with keys (the 
>> visual aspect of them is negligible), and I can re-arrange them to 
>> have two files I often switch between next to each other.
>> Locating the file in the project drawer is probably 1-5 seconds 
>> compared to 0.1-0.8 seconds switching to it using cmd-option left/right.
> 
> 
> Absolutely! Tabs rocks, and it is the way to go. No doubt!!
> 
>> My hot set is rarely >5 and my TextMate project contains >100 sources 
>> alone. And the drawer is certainly more work to use.
> 
> 
> I too close down unused files as soon as I've stopped working on them, 
> as it's relatively quick and easy to open them up again when needed. But 
> I guess we are dealing with personal habits & 'discipline' here.
> 
> 
> 
> Kind regards,
> 
> Mats
> 
> ______________________________________________________________________
> For new threads USE THIS: textmate at lists.macromates.com
> (threading gets destroyed and the universe will collapse if you don't)
> http://lists.macromates.com/mailman/listinfo/textmate