Feature requests: vertical split; opening different documents in a split window

[Michael Bradley, Jr.]

I've had a BBEdit license since 2000 -- always buy the paid upgrades too, as they're always worth it.

About 18 months ago, I became enamored with MacVim and used it on a daily basis.  Using it with the NERD Tree plugin makes MacVim a powerful, general purpose project editor.

BUT ... I always find myself going back to BBEdit for a growing number of "intense" tasks and a couple of days ago I finally decided that I'm just generally better off (that is, I'll tend toward greater overall efficiency) using BBEdit 99% of the time.

I'll miss some of the keybindings but there are really two features of vim that I'd love to see in BBEdit.

1.  Vertical split for document windows.  Vertically splitting a text document and having two views of it side-by-side just feels more natural than splitting horizontally.  In some of the complex programs I'm writing this comes up a lot, i.e. when I need to look back at helper functions while I'm composing another function that depends on them, and vice versa.  Given the geometry of most computer screens (width greater than height), such arrangements are also more space efficient.

2.  Allowing separate documents to be viewed within the split panes of a document window, i.e. when doing project work.  Yes, I know I can open a document in a separate window and then move it off to the side or "Arrange" windows (relevant to request #1 also), but that's a bit more clumsy.

To the BBEdit team:  thanks for such a great product that's only improved over the years.  I look forward 10 years from now to using BBEdit version 16.4.2 or something like that.  :-)

[G. T. Stresen-Reuter]

On Feb 27, 2011, at 9:22 AM, Michael Bradley, Jr. wrote:

> 1. Vertical split for document windows. Vertically splitting a text document and having two views of it side-by-side just feels more natural than splitting horizontally. In some of the complex programs I'm writing this comes up a lot, i.e. when I need to look back at helper functions while I'm composing another function that depends on them, and vice versa. Given the geometry of most computer screens (width greater than height), such arrangements are also more space efficient.

Precondition: the document you want to split is open and is the front document in the front window.

1. View -> Open in Additional Window
2. Scroll to where you want to be
3 Reposition windows as required

> 2. Allowing separate documents to be viewed within the split panes of a document window, i.e. when doing project work. Yes, I know I can open a document in a separate window and then move it off to the side or "Arrange" windows (relevant to request #1 also), but that's a bit more clumsy.

The process above can be easily modified to work for different documents. It's not exactly the same as vertical scrolling in the same window but it may get you through to the day vertical scrolling is implemented (assuming it is some day).

You might also find Window -> Synchro Scrolling to be interesting...

Ted Stresen-Reuter

[Terje Dahl]

Yes, vertical split would be very useful. I find myself doing alot of
the same - looking at one part of a document, while working in another
- or arranging documents side-by-side to to look at one thing while
working on another.

Also, for the same reason, I would love to see the existing horizontal
split extended to allow more than one split:
Often I find myself looking at two or more different sections of a
document, while working in a third (or fourth) section.
Now I have to both split and "Open in aditional window" to do this
somewhat efficiantly...


On Feb 27, 10:22 am, "Michael Bradley, Jr."

<michaelsbradle...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I've had a BBEdit license since 2000 -- always buy the paid upgrades too, as
> they're always worth it.
>
> About 18 months ago, I became enamored with MacVim and used it on a daily
> basis.  Using it with the NERD Tree plugin makes MacVim a powerful, general
> purpose project editor.
>
> BUT ... I always find myself going back to BBEdit for a growing number of
> "intense" tasks and a couple of days ago I finally decided that I'm just
> generally better off (that is, I'll tend toward greater overall efficiency)
> using BBEdit 99% of the time.
>
> I'll miss some of the keybindings but there are really two features of vim
> that I'd love to see in BBEdit.
>

> *1.*  Vertical split for document windows.  Vertically splitting a text

> document and having two views of it side-by-side just feels more natural
> than splitting horizontally.  In some of the complex programs I'm writing
> this comes up a lot, i.e. when I need to look back at helper functions while
> I'm composing another function that depends on them, and vice versa.  Given
> the geometry of most computer screens (width greater than height), such
> arrangements are also more space efficient.
>

> *2.*  Allowing separate documents to be viewed within the split panes of a

[Bruce Van Allen]

On 2011-02-27, Terje Dahl wrote:

>Yes, vertical split would be very useful.

I agree. Did either you or the OP send this request to Barebones support?

[See the bottom of every message on this list:
If you have a feature request or would like to report a
problem, please email "sup...@barebones.com" rather than
posting to the group.
]

Thanks.

- Bruce

_bruce__van_allen__santa_cruz_ca_

[LuKreme]

On 27-Feb-2011, at 02:22, Michael Bradley, Jr. wrote:
>
> *1.* Vertical split for document windows.

