Re: Tabs

[Zach LeBar]

Hmmm. All of that was very interesting. Never really gave that much thought to whether or not a more useful metaphor than tabs could be used in Kod. 

Currently Espresso is my main editor, so I'm quite familiar with their approach to this. I'm not a fan of the fact that if I have one window open I have tab capabilities but if I open a "project" I'm given a completely new paradigm: this vertical list. Like was said in the chat transcript, it flies in the face of minimalism, which is what Kod is all about. 

To be honest though, I think all of this is a bit of a straw man argument. If you have too many tabs open, then close some tabs. You're probably working on a project and have the sidebar open with it's directory, so closing and reopening a file is trivial. 

Kod is supposed to be an efficient, elegant, and minimalist text editor. Like was said in the chat, this approach emphasizes that philosophy to the user. 

- Zach LeBar

On Dec 28, 2010, at 11:25 PM, aristidesfl <arist...@gmail.com> wrote:

3:58:55 AM aristidesfl: rsms: I've been thinking about tabs lately

3:59:13 AM aristidesfl: I think you did an awsome job with the chrome tabs

3:59:52 AM aristidesfl: and I think they are the most beutiful and functional tabs I ve seen so far

3:59:54 AM aristidesfl: but

4:00:12 AM aristidesfl: I'm wondering if they are the best solution

4:00:15 AM aristidesfl: I mean

4:00:36 AM aristidesfl: They are pretty intuitive and they are pretty much the standard

4:00:55 AM aristidesfl: and they work pretty well 

4:01:08 AM aristidesfl: (with a few files)

4:01:25 AM aristidesfl: but when we pass the 7 barrier

4:01:45 AM aristidesfl: they start to show their limitation

4:01:51 AM codykrieger: I rather like them, they're wonderful. Already loads better than TM's tabs...we just need a way to have them scroll.

jedivulcan_ [~jedivulca@wikia/majorthomme] entered the room. (4:01:56 AM)

4:02:58 AM codykrieger: Instead of the BS way TextMate does it with the little arrows, and no way to see what actual tabs you have open. Tab scrolling would be awesome.

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4:03:27 AM aristidesfl: codykrieger: 

4:03:45 AM aristidesfl: look at the user list of this chat room

4:04:05 AM aristidesfl: imagine that it what displayed horizontally  

4:04:28 AM aristidesfl: it would take much more time to scan

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jedivulcan_ is now known as jedivulcan (4:04:42 AM)

4:04:53 AM codykrieger: True, but I don't honestly think that you can ever be truly working with that many files at once. Not efficiently.

4:04:58 AM aristidesfl: because they are spread in a bigger area

4:05:31 AM aristidesfl: codykrieger: not with tabs

4:05:45 AM aristidesfl: codykrieger: not with tabs, you don't

4:05:58 AM codykrieger: I've definitely had that many things open before, but I've never actually worked on that many things simultaneously.

4:06:13 AM puls: has the way textmate or safari does it ever become a serious limitation? I say no

4:06:42 AM codykrieger: Right, I think that it forces you to be more reasonable, actually.

4:07:10 AM aristidesfl: the second reason the vertical disposition works better is because you can scan the initials of the names more easily  

4:07:39 AM aristidesfl: right now

4:07:58 AM aristidesfl: you have to close and open and close and open and close and open

4:08:02 AM aristidesfl: often the same file

4:08:10 AM aristidesfl: because you don't have space

4:08:20 AM aristidesfl: and because it because unmanagable

4:08:23 AM aristidesfl: it's a limitation

4:08:25 AM aristidesfl: not a feature

4:08:27 AM aristidesfl: and

4:08:46 AM aristidesfl: it there are kinds of applications/projects where a few files are ok

4:08:58 AM aristidesfl: others are just to big and complex

4:09:31 AM codykrieger: Limitation can be one of the best parts of a piece of software with a vested interest in minimalism.

4:09:45 AM codykrieger: Limitation within reason, at least.

4:09:47 AM aristidesfl: can

4:09:53 AM aristidesfl: can be

4:10:29 AM aristidesfl: but that is a choice that you want to make yourself

4:10:50 AM aristidesfl: not because is to hard to handle many files

4:11:06 AM aristidesfl: Tabs have limitations

4:11:16 AM aristidesfl: firefox guys are the firt to admit it

4:11:27 AM aristidesfl: and they are currently searching for solutions

4:12:02 AM aristidesfl: I think we should at least give it a thought

4:12:14 AM codykrieger: Giving users less ways to shoot themselves in the feet is a good thing, though. I'd argue that since you can only have so many tabs open at once, without going to multiple windows, it forces you to work on less things at once. Multitasking is a killer of productivity in a lot of cases.

jgjay left the room (quit: Ping timeout: 276 seconds). (4:12:34 AM)

4:12:50 AM codykrieger: Yeah I'm not opposed to checking it out, but tabs seem like a great solution in this case.

