I would like to request showing currently open files in tabs as a UI feature.
This is follow up on a short discussion I had with the person behind @BBEdit on Twitter. ~~ @bbedit: File list instead of tabs is a conscious choice -- have you ever opened 100 documents at once, and tried to deal with tabs? @ahmadh: that's a theoretical concern because tabs have been successfully implemented in every text editor other than BBEdit and Notepad.exe. @bbedit: Not theoretical. No editor can "successfully" display dozens of open documents in tabs. Good topic for http://groups.google.com/group/bbedit/ though. ~~ There might be a significant number of people who's workflow does not involve having dozens of files simultaneously open in the same window. My personal workflow involves opening and juggling a handful of tabs for the current task I'm working on and relying on the project/filesystem list on the right to access the rest of my documents. My case for tabs is: * Tabs have become a standard UI element for managing multiple open documents. We're already trained to understand them and use them all the time, thanks to modern browsers. * Tabs provide a quick visual reminder of which part of the project you're working on right now after you step away from the window for a minute to answer a phone call or for a few hours to respond to that tweet. The list of currently opened files on the sidebar is difficult to spot quickly because it is visually indistinguishable from the project file list. * Tabs' less compact design lends itself to easier visual identification of the currently active tab and easier mouse selection of a particular tab. I realize that the current solution is technically superior. But there must be a reason why this feature is standard in every modern text editor in the market. For an editor that is trying to be the grand daddy of all text editors with tons of preferences, such a ubiquitous feature is glaringly missing. A clever solution might be displaying open documents as tabs, space allowing, then automatically reverting to the drop down menu when someone opens "100 documents" or "dozens of documents" at once. Thoughts? -- -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the "BBEdit Talk" discussion group on Google Groups. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at <http://groups.google.com/group/bbedit?hl=en> If you have a feature request or would like to report a problem, please email "[email protected]" rather than posting to the group. Follow @bbedit on Twitter: <http://www.twitter.com/bbedit>
