Sublime Forum

**cal623** · January 13, 2016, 6:27am

I think the software can be improved by designing new UI
I think it is the time it should become a modern text editor

BTW, Sublime Text support Encoding the file soon?
I need to open some UTF-8 files but now I can’t read it…

**JLikeF** · January 13, 2016, 6:27am

Any suggestions for how to improve?

There are a couple of topics with mockups Sublime UI

The main suggestion seems to be tabs on top!

**cal623** · January 13, 2016, 6:27am

Tabs on top is important, I agree that, but I think the most important is the theme color, I don’t like to write programs with a dark background, Do you like?
BTW, I think light-weight is also required for this decade because most text editors only have few files and much smaller space. Should Sublime Text get slimmer? I believe it had to get lighter.

**qqq** · January 13, 2016, 6:27am

[quote=“JLikeF”]
The main suggestion seems to be tabs on top![/quote]

Tabs are disastrous - it’s true. And I would add scroll bars. Not that I use them often, but it would be good to know where they actually are.

**gpfsmurf** · January 13, 2016, 6:27am

[quote=“cal623”]Tabs on top is important, I agree that, but I think the most important is the theme color, I don’t like to write programs with a dark background, Do you like?
BTW, I think light-weight is also required for this decade because most text editors only have few files and much smaller space. Should Sublime Text get slimmer? I believe it had to get lighter. [/quote]

I like the dark theme.
You think you see Orz but Orz are not light reflections.

**delucia** · January 13, 2016, 6:27am

Why tabs? just because everyone is doing tabs nowadays?!

The side bar has a list of active files and it’s better than tabs because it can hold much more files without having trouble displaying their names.

Tabs are bad design to begin with. text is horizontal and it scales better if displayed vertically like on the side bar.

I say remove them. Keeping both options is not a good because it’s not the sublime thing to do.

“There should be one-- and preferably only one --obvious way to do it” - Zen of Python

**werchter** · January 13, 2016, 6:27am

Yeah, actually that is a good reason. Because of the extensive use of tabs in browsers, users are familiar with using them.
Basing a design on familiar user interface elements sounds like good practice to me.
It’s the same reason why you’d want to use TextMate snippets: why not use a popular concept?

Besides that, I just think the design of a new chrome-like tab interface posted earlier in this forum is awesome.
So a new UI is definitely number one on my wishlist.

**delucia** · January 13, 2016, 6:27am

[quote=“werchter”]Because of the extensive use of tabs in browsers, users are familiar with using them.
Basing a design on familiar user interface elements sounds like good practice to me.[/quote]

You’re wrong. We shouldn’t do things because they’re popular but because they’re the best thing to do. MS Word is a familiar UI why don’t we do a ribbon in Sublime?

[quote=“werchter”]
Besides that, I just think the design of a new chrome-like tab interface posted earlier in this forum is awesome.
So a new UI is definitely number one on my wishlist.[/quote]

Think about it. Chrome is a hit because it came up with an original design. Do you think it would’ve been there if it copied others? same argument goes for Textmate.

I’m must make clear that i’m not against borrowing ideas. Totally not. But I’m with applying only what makes absolute sense.

Look if Sublime is going to be like the 100+ text editors out there then what’s the use?

**werchter** · January 13, 2016, 6:27am

I’m not saying it is a good idea to just blindly copy popular concepts from other applications. But if a concept is popular and can *enhance *the look & feel of an existing application, there is nothing against using it.
Even more so if there is no sensible argument against it. (I just don’t think your arguments against tabs are particularly strong).

If you remove tabs, you need to have the sidebar visible at all times. And since sidebar takes a lot more space than the tab row, this would cause unnecessary clutter in the otherwise clean and minimalistic interface.

**tux** · January 13, 2016, 6:27am

Seriously, Sublime Text has an individual design. That said, tabs on top are the worst UI nightmare of our decade. “Title bars” are meant to be used as draggable bars with informational text, not tabs, in them. Where to place the title then?

**delucia** · January 13, 2016, 6:27am

fair enough. I think my arguments are sensible and i will reiterate them here:

I think tabs are good for a web browser because width is important because of the way web pages are designed with side bars and three column content. This is not the case for text editors; especially those that are developer text editors like sublime, vim, emacs, because most of the code has restricted width. For text editors, hight is more important than width because you want to see the maximum code available, which a side bar accomodate without a problem. That’s why you often see developers use vertical monitors for their coding display.
Tabs grow horizontally which means more tabs decrease the amount of space available for titles. A side bar doesn’t suffer from this problem and can accomodate much more elements than tabs.

I think tabs were wrongly copied from web browsers to text editors.

**jbjornson** · January 13, 2016, 6:27am

I honestly think this comes down to a question of preference, or personal taste. I am a developer and spend most of my day editing source code. Personally, I really like file tabs and absolutely dislike the sidebar (which is why it is hidden by default for me).

This is the exact opposite to your preferences. Simply put, some people like tabs, some people don’t.

I think Jon has made a very reasonable compromise by making things customizable, allowing all of us to have SublimeText the we way we like it by setting a few simple preferences. If you don’t like tabs, simply turn them off. Pretty simple.

**werchter** · January 13, 2016, 6:27am

What title bars are meant for is of course arbitrary.
In Mac OS X v10.5 and later, the toolbar is not visually distinct from the title bar, whereas in Windows the title bar is located on top of the application menu. In Chrome there is no title bar at all.

I just want to say: what a title bar (or the space at the top of an application window) is meant for depends on who you ask.

**tux** · January 13, 2016, 6:27am

IMO every OS has its own GUI conceptions. I don’t know any OS or window manager which doesn’t feature title bars, though.

**Anomareh** · January 13, 2016, 6:27am

I can’t think of one tiling wm that has title bars.

**werchter** · January 13, 2016, 6:27am

Chrome OS? (haven’t used it though)

**tux** · January 13, 2016, 6:27am

awesome sort of has (in the top bar, that is).

I wouldn’t consider Chrome OS as an OS.

**JLikeF** · January 13, 2016, 6:27am

I would say they solve the problem with title bars, I don’t need to see the name of the window that I’m looking at and I can easily find part of the bar to drag the window with.

**tux** · January 13, 2016, 6:27am

So you never have cascading windows? Or inactive background windows?

**JLikeF** · January 13, 2016, 6:27am

[quote=“tux.”]

So you never have cascading windows? Or inactive background windows?[/quote]

No I do everything full screen, but as somebody said earlier, it’s all down to preference.

New UI?