4:13:01 AM aristidesfl: multitasking is having to think about managing tabs and coding at the same time

4:13:26 AM aristidesfl: that is multitaskin

4:14:10 AM codykrieger: Maybe. But what would happen to the sidebar? Would it become a dual-functionality kind of thing? Project navigator and open file navigator?

4:14:11 AM aristidesfl: the oposite would be don't care about closing the funcking tabs because you can actually manage them efficiently

4:14:31 AM aristidesfl: that is espresso aproach

4:14:37 AM codykrieger: Espresso has an interesting way of handling it.

4:14:41 AM codykrieger: Exactly, yeah.

4:14:59 AM aristidesfl: I found it weard at begging 

4:15:08 AM aristidesfl: but now find it interesting actually

4:15:26 AM codykrieger: But then how do you navigate those files with the keyboard? cmd+[ and cmd+] aren't as intuitive, because you're not navigating left and right anymore.

4:15:40 AM codykrieger: Or shift+cmd+[ rather.

4:15:47 AM aristidesfl: even more if I could have the files organized by last use, like application swithcer in MacOS

4:17:21 AM aristidesfl: well, we could navigate by typing the name

4:17:31 AM aristidesfl: on the locationbar

4:17:41 AM aristidesfl: or by up and down arrows

4:17:45 AM aristidesfl: or any other shortcut

4:17:47 AM codykrieger: Why not just eliminate open file navigation completely at that point then?

4:17:56 AM codykrieger: And just use an open-quickly model?

4:18:10 AM aristidesfl: that is interesting also

4:18:27 AM aristidesfl: http://www.cs.brown.edu/people/acb/codebubbles_site.htm

4:18:29 AM codykrieger: That's more Vim-like in that it's closer to a modal interface.

4:18:32 AM aristidesfl: did you see this?

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4:19:37 AM codykrieger: That is weeeeeeeiiiiirrrddd...

4:20:03 AM codykrieger: Interesting concept. That would really take some getting used to.

4:20:45 AM codykrieger: Considering Kod is supposed to be a text editor, I don't think we can get quite that crazy, but interesting nonetheless.

dyer_ [~dyer@unaffiliated/voxeojohn] entered the room. (4:21:24 AM)

4:21:53 AM alisdair: tabs are pretty silly really

4:22:05 AM alisdair: just load all the files in the project into memory

4:22:14 AM alisdair: and you can switch between them instantly anyways

4:22:54 AM codykrieger: That could be a potentially crippling thing, though. Where do you draw the line with which files to load into memory? Maybe I've got a 90mb log file in the project...don't want that loaded.

4:23:17 AM aristidesfl: yeah that's probably not the best idea ever

4:23:25 AM codykrieger: You could have some kind of filter, I suppose, like "don't load .log files into memory"

4:23:30 AM alisdair: 90mb is tiny though

4:23:32 AM alisdair: on modern systems

4:23:56 AM alisdair: i can have a video project open that's 1.5 gb

4:23:59 AM alisdair: with no problem

4:24:10 AM alisdair: i can't have a couple hundred mbs of text?

4:24:39 AM codykrieger: Yeah, but I think the second Kod starts taking up large amounts of memory upon starting up, it becomes more like a typical IDE in terms of memory usage.

4:25:22 AM aristidesfl: alisdair: but is not only about loading the text

4:25:29 AM aristidesfl: its about parsing

4:25:55 AM alisdair: well

4:25:57 AM aristidesfl: I'm sure your video software doesn't open in a couple of seconds

4:25:59 AM alisdair: you wouldn't preload everything

4:26:03 AM codykrieger: It wouldn't necessarily have to be parsed after being loaded into memory. That would be hugely inefficient on the part of the parser, which should really only parse visible text at once.

4:26:04 AM alisdair: you'd load lazily, on demand

4:26:07 AM alisdair: and parse on demand

4:26:27 AM alisdair: but tabs are just a poor way of organizing trees of data, like projects

4:26:31 AM aristidesfl: but then no advantage in loading into memory

4:26:48 AM aristidesfl: is just tiny text is loads fast anyway

4:26:54 AM aristidesfl: what takes time is parsing

4:27:04 AM aristidesfl: the real purpose of tabs is to provide quick access list of current working files

4:27:19 AM aristidesfl: right now

4:27:41 AM alisdair: right, what i really mean is that when you switch documents, don't discard the current doc, just load the new one

4:27:45 AM aristidesfl: and for that purpose I think espresso approach works better

4:28:01 AM alisdair: every file in the project should be considered a current working file

4:28:34 AM alisdair: if your source hierarchy is insufficient to provide quick access to files, then there's better ways to improve access than tabs

4:28:49 AM aristidesfl: alisdair: sure but a file that you used recently has higher probability of being needed again in the near future

4:29:08 AM alisdair: right, that's why you don't discard it, just keep it referenced but inactive

4:29:34 AM aristidesfl: sure but that implementation details

4:29:40 AM alisdair: the only reason we put up with tabs for quick access to documents is because firefox does it

4:29:48 AM alisdair: and no one has really thought about better ways to do it

4:29:50 AM aristidesfl: I was refering in the user point of view

4:29:59 AM aristidesfl: yes

4:30:02 AM alisdair: i am too, i think tabs are awful

4:30:13 AM alisdair: from a ui perspective

4:30:28 AM aristidesfl: and because tabs are a good real world metaphor

4:30:46 AM aristidesfl: they are not always aweful

4:31:11 AM alisdair: why don't we use a tabbed interface on the desktop then?

