So it seems like the number of “Groups” are solely determined by the number of columns and/or rows of the currently selected “Layout” (e.g. Setting the Layout to Columns: 2 will created 2 Groups in the Side Bar).
To help those who aren’t familiar with how Layouts and Groups currently work, here is a screen shot: http://i42.tinypic.com/30rnxi8.jpg
The selected Layout in the above screen shot is set to Columns: 2, which automatically splits the window into 2 columns, each column being a “Group” (shown in the Side Bar on the left). The left column (Group 1) has the files catalog.xml and page.xml, and the right column (Group 2) has header.phtml, styles.css, and header.css. You can conveniently use the shortcut ctrl+1 and ctrl+2 to toggle between the two Groups.
[size=150]Idea[/size]
What I think would be significantly more powerful would to separate the Layout/Group into two completely different concepts/entities. Rather than having the Layout changing the Groups that exist, have the ability to create Groups that each have its own individual Layout that can be changed. Doing this implies that what you see in the window is the current Group in focus.
So to help visualize, if we were to look at the same screen shot above, all the tabs we see in both the left and right columns would be within the same Group (let’s say Group 1). Say there is also a Group 2 with the files footer.phtml and footer.css, that group would NOT be visible in the window, except in the Side Bar (or maybe somewhere else on the screen if the Side Bar is hidden). Upon switching to Group 2 (either by clicking the Group on the Side Bar or hitting ctrl+2), the window would switch to displaying all the files within Group 2 using whatever Layout was originally selected for that Group; Group 1 with all its associated files would then be hidden. Because each Group can have it’s own Layout, Group 1 could have a 2-column layout, and Group 2 could have 2-row layout.
[size=150]Why[/size]
I think this implementation would provide significantly more flexibility when it comes to visually organizing your working environment to your liking.
Using myself as an example, I personally do a lot of web programming, so often I find myself editing 2-3 different file types (phtml, css, js) that reside in 2-3 different directories to makes changes to a single page. I am also often editing more than just one page at a time for whatever reason, so as I edit more and more pages, the tab count can quickly get out of hand. With the above proposed idea, I could easily group each of my phtml/css/js files into Groups for each page I am editing, reducing tab clutter since the display window only displays the files in the current Group in focus. I could also change the layout for each Group independently, though I personally would most likely just leave each Group in single-page layout since I enjoy having lots of screen real-estate (I don’t have a large monitor).
That is just an example of how I would personally use that feature, but there are many more ways people could organize their environment using this feature given it’s flexibility. I realize this idea can be similarly mocked already by simply creating a new Sublime window with a new set of files and just alt-tabbing between the windows; but that simply isn’t as quick or as nice as using ctrl+# shortcut to go to the desired Group in my opinion.
[size=150]Summary of benefits:[/size]
- Reduces Tab-cluster
- Reduces Window-cluster
- Significantly more flexible than the current Layout/Group feature for organizing one’s work environment
Please reply with your opinions!
Thanks.