Seconded. I often want to have two documents side-by-side, and when editing long files (like postfix configs) I sometimes even want the same document in a side by side view. As you said, it's more space efficient (though for me, it would be far more useful if I could do a simple split with two documents).

Yes, I do this with two windows, but the extra size of the window makes it less than ideal.

--
This wasn't a proper land. The sky was blue, not flaming with all the
colours of the aurora. And time was passing. To a creature not born
subject to time, it was a sensation not unakin to falling. --Lords and
Ladies

[Terje Dahl]

I sendt an e-mail to Barebones some time back requesting multiple
horizontal splits ...
I trust they have made a note of it.

Would be great if they had an open feature-request system ...

On Feb 28, 4:47 pm, Bruce Van Allen <b...@cruzio.com> wrote:
> On 2011-02-27, Terje Dahl wrote:
>
> >Yes, vertical split would be very useful.
>
> I agree. Did either you or the OP send this request to Barebones support?
>
> [See the bottom of every message on this list:
>     If you have a feature request or would like to report a

> problem, please email "supp...@barebones.com" rather than

[Michael Bradley, Jr.]

Upon your suggestion, I emailed Bare Bones support with my feature request.

They responded quite quickly and noted that these features are on their list of future considerations.

[Bruce Van Allen]

Excellent. That's the way I've seen several great user ideas
incorporated in this application over the years.

Thanks.

- Bruce

_bruce__van_allen__santa_cruz_ca_

[LuKreme]

On 3-Mar-2011, at 15:23, Bruce Van Allen wrote:
>
> Excellent. That's the way I've seen several great user ideas incorporated in this application over the years.

All of my great ideas end up with "This feature has been in BBEdit for 14 years, here's the page number for the manual."

--
The difference between science fiction and fantasy in this world is not any of
the elaborate rules that you hear. The difference is simply this: Science
Fiction has rivets, Fantasy has trees. -Orson Scott Card

[Alex Satrapa]

On 04/03/2011, at 13:02 , LuKreme wrote:

> All of my great ideas end up with "This feature has been in BBEdit for 14 years, here's the page number for the manual."

It would be nice if most vendors could have such a quick response time to feature requests, hey? :)

To be honest, most of the features I use in BBEdit from day to day are the same ones I was using back in System 7 days. Typing, deleting, copy and paste. I've started using clippings with a vengeance lately, especially the lovely ones like "method" and "if" in the Perl Glossary. And yesterday I used the SFTP browser for the first time ever. No, seriously.

But that raises the question in my mind: why isn't TextWrangler available on the App Store?

Alex

[Alex Satrapa]

On 04/03/2011, at 14:06 , Alex Satrapa wrote:

> But that raises the question in my mind: why isn't TextWrangler available on the App Store?

Hrmph… apparently it is, just the Bare Bones web site doesn't have a link to the entry.

Alex

[Bruce Van Allen]

On 2011-03-03, LuKreme wrote:

>On 3-Mar-2011, at 15:23, Bruce Van Allen wrote:
>>Excellent. That's the way I've seen several great user ideas
>>incorporated in this application over the years.

>All of my great ideas end up with "This feature has been in
>BBEdit for 14 years, here's the page number for the manual."

Ah, true -- they're usually ahead of us.

But think of the distraught souls who proposed features that
have NOT been adopted, such as tabbed windows, variable-width
columns, and the option to make all ponies visible...

- Bruce

_bruce__van_allen__santa_cruz_ca_

[Bucky Junior]

I would wager that it hasn't been there hiding in the App Store for 14 years. Don't believe it if anyone tells you so. :)
Bucky

[toad...@mac.com]

On Mar 3, 2011, at 7:48 PM, Bruce Van Allen <b...@cruzio.com> wrote:

But think of the distraught souls who proposed features that have NOT been adopted, such as tabbed windows…

But BBEdit *does* have tabbed windows — the "tabs" are just arranged vertically in the Document drawer. In my opinion, this works much better than conventional tabs arranged across the top of a window (e.g. Safari's tabs) because you can have a lot more before you run out of space (about 40 are visible without scrolling on my MacBook Air's screen) and the Document drawer is more forgiving of long file names (just make the drawer wider).

And if the Document drawer takes up too much space for your tastes, the file popup in the navigation bar works nicely too, especially if you assign a keyboard shortcut to activate it.

