Author Topic: Unstable and unpredictable windows sizing when splitting windows  (Read 5402 times)

sndom

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I am using brief style window splitting using create-tile with cursor keys used to select the split direction, but am finding that the beta is automatically resizing windows when I create and remove splits.

When I split a window, I would like it to split the current window in half and leave all of the other windows alone so that I can manage the sizes of the windows.  What I am seeing is that sometimes the windows are resized so that they are evenly spaced, and that at other times small windows are created  with the size being stolen from the left most window.

Similarly, when removing a split, I would like the surviving window to expand to occupy the space of its removed sibling.  What seems to happen, in the case of vertical splits, is that the surviving window keeps its size, with the width of the removed sibling being added to the left most window.

The unpredictable automatic sizing behaviour, together with flashes of background appearing when the rightmost (vertical split) window is removed before the other windows are redrawn make for a very unstable and distracting experience.

I'd *really* like to see splitting behave in the same stable and predictable way as in previous versions.


sndom

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Re: Unstable and unpredictable windows sizing when splitting windows
« Reply #1 on: April 25, 2013, 12:51:19 PM »
delete-tile is also throwing up a slick-c stack when you point towards an exterior edge.

moveedge.ex 3765 moveedge:_delete_tile2(....)
moveedge.ex 2547 delete_tile(....)

sndom

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Re: Unstable and unpredictable windows sizing when splitting windows
« Reply #2 on: April 25, 2013, 01:03:05 PM »
The splitting behaviour seems to upset by manually resizing the windows.  If you resize a window then start adding and removing splits things get messed up.  It looks as if it is trying to maintain the size of the manually altered window, and does so by taking up slack or stealing space fro the leftmost window.

The net result is lots of windows moving about, rather than simple splitting or coalescing of just two windows. Tracking where your cursor ended up is very distracting.

Clark

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Re: Unstable and unpredictable windows sizing when splitting windows
« Reply #3 on: April 25, 2013, 02:54:16 PM »
Thanks for catching the Slick-C stack. This will be fixed in the next beta.

We are aware of the blinking. Hopefully, we will have a chance to make this better before shipping. We still have a good amount of work left.

From what you describe, the splitting is working as designed. I thinks it's possible to add an option for strict halfing on split but I doubt there will be time to add it to the 18.0 release (maybe 18.1). I would also like to know if many users want this. I use splits all the time and definitely don't want this. I like distributed splits so my window size doesn't get too small.

Jason.a

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Re: Unstable and unpredictable windows sizing when splitting windows
« Reply #4 on: April 25, 2013, 04:11:53 PM »
I'm with sndom - it's not Brief emulation if the splits aren't predictable.   It's completely unacceptable the way it is.

If you start making the editor like Sublime Text ... I'm going to quit paying support, and buy Sublime Text.

11thPenguin

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Re: Unstable and unpredictable windows sizing when splitting windows
« Reply #5 on: April 25, 2013, 04:36:56 PM »
From what you describe, the splitting is working as designed. I thinks it's possible to add an option for strict halfing on split but I doubt there will be time to add it to the 18.0 release (maybe 18.1). I would also like to know if many users want this. I use splits all the time and definitely don't want this. I like distributed splits so my window size doesn't get too small.

LOL, "calculating 'half' is hard, yo."

I'm definitely in the "strict halfing" camp. Adding new features is great, and even making them default-on is ok, but there's got to be a way to turn things off and "make it work like it used to". Finger-memory is incredibly important in an editor, and (hopefully) not just because I'm an old dog who can't learn new tricks. In the past I've threatened to confiscate my engineers' mice to force them to learn the keyboard shortcuts. That's predicated on things being predictable and repeatable; it doesn't work if you might have to mouse around a bit to adjust a weird split.

--jonah

Clark

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Re: Unstable and unpredictable windows sizing when splitting windows
« Reply #6 on: April 25, 2013, 06:13:39 PM »
Thanks for the feedback. We will need to implement strict halfing. It will be an option.

chrisant

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Re: Unstable and unpredictable windows sizing when splitting windows
« Reply #7 on: April 25, 2013, 07:58:46 PM »
Thanks, yes, I prefer strict halving as well (as long as I can drag to adjust afterwards if desired, of course).

Clark

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Re: Unstable and unpredictable windows sizing when splitting windows
« Reply #8 on: April 27, 2013, 08:02:50 PM »
I added an option for strict halving. We still need to add the option to the GUI and decide on defaults (could be different for some emulations).