4:31:13 AM aristidesfl: but they become when the number of tabs exceeds a certain value

4:31:18 AM alisdair: why a window paradigm?

4:32:44 AM aristidesfl: http://☁.ws/崧

4:32:48 AM aristidesfl: look at this

4:33:22 AM aristidesfl: what I wouldn't give for vertical tabs 

4:33:40 AM codykrieger: Vertical tabs, or an Espresso-like implementation?

4:34:03 AM aristidesfl: I like espresso implementation

4:34:34 AM aristidesfl: cause it just takes a little bit of space from the tree

4:34:59 AM codykrieger: As soon as you have that many things open, though, the whole tree is either gone, or you have to scroll a lot.

4:35:07 AM codykrieger: Both implementations have issues with having large amounts of files open.

4:35:14 AM aristidesfl: sure

4:35:37 AM aristidesfl: but espresso handles more

4:36:01 AM codykrieger: Depends on your window dimensions 

4:38:13 AM aristidesfl: What if

4:38:18 AM aristidesfl: single files

4:38:29 AM aristidesfl: files open in tabs

4:38:40 AM aristidesfl: folders open in tabs

4:39:11 AM aristidesfl: if you open files from the tree

4:39:11 AM alisdair: what about instead of persistent tabs, you just keep the last n documents viewed in some sort of queue you can move around in?

4:39:27 AM aristidesfl: yeah

4:39:42 AM aristidesfl: we coud stiil keep tabs

4:39:58 AM codykrieger: Or maybe ditch tabs...Exposé approach.

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4:40:36 AM codykrieger: Hit a key combo, bam, you're zoomed out and see a bunch of files you've opened with little previews and whatnot.

4:40:49 AM alisdair: yeah

4:40:55 AM alisdair: i think expose is much better than tabs

4:41:05 AM aristidesfl: well..

4:41:07 AM codykrieger: Move around w/ keyboard or mouse, pick your file, you're zoomed back in and focused on one file at a time, completely modal.

4:41:14 AM aristidesfl: I personally don't like expose

4:41:42 AM aristidesfl: I think it is slower than the application list

4:41:47 AM aristidesfl: or window list

4:41:51 AM aristidesfl: or typing

4:41:56 AM codykrieger: As cool as I think that idea is, it might be a little too different for the majority of people who are going to be using Kod.

4:42:14 AM aristidesfl: and there is another problem

4:42:35 AM aristidesfl: the reason expose works on mac is widows are different

4:42:43 AM aristidesfl: code windows are code windows

4:42:59 AM aristidesfl: onde they are miniaturized its hard to distinguish them

4:43:26 AM aristidesfl: what if

4:43:46 AM aristidesfl: each folder (project) has his own tab, and the files that belong to that project open in the same tab in the side bar a la espresso

4:44:16 AM aristidesfl: and if you open a single file that doesn't belong to the folder/project it opens in a different tab

4:44:33 AM codykrieger: I think that just adds unnecessarily vertical bloat to the window. I'd just open a separate Kod window for a separate project.

4:44:53 AM codykrieger: unnecessary*

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4:45:07 AM aristidesfl: by vertical bloat wou mean?

4:45:35 AM codykrieger: The extra amount of vertical space taken up by the tab bar - 90% of people are only going to be working on a single project at a time, most likely.

4:45:38 AM sivel: if kod starts focusing that much on "projects" it will end up being just another code editor that no one wants to use.  I think what is going to make this special is if it maintains itself as a simple minimalistic code editor

4:45:52 AM codykrieger: Right, that's what I think as well.

4:46:08 AM aristidesfl: ok forget the projects

4:46:16 AM aristidesfl: replace that with folders

4:46:27 AM aristidesfl: codykrieger: the tabs are optional

4:47:00 AM aristidesfl: if there is only one tab it could diappear

4:47:06 AM aristidesfl: and be only the window

4:47:48 AM aristidesfl: the advantage I see in having tabs instead of windows is that navigating between windows of the same aplication is not that fast

4:48:00 AM aristidesfl: not that organized

4:48:18 AM aristidesfl: that is why most people like tabs browsers

4:48:36 AM codykrieger: Right, but again, the focus is on the text editor, not necessarily Kod's ability to handle folders and projects.

4:49:48 AM codykrieger: It just first and foremost be a great text editor. Able to be used for a single file very easily, and also just as easy to open a folder with it and work on multiple files. But much past that I think is outside the scope of what Kod is.

