Author Topic: Dockable and undockable edit windows.  (Read 10045 times)

dunkers

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Dockable and undockable edit windows.
« on: July 22, 2009, 08:30:21 PM »
Dockable (and, hence, undockable) edit windows.

Mostly, as mentioned previously elsewhere, I have two edit windows - one to do the actual edits and t'other to browse code. Sometimes I really need to look at two lots of code but my setup doesn't lend itself to 3 windows. What I'd like is to create a new edit window and then drag that out of the SE main window and drop it somewhere else on my desktop, as if it were a tool window.

So, thinking about that, why can't the normal edit windows be dragged hither and yon? SE Main would then end up as a kind of control panel, much like the old Delphi and C++Builder IDEs.

chrisant

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Re: Dockable and undockable edit windows.
« Reply #1 on: July 22, 2009, 11:21:42 PM »
Mostly, as mentioned previously elsewhere, I have two edit windows - one to do the actual edits and t'other to browse code. Sometimes I really need to look at two lots of code but my setup doesn't lend itself to 3 windows. What I'd like is to create a new edit window and then drag that out of the SE main window and drop it somewhere else on my desktop, as if it were a tool window.
This is similar to something I'd like to see.

I think of the Preview window as really more of a Browser window:  I'm trying to understand how code fits together, and sometimes I want to refer to the definition/implementation of an arbitrary class or function while I'm working on my code.  It's nice that the Preview window shows previews, but it is too transitory -- sometimes I want to "pin" something in the Preview window so that I can refer to it for an extended period of time.  I'm not really previewing stuff, I'm browsing a bigger picture and sometimes my attention needs to stay focused on a specific thing for a while even when the cursor moves.  The Preview window is aggressive about trying to find things to preview in an effort to help me, but sometimes I really want to override it focus my attention on a specific thing.

While something is pinned, I would expect that things like References or Search Results (etc) would override the pin and update the Preview window, but that when they are finished then the Preview window would go back to showing the pinned thing.

I've tried to examine my workflow patterns looking for a clever trigger for auto-pinning, but I haven't found one.  The next best thing might be to have a simple Pin/Unpin button and command to pin a given symbol/whatever in the Preview window.

dunkers

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Re: Dockable and undockable edit windows.
« Reply #2 on: July 23, 2009, 12:33:43 AM »
Quote
sometimes I want to "pin" something in the Preview window

Sometimes lots of somethings :)

But, yes, that's the sort of thing. I'd go as far as to say that the dragable edit window could be read only and not even an edit window (so long as it displays the code as if it were, with the appropriate colour scheme, etc).

chrisant

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Re: Dockable and undockable edit windows.
« Reply #3 on: July 23, 2009, 01:12:01 AM »
Quote
sometimes I want to "pin" something in the Preview window
Sometimes lots of somethings :)
True!  Although here's a compromise (going on the assumption that compromises are usually cheaper to implement), still residing in the Preview window:  Pinning in the Preview window could show a second editor control pane.  One would show the pinned thing, the other would continue to preview additional things as per usual.  Pinning in the second pane would also be allowed.  If both panes are pinned, then normal previewing ceases.  If neither pane is pinned, they coalesce back into a single pane.  If the Preview window is "wide" and/or docked at the bottom or top, then the two panes would be side by side.  If the Preview window is "tall" and/or docked at the left or right, then the two panes would be arranged vertically one above the other.

Which reminds me, SE really needs to build in Ding/HS2's "preview at bottom" patch.  The vertical real estate taken by the default Preview window layout is unusable when docked at the bottom.  Even better, SE should have two layouts for the Preview window:  one for a "wide" layout and/or docked at the bottom or top, and another for a "tall" layout and/or docked at the left or right.

dunkers

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Re: Dockable and undockable edit windows.
« Reply #4 on: July 23, 2009, 10:36:41 AM »
Ummm... well I'm very protective of my preview pane and wouldn't want it to be more than a few lines as it is now. Whilst I often want to pin stuff I see in it, I never want to pin that stuff in the pane - I always double-click it into the other editor window (hence the fuss with the non-working delay a while ago). So I'm afraid to say that talk of making the pane large or small or several of them or moving them about... well, it scares me :)

But a big vote for the preview pane fix here too. I can't see the point of the comment field wasting space (the real comments will likely be the same or previous line, but more likely missing altogether). I miss being able to enter a symbol manually, as we could with the old pane. Or pop up the list of previous preview hits to go recheck something I saw a couple of mins ago (like we still have with the references pane).

