Rant: I figured out why left tabs bothers me so much.

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William - 01 Nov 2005 13:28 GMT

I figured out why the VS2005 open tabs on left bothers me so much. It's
because it moves my "known" primary screens each time a new tab opens.
For example, say I have my class diagram open as the first tab and the
file I'm working on as the second tab. Now I want to take a quick look
at a related class so I bring that up. All of a sudden my class diagram
has moved to the second position. Now I need to call up two more files
for a quick look-see. All of a sudden my class diagram is at tab
position four. I can no longer click on my overview without thinking. I
have to stop my train of thought and consciously look for the tab with
my overview to bring it back.

In other words, having new tabs open to the right is annoying because
it takes a low level unconscious behavior and turns it into a conscious
action that interrupts my ability to remain focused on the design at
hand.

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- 01 Nov 2005 16:17 GMT

W- [1 Nov 2005 04:28:43 -0800]:

>In other words, having new tabs open to the right is annoying because

I take it you meant left. Anyway, consider this:
you have 20 files/tabs. Click on a file you
want to peek at. Woo----------> All the way at
the right, so you have to slide on over just
to take a quick look, then slide aaaaaall the way
to the left to get back to where you maybe were.
Having it pop on the left lets you look and dismiss
it easily. Too bad it can't be configured, though.
But I'd rather it pop on the left. Lucky me.

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- 01 Nov 2005 16:22 GMT

I see it doesn't work like that anymore. You
get a drop-down menu before the tabs run beyond
the edge, so no sliding needed. The list is in
alpha order. That'll work.

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iPlay : the ultimate audio player for mobiles
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- 01 Nov 2005 16:26 GMT

h- [Tue, 01 Nov 2005 07:22:05 -0800]:

>I see it doesn't work like that anymore. You
>get a drop-down menu before the tabs run beyond
>the edge, so no sliding needed.

And in that case, I'd probably rather it pop on
the right, too - there's no reason to pop on the
left.

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40th Floor - Software @ http://40th.com/
iPlay : the ultimate audio player for mobiles
parametric eq, xfeed, reverb; all on a mobile

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- 04 Nov 2005 10:46 GMT

h- [Tue, 01 Nov 2005 07:26:37 -0800]:

>h- [Tue, 01 Nov 2005 07:22:05 -0800]:
>>I see it doesn't work like that anymore. You
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
>the right, too - there's no reason to pop on the
>left.

But then there may be a reason... (second para below)

Re: File tabs in VS2005: my comments and a question

Those files which get bumped off the tab row are still in the drop-down
menu at the right, to the left of the [x] on the tab row. It's called
Active Files, and when dropped, lists all files in alpha order, both
those visible and not visible in the tab row. The drop-down arrow is
there only when files get bumped off the tab row. At least, that what I
see here. Not there?

You may ask yourself, why pop the new ones at the left? The only reason
I could think of now, given the spill to the dropdown, is otherwise,
every time you added a new file, the previous "new" one would fall off
the row, and back into the spill dropdown.

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40th Floor - Software @ http://40th.com/
iPlay : the ultimate audio player for mobiles
parametric eq, xfeed, reverb; all on a mobile

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Peter Franks - 04 Nov 2005 15:03 GMT

> You may ask yourself, why pop the new ones at the left? The only reason
> I could think of now, given the spill to the dropdown, is otherwise,
> every time you added a new file, the previous "new" one would fall off
> the row, and back into the spill dropdown.

The WndTabs addin (for VC++ 6) had the implementation and
configurability right when it comes to tabs --

VS should offer the ability to have tabs appear in rows instead of
overflow. The scrolling in VS03 made for a very poor user experience,
and it sounds like the VS05 is only worse.

But where would we be without MS setting a standard, and then changing it...

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Rant: I figured out why left tabs bothers me so much.

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