4:51:05 AM aristidesfl: sure

4:52:27 AM aristidesfl: but you have already lots of fast text editors

4:52:34 AM aristidesfl: use text edit

4:52:37 AM aristidesfl: its fast

4:52:47 AM codykrieger: But it's not a programmers' text editor.

4:52:52 AM aristidesfl: use textmate

4:53:02 AM aristidesfl: use vim

4:53:09 AM aristidesfl: emacs?

puls [~pu...@c-69-181-30-70.hsd1.ca.comcast.net] entered the room. (4:53:50 AM)

4:53:54 AM aristidesfl: what I mean is 

4:54:12 AM aristidesfl: everyone has their ones hopes about code 

4:54:28 AM aristidesfl: and they want to see they feature fulfilled

4:54:40 AM aristidesfl: if they don't bring compromise 

4:54:55 AM aristidesfl: I don't see any reason not to make them happen

4:55:32 AM codykrieger: It just seems too IDE-ish when that's not Kod's primary focus.

4:57:25 AM aristidesfl: come one

4:57:47 AM aristidesfl: it becomes an IDE because it can handle mode that one folder?

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4:58:06 AM aristidesfl: http://☁.ws/䘶 

puls [~pu...@184-194-202-37.pools.spcsdns.net] entered the room. (4:58:10 AM)

4:58:18 AM aristidesfl: 11 files

4:58:29 AM aristidesfl: vertical vs horizontal roganization

4:59:15 AM aristidesfl: tabs look better

4:59:21 AM aristidesfl: but try to find something there

4:59:42 AM codykrieger: Sure, but that doesn't handle the multiple folders thing

5:00:04 AM aristidesfl: it doesn't

5:00:29 AM aristidesfl: 2 different battles

5:00:49 AM aristidesfl: the 2nd battle is

5:01:03 AM aristidesfl: tabs really work well when there are not too many

5:01:17 AM codykrieger: Right, because like I said before, I'm not opposed to vertical navigation. But I do like the tabs.

5:01:26 AM aristidesfl: and so maybe it makes sense to use them to something else

5:02:01 AM aristidesfl: you could still deatach them

5:02:37 AM codykrieger: I think if we ditch tabs for files, we ditch tabs entirely. No point in keeping them just to add multiple projects functionality. That's the whole point of window separation.

5:03:44 AM aristidesfl: I think the main point of window separation if so be able to put them in different monitors or compare files side by side

5:04:10 AM aristidesfl: you could still use tabs

5:04:15 AM aristidesfl: when you open files manually

5:05:16 AM aristidesfl: vertical tabs would be working only when working on a folder and the sidebar is therefore active

5:06:10 AM aristidesfl: fuck

5:06:12 AM codykrieger: Then we've got two completely separate and distinct ways of managing files with Kod, which flies in the face of minimalism.

5:06:14 AM aristidesfl: 5 in the morning

5:06:21 AM codykrieger: lol it's only 11pm here

5:06:45 AM aristidesfl: that is true

5:06:52 AM aristidesfl: not very minimalistic..

5:07:10 AM aristidesfl: but then… remove

5:07:14 AM aristidesfl: the tree

5:07:22 AM aristidesfl: start removing things

5:07:32 AM aristidesfl: and it gets more minimalistic

5:08:03 AM aristidesfl: but I see what you mean

5:08:18 AM codykrieger: Yeah I mean that's really my biggest concern with an approach like that.

5:08:45 AM aristidesfl: the way I see tabs

5:08:54 AM aristidesfl: is just a whay of grouping windows

5:09:06 AM aristidesfl: you have different windows

5:09:24 AM aristidesfl: and you can actually put them on top of each other

5:09:26 AM aristidesfl: like tabs

5:09:44 AM aristidesfl: that is what a tab shoud be 

5:09:47 AM aristidesfl: a window

5:09:50 AM aristidesfl: not a file

5:10:01 AM aristidesfl: files belong to the sidebar

5:10:38 AM aristidesfl: but that is just one aproach

5:10:52 AM aristidesfl: that I think has potencial

5:11:14 AM codykrieger: The issue then becomes, what happens when you hit cmd+t? Where does the sidebar open to by default?

damon__jones left the room. (5:11:50 AM)

5:11:56 AM codykrieger: All of a sudden cmd+t has a lot more meaning behind it, which could be totally unexpected by the user.

5:12:14 AM aristidesfl: well

5:12:19 AM aristidesfl: that is a ™ thing

5:12:23 AM aristidesfl: textmate

5:12:30 AM codykrieger: cmd+t no longer means just opening up a fresh blank file, it means opening an entirely new "project"

5:12:33 AM aristidesfl: in tabs world

5:12:41 AM aristidesfl: cmd tab means: new tab

5:12:54 AM aristidesfl: forget projects

5:13:07 AM aristidesfl: in a new tab you can open whatever you want

5:13:21 AM aristidesfl: file, folder, webpage,

5:13:36 AM aristidesfl: there are no projects

5:14:00 AM codykrieger: I'm using folder and project interchangeably - same difference to me.