-Dennis

[Matt Martini]

On Mar 1, 2011, at 1:51 PM, LuKreme wrote:

> On 27-Feb-2011, at 02:22, Michael Bradley, Jr. wrote:
>>
>> *1.* Vertical split for document windows.
>
> Seconded. I often want to have two documents side-by-side, and when editing long files (like postfix configs) I sometimes even want the same document in a side by side view. As you said, it's more space efficient (though for me, it would be far more useful if I could do a simple split with two documents).
>
> Yes, I do this with two windows, but the extra size of the window makes it less than ideal.

Add me to the list of those who would like to see vertical splits.

Matt

[Robert Huttinger]

and once you use keyboard shortcuts to navigate documents, tabs and the drawer are useless!

Bo

--
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 bbe...@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
bbedit+un...@googlegroups.com
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 "sup...@barebones.com" rather than posting to the group.
Follow @bbedit on Twitter: <http://www.twitter.com/bbedit>

[Bruce Van Allen]

On 2011-03-03, toad...@mac.com wrote:

>On Mar 3, 2011, at 7:48 PM, Bruce Van Allen <b...@cruzio.com> wrote:
>>But think of the distraught souls who proposed features that
>>have NOT been adopted, such as tabbed windows…

>But BBEdit *does* have tabbed windows — the "tabs" are just
>arranged vertically in the Document drawer. In my opinion, this

>works much better ...

Just to be clear, I am personally not distraught on that one --
I agree with you. BBEdit's combination of the file pop-up and
document & project drawers is superior to other approaches.
Didn't mean to revive the debate by mentioning it. :-)

- Bruce

_bruce__van_allen__santa_cruz_ca_

[Bruce Van Allen]

On 7/24/12 at 1:42 PM, e...@eeweb.com (kutenai) wrote:
>...
>I'll pass on BBEdit for now...

Fine with me :-), but in case anyone ELSE is interested:

1. BBEdit windows DO split vertically -- if what that means is
showing two different areas of the same file, one above the
other in the same window, both scrollable, editable, etc.

2. BBEdit allows having the same file open in multiple windows,
so "as it works now, I can open A file in A window" is not an
accurate statement.

3. I know I am not alone on this list as someone who has "many
files to edit", and might even use more than one monitor at a
time. Many of us get serious work done with BBEdit, day in, day
out. And not only serious work, but also learning and playing
(if your definition of play allows space for algorithms, data
structures, logic poems, etc.).

Hope these points are reassuring to anyone thinking about using
BBEdit. Too bad it didn't meet the grade for the OP...


>I use several editors, MacVim, IntelliJ, Sublime 2, and
>SubethaEdit.. most of them can do vertical splits (not SEE).
>
>With many files to edit, I always have multiple splits
>(vertical). I have 5 monitors, and prefer to split my app
>across 2 monitors and have 3-4 vertical splits . IntelliJ
>allows me to do this, as does Sublime 2, which is great. This
>allows me to have a set of files I'm working on, and refer to
>several other files in the process. I find this invaluable.
>
>The recent BBEdit announcement intrigued me, and it does appear
>to have some nice features. If an editor has some useful
>features, I'm interested in using it, but without the vertical
>split, I'd find the tool somewhat limiting..
>
>Oh.. and the multiple window view is not really suitable. It
>*would* be if I coud open multiple files in multiple windows,
>but as it works now, I can open A file in A window, if I wanted
>to have several other files open, I'd have to have several
>other windows.. that might work, but with other editors like
>Sublime and IntelliJ available, I'll pass on BBEdit for now..


- Bruce

_bruce__van_allen__santa_cruz_ca_

[Clark Goble]

On Jul 24, 2012, at 5:06 PM, Bruce Van Allen wrote:

1. BBEdit windows DO split vertically -- if what that means is showing two different areas of the same file, one above the other in the same window, both scrollable, editable, etc.

I have to admit this was the #1 feature that brought me back to BBEdit. I'm shocked at how many other editors don't support this.

2. BBEdit allows having the same file open in multiple windows, so "as it works now, I can open A file in A window" is not an accurate statement.

It's not hard to write a script to position the windows so it's a de facto split window.

[Watts Martin]

Bruce Van Allen wrote:
> 1. BBEdit windows DO split vertically -- if what that means is showing
> two different areas of the same file, one above the other in the same
> window, both scrollable, editable, etc.

I suspect what the original poster meant was a split running vertically,
i.e., the split divides the window into left and right halves, not top
and bottom halves, and you can show two separate files side-by-side
there or even have two completely distinct tab groups in each pane. You
can approximate this in BBEdit by simply having two windows, of course,
but it's not quite the same user experience.

(On the flip side, while Sublime Text *can* do that, it can't do the
equivalent of BBEdit's pane split as simply/easily as BBEdit does. There
are tradeoffs everywhere, I suppose.)