Sublime Forum

Minimap: Readable class/method names

#1

Concept:

The minimap could display lines that contain class/method names as readable text in a tiny font, so that the user could navigate between classes/methods using the minimap.

Rough mockup:

Here’s a rough idea of what it could look like:

(I just used figlet to generate ASCII-art fonts, and pasted it in the source code. It could look a lot better if a good pixel-art font was used, and the colours were more saturated.)

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#2

I would prefer something like Ctrl+R.

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#3

“Something like Ctrl+R”? Does that mean you want to integrate something like Ctrl+R into the minimap?

Or are you saying that you don’t like the idea, and would prefer to stick with Ctrl+R for navigation?

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#4

Or are you saying that you don’t like the idea, and would prefer to stick with Ctrl+R for navigation?

Yes. Just personal opinion. It looks cool, but for usability, I doubt.
But hey, indeed, not everyone uses ST with keyboard to do everything.

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#5

Here are two reasons why this would aid usability:

  1. Ctrl+R shows you methods, but you don’t know how big those methods are; the minimap can show you which methods are more complex than others, and in which methods the bulk of your code lies. If you’re new to a project, or trying to navigate someone else’s project, a bird’s eye view of the source file can be helpful.

  2. The current minimap is pretty, but it doesn’t really aid navigation in any way since you can only see very vague patterns in the code, like indentation and line length. Having important words readable – like class/method names – would make the minimap far more useful.

3 Likes

#6

Agree. The current minimap is just like a big scroll bar to me at most of time. Adding other information on it may help with a comparison to the current scroll bar. But the space on the minimap is so precious…

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#7

The minimap can be as long as you want; a longer minimap just scrolls a bit faster.

And it won’t get much longer if a pixel font like this is used:
https://0x0.st/uIL.png

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