5:14:37 AM aristidesfl: sure I'm just worried about the connotations the word projects brings attached

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[Bryan Swift]

Personally I really like the option IntelliJ has of "keep at most this many tabs open". So if I open more than (in my case) 7 files it will close the one that was active longest ago. This has not been a problem for me because I'm rarely working or looking at more than 3 files at once and because it is so easy to open a file I need.

Of course I think a language aware feature for opening files like the cloud bubbles of opening a file but method or IntelliJ's open file by class name is incredibly useful when tabs are automatically closed because it makes it so easy to get a file open. The same is true of TextMate's Cmd+T file opening.

[Ryan Spaulding]

It sounds like Espresso is a lot like screen. I currently use a
combination of screen and vim to do my editing of remote and local
files. I label each one of my vim windows this allows me to switch to
any vim session with a few key strokes (you can just start your label
and screen does the right thing). When you are working on code you
focus on what is in front of you. If you need to open or switch to
another file then that file should be moved to your focus. I love tabs
but are they really useful ? I mean look my Chrome window has like 15
tabs open right now and I can't read the tab name. I usually put them
in an order so I can remember which one to switch too.

> > On Dec 28, 2010, at 11:25 PM, aristidesfl <aristide...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >  3:58:55 AM aristidesfl: rsms: I've been thinking about tabs lately
>
> > 3:59:13 AM aristidesfl: I think you did an awsome job with the chrome tabs
>
> > 3:59:52 AM aristidesfl: and I think they are the most beutiful and
> > functional tabs I ve seen so far
>
> > 3:59:54 AM aristidesfl: but
>
> > 4:00:12 AM aristidesfl: I'm wondering if they are the best solution
>
> > 4:00:15 AM aristidesfl: I mean
>
> > 4:00:36 AM aristidesfl: They are pretty intuitive and they are pretty much
> > the standard
>
> > 4:00:55 AM aristidesfl: and they work pretty well
>
> > 4:01:08 AM aristidesfl: (with a few files)
>
> > 4:01:25 AM aristidesfl: but when we pass the 7 barrier
>
> > 4:01:45 AM aristidesfl: they start to show their limitation
>
> > 4:01:51 AM codykrieger: I rather like them, they're wonderful. Already
> > loads better than TM's tabs...we just need a way to have them scroll.
>

> > jedivulcan_ [*~jedivulca@wikia/majorthomme*] entered the room. (4:01:56

> > dyer_ [*~dyer@unaffiliated/voxeojohn*] entered the room. (4:21:24 AM)

> ...
>
> read more »

[Jakub Suder]

Please, don't make tabs vertical, it's fine as it is now. If you take
the sidebar for tabs, you leave less space for project tree. And we
need both - something to see the list of all files in the project, and
something to switch between the files that you're working on right
now. If you have too many files open, well, that's what Cmd+W is for,
right? Unless you're working on a huge project-wide refactoring, you
usually don't work with 20-30 files at the same time, only on a few.
Once you finish that part of work, you make a commit, clean up your
tabs and start again.

And expose, are you kidding me?... Each time you want to switch
between files, you'd have to press a shortcut, look at miniatures of
files (which look the same from distance), move the cursor to one of
them and click it - how is that faster than pressing
Cmd+Alt+left/right? And if someone doesn't have two big screens, they
often need to switch back and forth between 2 or 3 tabs all the time
if they're working on 2 or 3 related files (like code and test)...
this is a very basic action and it needs to be fast and simple.

Also, I don't like the idea of opening separate projects in tabs and
then separate files of these projects in other tabs within those
tabs... that's probably too complicated. And loading every file from a
project into memory at startup is also obviously a bad idea - and even
if it wasn't, the purpose of tabs is not to limit the amount of data
that the editor has to load, it's to let you switch between a few
currently open files as quickly as possible.

And "you have already lots of fast text editors, use textmate" is a
bad argument - I think most people here would agree that what we're
looking for is something very similar to TextMate, just better. It's
not another Netbeans that we want, it's another TextMate.

(Sorry if I sound harsh, it's probably because I got woken up earlier
than I planned...)

JS

[Cody Krieger]

Agreed, I'm all for keeping tabs and the sidebar as is, like I said in the transcript. If you've got too many tabs open, close a few. No practical need to have that many open in the first place.

Many of us are indeed looking for something similar to TextMate but better - I don't necessarily think making two separate paradigms of how files and tabs and the sidebar work is a thing that needs being done to become better than TextMate. Just by not being vaporware, Kod is already better. It will continue to get better by continuing to enforce the minimalism and simplicity rules that I believe Rasmus has had in mind from the start, as we implement more features in the core and whatnot.

And the Exposé thing was just thrown out there to be thrown out there, no need to get all worked up about it. ;) I wasn't being that serious.