Wanderer

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Re: Dockable and undockable edit windows.
« Reply #5 on: July 23, 2009, 11:07:02 AM »
...and sometimes I want to refer to the definition/implementation of an arbitrary class or function while I'm working on my code.  It's nice that the Preview window shows previews, but it is too transitory -- sometimes I want to "pin" something in the Preview window so that I can refer to it for an extended period of time.

Don't remember where I got it, but you might find notepad.e useful.
Select some text (a class definition, for example), run 'notepad' on the SlickEdit command line, and your class def is copied to a floating window.

DiskJockey

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Re: Dockable and undockable edit windows.
« Reply #6 on: August 20, 2009, 06:08:45 PM »
Along the lines of "two or more instances of SE" as suggested by asandler, I would like to have the ability to create a new SE instance by dragging a tab out of the current instance.  I would also like to have the ability to drag tabs between instances.

Google's Chrome browser has this capability for web pages, BTW.

chrisant

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Re: Dockable and undockable edit windows.
« Reply #7 on: August 20, 2009, 08:44:11 PM »
Along the lines of "two or more instances of SE" as suggested by asandler, I would like to have the ability to create a new SE instance by dragging a tab out of the current instance.  I would also like to have the ability to drag tabs between instances.

Google's Chrome browser has this capability for web pages, BTW.
FWIW with Chrome each tab is already a separate instance.  The analog in SE would be if each edit window in SE were a separate instance of VS.EXE (which would come at a performance penalty).  SE could spawn a new instance of VS.EXE when you drag, but since it wasn't already a separate instance, there would be a rather noticeable delay in starting up the new instance.  It's a cool idea -- I'm just tossing out some of the technical hurdles that make me suspect it is unlikely to happen.

JRen

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Re: Dockable and undockable edit windows.
« Reply #8 on: August 28, 2009, 12:43:41 AM »
* Performance - no pauses while typing for symbol lookup, quicker symbol reference lookups
* Support for dual monitors - dockable windows would work
* Version control settings - remember version control settings for a given project re-open them when switching projects

tommymc

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Re: Dockable and undockable edit windows.
« Reply #9 on: September 01, 2009, 10:41:01 PM »
Multiple monitor support. Ability to separate a code window from the main visual slick window.

Visual Studio 2010 will have this feature:
http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2009/08/31/multi-monitor-support-vs-2010-and-net-4-series.aspx


srouleau

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Re: Dockable and undockable edit windows.
« Reply #10 on: September 02, 2009, 12:46:43 PM »
Multiple monitor support. Ability to separate a code window from the main visual slick window.

Visual Studio 2010 will have this feature:
http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2009/08/31/multi-monitor-support-vs-2010-and-net-4-series.aspx


+100 

The hack of starting 2 instances of SE just doesn't work properly for me, if I remember to do it at all.


KenM

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Re: Dockable and undockable edit windows.
« Reply #11 on: September 28, 2009, 08:01:14 PM »
External SE windows, say on another monitor, with tabs and other docked windows.

Now, if I drag a window (say, the Preview window) off the main SE window, it can't have other windows docked or tabbed.

I use multiple monitors and I'd like to have a window on my main monitor with multiple tabs and docked windows, and another window on the other monitor, also with multiple tabs and docked windows.

Thanks,
Ken

tas

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Re: Dockable and undockable edit windows.
« Reply #12 on: April 19, 2010, 01:28:52 PM »
Instead of MDI, I'd like a tab interface similar to web browers (e.g. Opera), so I can open new top-level windows, reorder tabs within a window, move tabs between windows, switch between tabs with a Ctrl+Tab 'cool switch' (like Alt+Tab for top-level windows), etc.

gdayton

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Re: Dockable and undockable edit windows.
« Reply #13 on: January 03, 2011, 07:40:49 PM »
Most slickedit windows maybe "floated" independently of the vs doc window, e.g., the references tool window may be placed on the X root window.

It would be useful to be able to also float the edit windows.

jorick

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Re: Dockable and undockable edit windows.
« Reply #14 on: March 31, 2011, 06:30:16 PM »
Multiple tab rows option so that if there are too many tabs, it will display extra rows instead of scroll arrows.

Or, an added feature would be to be able to define multiple tab bars and have the ability to drag a tab from one bar to another (copy a tab by Ctrl dragging).  That way I could be working on two or three things at once (very common for me) and each "subproject" would have its own tab bar.  New editor windows would open in the currently selected tab bar (different coloring or shading?).  Maybe even an option to show only those windows in the currently selected tab bar.
« Last Edit: March 31, 2011, 06:32:48 PM by jorick »