Suggestion: Tabbed Compliler

09 Nov 2010

It would be nice if the compiler could be tabbed so multiple files could be opened at once.

Sometimes when trying to refer to other library files or, even another example, it's a bit of pain to pull the the right file out of the tree, then scroll down to the part of the code your interested in, and then get back quickly to your code.

09 Nov 2010

Hi,

my hint:

open two or more tabs in internet explorer and then point in every window to one file. So you can see the same, but using the tabs from the internet explorer.

br

09 Nov 2010

+1 from me. Excellent idea.

11 Nov 2010

omg yes!
+1

11 Nov 2010

A great idea - I'm always having to swap between programs so it'd be a huge time-saver!

+1

11 Nov 2010

+1 from me, too. Working with many files would be much more easy!

11 Nov 2010

Hi All,

I'll add this as a feature request.

Out of interest, I did explicitly decide not to support this way-back-when, when I put together the first (ascii art!) spec. My main reasons for not including them were:

  • I saw lots of people running small screens and/or browsers with many lines of plugins, so vertical screen real estate was a premium (also the reason I dropped the text "File, Edit" toolbar, which probably most people never saw :)
  • Whenever I've used IDEs and things like Notepad++, I get really frustrated with all the tabs automatically appearing any time I looked in a file when using the tree for navigation/switching as only a few are the ones you actually want to tab between (you are meant to "close" tabs having viewed what you want i guess).

But sounds like it is worth revisiting!

Thanks for the feedback. Any other ideas to get the same benefit in an alternate way also welcome.

Simon

11 Nov 2010

The present file-tree does remember your place within files, after they have been opened for the first time. Adding tabs might make it slightly quicker to find the files that were already open. But unsaved files already have the filename in bold which - unless you are save very often - should help you find your way back to the file you were working on.

And, as Simon points out, this would cost vertical screen space. This is especially bad because the browser will (probably) already have a dedicated area for tabs. Then again, there are also some empty areas at the top right of the compiler: in the filename bar, and the menu bar.