Cody

[Agos]

Replying here because I can't understand the discussion tree with the new google groups interface.

Have you heard of peepopen? While not related to gui, it relates to file opening: http://peepcode.com/products/peepopen

[Stephan Müller]

Two more ideas:

* a stack of recently uses files (of a project), like cmd-tab does for
apps.
it allows fast (and blind) switching between the currently used 3-4
files.

* use temporary tabs
I sometimes have to browse through several files, looking for a
certain
piece of information. In current editors, this leads to enormous
tab-overload. An option to auto-close a tab would be great.

Ane possible implementation: arrange the tabs by last recently used. A
keyboard shortcut allows you to "browse" thru. Single clicks (or
selection
with arrow keys) in the project tree will open the tab (all left)
temporally,
a double click (or enter) permanently.

This could be combined with the "at most X tabs" approach; just remove
the
ones on the right side.

[Gordon Fontenot]

I use PeepOpen for XCode and Textmate. It's fantastic (Although the XCode implementation is super hacky)

[Andy Lee]

On Dec 29, 2010, at 6:02 AM, Stephan Müller wrote:
> Two more ideas:
>
> * a stack of recently uses files (of a project), like cmd-tab does for
> apps.
> it allows fast (and blind) switching between the currently used 3-4
> files.

I like how in Xcode, by default, cmd-opt-Left and cmd-opt-Right used to go backward and forward in the history of opened files. They changed these defaults in a recent version so those keystrokes go backward and forward in the history of your editing position, which is more fine grained because you might jump around within a file any number of ways. I prefer the old way, so my Xcode has:

* cmd-opt-Left/Right = go to previous/next file in history (at the position where you were editing)
* cmd-opt-shift-Left/Right = go to next editing position in history

Note that the same file may occur multiple times in your history.

Between these keystrokes, the popup menu of open files, global search, and Open Quickly, I don't mind the absence of tabs in Xcode.

> * use temporary tabs
> I sometimes have to browse through several files, looking for a
> certain
> piece of information. In current editors, this leads to enormous
> tab-overload. An option to auto-close a tab would be great.
>
> Ane possible implementation: arrange the tabs by last recently used. A
> keyboard shortcut allows you to "browse" thru. Single clicks (or
> selection
> with arrow keys) in the project tree will open the tab (all left)
> temporally,
> a double click (or enter) permanently.
>
> This could be combined with the "at most X tabs" approach; just remove
> the
> ones on the right side.

Because Xcode doesn't use tabs, I never worry about tab overload, though I sometimes force-close files with cmd-shift-W to prune the files popup. Xcode has an "at most X files" option in the file popup menu, but I have it set to unlimited and it's never been a problem.

These are just suggestions. I think I would be pretty happy with a text editor that did things this way.

--Andy

[Cody Krieger]

PeepOpen and TextMate's "open quickly" thing are definitely things we should look at when developing ways to open files in a jiffy. cmd+t in TM is probably my most used shortcut because it's so useful (obviously the shortcut will need to be something different now that cmd+t means new tab in Kod).

On Wed, Dec 29, 2010 at 5:27 AM, Agos <ara...@gmail.com> wrote:

Replying here because I can't understand the discussion tree with the new google groups interface.

Have you heard of peepopen? While not related to gui, it relates to file opening: http://peepcode.com/products/peepopen

--

[Gordon Fontenot]

Or should the new-tab command be changed? I see myself using "Open Quickly" much more often than opening a new tab.

[Pascal]

Dr. Pascal LECLERC
Anesthésiste-Réanimateur
C.H.P. Claude Galien
20, route de Boussy
91480 Quincy sous Sénart
01 69 39 91 16
06 12 63 83 38
pak...@me.com

[Steve Conover]

On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 9:26 PM, Bryan Swift <bryan....@gmail.com> wrote:
> Personally I really like the option IntelliJ has of "keep at most this many
> tabs open". So if I open more than (in my case) 7 files it will close the
> one that was active longest ago. This has not been a problem for me because
> I'm rarely working or looking at more than 3 files at once and because it is
> so easy to open a file I need.

+1 Simple. Keep the tried and true tab metaphor. Make the files that
"fall off" available via something like TM Cmd+T or Intellij Ctl+E.

[Steve Conover]

And please give me something like Ctl+Cmd+W or Cmd+Option+W to close
all tabs except the current one, and Cmd+Shift+W to close all tabs.

[Jakub Suder]

I think "open new blank tab" doesn't make much sense here - it's
essential in a browser, where you open a new tab when you want to go
to a new site, but not in the context of a programmer's editor that
has a folder of files open and only opens files from that list in new
tabs. I'd change Cmd+T to work like in TextMate, and move "open new
blank tab" action to a different shortcut, if not remove it
altogether.

JS

[David Keegan]

I built from source and the sidebar is working now. The sidebar plus the tabs works great. All my project files in the sidebar and just the files I'm editing in the tabs.

