Like the floating windows

[Ed Barnard]

My normal workflow is to have a LOT of files open. The code I work with tends to require that I be looking in a bunch of different places over the course of a day. I have a dozen or several dozen files open and arranged "willy-nilly" all over the available screen space.

The latest (non-beta) Mac SlickEdit has a problem which seems to be that it is continuously updating each of those windows, pegging the CPU at 100% even when I have not touched the keyboard for several minutes. Mouse clicks don't register and often keystrokes don't either - or they take tens of seconds to catch up to my typing. I abandoned the product and returned to using the Windows 7 laptop for coding.

I also prefer to use multiple screens, whereas SlickEdit puts everything inside its one window. That's the piece of my workflow which I missed from XEmacs. Because I prefer to have so many files visible for editing, I prefer to use all the screen real estate available.

With the beta release, I find that I can open a file and immediately float it. Any files which I open-by-reference (meaning Ctrl+, to go to the definition of a symbol) open in the same window as a new tab. I'm still getting used to this arrangement, but so far I like it. I've got editing windows all over the place, some with multiple tabs, some not.

The "base" window is, in effect, just another floating window. I have the "open" and "project" tabs sitting there, with some free space to their right. When I open a new file, it appears squeezed into that space to the right. Right click on its title tab, choose Float, and I'm happy.

As I type this, SlickEdit is idle but using 15% of one cpu. That's fine - it's responsive as I would expect. It's being pegged at 100% continuously that was the problem, so it's looking to me like that problem is solved.

[Matthew]

Thanks for the feedback and glad you like the new UI. We're closing in on the final release, so we won't be able to make huge, sweeping changes, but we do want to know what types of window arrangements and behaviors you'd find most useful. So as you start using it for more of your day-to-day work, let us know what you'd like to see.

The Mac "constant redraw" problem (pegging your CPU) has been a thorn in our side that we're glad to be rid of with this release. It wasn't an issue if all your MDI windows were always maximized (or if you used the 'multiple files share one window' setting), but as soon as you tiled or cascaded child editor windows, the onslaught of repaint messages was on.

[Ed Barnard]

Thanks Matthew!

Zillions of detached windows have their drawbacks in that "home base" is elsewhere, but I don't see any sane way to have it both ways. I did not try the mac beta until today because I saw no indication the constant-redraw problem was fixed. (There's a suggestion for something to highlight in the release notes.)

So far I'm liking it as it is. I intend to use the Mac version as my coding workhorse (as opposed to the Windows version) for a while; won't be shy about other observations.

Fresh observation:

The mac Activity Monitor is showing SE at steady 32-38% CPU whilst idle and I'm typing this reply. This might mean that idle overhead increases with the number of floated windows. Everything inside the floated window is, in effect, maximized, and hopefully that solved the constant-redraw problem.

I'll watch the cpu monitor as I ramp up to my usual jillion open windows over the next few hours/days. So long as responsiveness isn't affected, I don't care about cpu usage. What I do care about is losing/delayed keystrokes, not registering double-clicks or triple-clicks, typing a character suddenly becoming aaaaaaaaaa character, etc.