One thing I ran into was if I closed the last tab I lost my sidebar session. It would be nice to add a warning about closing the last tab.

-Dave

[David Keegan]

I think new blank tab is useful for starting a new document or as a scratch board.

-Dave

[Gordon Fontenot]

I think that the new-tab feature is useful too, I just don't think it's as useful as often as the "open quickly" command.

[Walter Lee Davis]

I think that if you're in the context of a project, New (as in Apple -
N) should open a new file dialog which should include the path rooted
at the project root level and should create a new empty tab. This maps
to Control-click in the sidebar to create a new file at a specific
directory level within the project by direct manipulation.

Walter

On Dec 29, 2010, at 2:28 PM, Gordon Fontenot wrote:

> I think that the new-tab feature is useful too, I just don't think
> it's as useful as often as the "open quickly" command.
>

[Jim Puls]

Command-Shift-N, right? TextMate already does this.

-> jp

[Steve Conover]

What is it about Kod that pulls in so many people who don't read the
instructions, printed at the bottom of each and every email, for
removing themselves from the group?

On Wed, Dec 29, 2010 at 10:12 AM, Pascal <pak...@me.com> wrote:
>
> Dr. Pascal LECLERC
> Anesthésiste-Réanimateur
> C.H.P. Claude Galien
> 20, route de Boussy
> 91480 Quincy sous Sénart
> 01 69 39 91 16
> 06 12 63 83 38
> pak...@me.com
>

[Rhys Powell]

Here's another idea, hitting ⌘T opens a new tab with the cursor in the
omnibox at the top. If you have a folder open in the sidebar, it's
location will already be in the omnibox, if you've just got an
arbitrary file open then your home directory is used. You can simply
tab into the main field and start typing if you want to use the file
as a scratchpad or save it later. Alternately you can type a file path
into the omnibox, with terminal style tab-completion of course. If the
file exists, it will open on the new tab, if it doesn't the file will
be created and opened for editing in the current tab.

Also for creating new files perhaps a more explicit input should be
supplied, just hitting return could cause new files to be created when
the user makes a spelling error so perhaps use ⌘↩ instead?

---------------------
Rhys Powell AKA _frog
http://frogbot.co.cc/

[aristidesfl]

First of all sorry for posting the IRC log whiteout being properly formated and then stupidly deleting the post like it was not already sent to most of you.

Here are a few more words:

NOTE: If you never had the need to work with more than 3 files at once, this is not for you.

NOTE: This is absolutely not about Espresso, but it might be handy to download it order to understand what I'm talking about when I talk about it down there.

1. Why Tabs work.

Instead of tabs, we could have little buttons in the exact same place doing exactly the same thing. But we don't, because tabs make the user feel confortable. They are a good real world metaphor that translate a system that we are already used to, and that makes tabs feel so familiar that creates positive affection.

They just feels good

2. Acknowledging the limitation of tabs.

There are many examples of failed attempts in creating interfaces based on real world. One of them is BOB: http://☁.ws/microsoftbob

Tabs are a great example of a real world paradigm that doesn't fall in that category and works pretty well when translated into computers. 

Nevertheless, it has something in common with all of them. If fails at allowing the user to take full potential of the computer. It puts into the computer the same restrictions they have in the real world. You can't have more that a few of them without starting to be extremely inefficient to find anything.

So, maybe they are a good solution for normal things and normal users. But maybe not the best for someone who deals with big amount of files.

I know you might be thinking, "but only need a few files at a time..". Well that might be 1. because of the kind of projects you deal with, or/and 2. because you have no other option. you have to close files otherwise you get lost in the middle of them.

That is the reason most of experienced users, eventually realize that icon view in finder has limitations and start using some sort of list view most of the time. This is probably not a bad comparison to explain why Espresso approach is in my opinion a better solution for a programmers text editor.

Because it has less limitations that tabs. Sure, it doesn't feel so good, but finding something in a list of 15 items is faster that finding the same thing in a group 10 tabs. And the 15 list items seem like 10, while the 10 tabs feel like 20. Maybe I'm exaggerating (or maybe not) but you get the point. 

When dealing with more than a handfull of items, lists work better then icons(or tabs for that sake)

3. Tab management

Some other of you might say "tabs limitation is a good thing because it makes you KISS and prevents you from multitasking". That is simply not true. Less tabs simply means one of two things:  1. you work on less files, and write everything on the same files instead of separating things across files and end up with huge size unreadable files, or 2. you have to do tab management.

Tab management means having to think twice before opening a file and then having to close the tab once you realize that there is nothing interesting there. It means having to stop working when you can't find some tab because it is too bloated (with just a few tabs), figure out witch tabs you don't need anymore, and close them so that you can get back to those 3 or 4 manageable tabs. That is what I call limited (and btw that is what multitasking really means).

4. Tabs are the best invention ever! Why would someone want to take them from us? 

Tabs were the best invention ever. They are great for the reasons mentioned before, but browsers are the first to admit they have limitation and the first to start looking for alternatives.. chrome vertical tabs, tabs expose, firefox tabs groups.. etc. It's time to move on!

Kod is going to be the new kid in the block and there is no better opportunity to break the rules. No need to get attached to old paradigms just because textmate uses tabs. Textmate is not all good and we all know that, is has many flaws, otherwise we would not be here.

Don't get too attached to old things that might be slowing you down, even if you don't realize it now. Let it go.. (see Toy Story 3).

I remember when I saw the first cell phone. What a extravaganza.. and nice little that we don't really need.. Now we can't live without them.

And it happens the same with all new things and ideas. It's hard to see their potencial until we really start to use them. And it's really easy to reject them because just the idea of changing hurts.

Don't let that prevent you to evolve to something more powerful.

5. Do we have to get rid of tabs?

Maybe not. Maybe tabs have been being used all wrong until now. Maybe tabs should represent windows instead of files.

Sure that is not what happens in textmate, but hey, you can't create a window in textmate by dragging a tab, like you can in kod.

What happens when you have two folders open in two different kod windows and drag them into each other? What happens to the sidebar of each?

What happens when you drag a tab out of a project? What happens when you drag a window into a project where it doesn't belong to? Should each window only be allowed to have one project? What happens when you transform a window in a tab or vice versa?

Maybe it makes more sense to have tabs not represent necessarily files, but represent windows like in browsers, where you can open files or folders on it.

And when you open a folder you get a sidebar that works like espresso.(Click once a file to open it in the same tab/window. Click a file twice to save it in the quick access list aka workspace). We could get creative here, and even have a shortcut that opens the file in a new tab/window.

And then we could obviously have an option that makes it behave like in textmate for people that don't like it.. or the other way around..

6. The espresso approach

The reasons I like espresso approach are:

1. It is really cheap to scan through files to see their content because they open all in the same window and you don't have to close them after.

2. If you think you will be needing a file again you can double click to place it in a quick list in the sidebar.

3. It ends up taking less space then the tabs

Someone said that it is a bad idea because you loose space in the project tree. That is true, but:

1. The space you loose is not really significant because even if you put in the sidebar the maximum number of tabs I consider to be manageable in a 13 inch, lets say 7, you still have 31 (38 in total minus 7)  lines left for the project tree.

2. The space you loose in the project tree, you gain in the code. And in the end of the day it is all about the code.

3. The space you loose in the tree you gain in readability. Checkout this screenshot with 11 files: http://☁.ws/䘶 

Finally 

I'm sorry Mr. Tabs, I did't meant to ofended you with my words. I just think you are not being used to your full potential.

PS: I was hungry and in a hurry when I wrote this so might be difficult to understand some parts. Ask you can't understand something.

[aristidesfl]

Don't be afraid to try something new because you might actually never want come back!

[Agos]

I love tabs as much as the next guy, but aristides has ha point.

[Stephan Müller]

One more note to "vertical tabs": they are much easier to flick
through, since all the filenames are aligned.

I really understand the concerns about taking space from the project
tree. On the other hand, once you've opened the files you're working
on, its not needed anymore. And is a tree really the best solution we
can find? In a large project, it just needs too much space. What about
a column view? Or two separate modes, one for tabs, one for the file
tree?

The idea may be stupid; but I just think we shouldn't take anything
for given.

[Zach LeBar]

Wow. Nice write up aristides. Nice to see your thoughts in a more succinct way...other than the irc log.

I gotta admit, I didn't really see the need to mess with tabs in Kod, but you do bring up some good points. And so does Stephen. I mean, if we want Kod to really make a splash, maybe we should step back and take a look at what we're simply taking for granted.

- Zach LeBar

[Reed Stoner]

This sounds like a novel approach.

Reed Stoner

Sent from my iPhone

[Alexander Klimetschek]

Tabs are very nice and intuitive (since they are common in all
browsers nowadays), but only until a certain limit, which is something
between 5-10 tabs in today's screen resolutions and with longer
filenames. Anything above literally kills the concept.

All things to show more tabs, either make them devilish small, show a
drop down for all the out-of-bounds tabs (Eclipse, Safari) or even
multi-row tabs (Windows/Visual Studio), are hard to grasp, especially
if the algorithm to place the tabs in the active area is totally not
matching what you are currently looking for.

Hence I think the "vertical" tabs / workspace tree like in Espresso is
something to consider.

Regards,
Alex

[pjv]

+1 for the espresso approach instead of conventional [horizontal] tabs. it takes getting used to it, but after using it for a while, i prefer it.

of course it would be grand to offer both (conceptualized as something like an overall "workspace view") and a quick toggle between the two.

[Walter Lee Davis]

What about overflowing horizontal tabs into a column on the right when
they exceed the window width, or having two columns at the left, one
for the tree and the other for the "tabs"? There's lots more width
available on modern screens, and you might take advantage of that.

Walter