[MonoDevelop] Fwd: Pad docking area idea

[IBBoard]

On 23 July 2010 20:53, Michael Hutchinson <m.j.hutchinson at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Jul 23, 2010 at 3:44 PM, IBBoard <ibboard at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Eclipse also puts an extra button in the spare space for additional
>> actions, but I think that behaviour is a bit odd as it applies to the
>> current tab, even though it's in a "group of tabs" area.
>>
>>> .. yes I know vs.net duplicates information too - but I don't think
>>> that this is a reason to do it as well.
>>
>> Too right! :) Why immitate something sub-par if it can be done better?
>
> OTOH Eclipse isn't exactly considered to have good usability either...
>
> I'm personally not 100% convinced one way or the other. I agree that
> there's duplication of information, but merging the tabs into the
> header could be very cramped and possibly confusing. If using a little
> more space improves usability, that's a reasonable price to pay IMO.
>
> --
> Michael Hutchinson
> http://mjhutchinson.com
>

What's so bad about the usability of Eclipse? I do use it more (it's a
big part of my day job), but even when it gets to new features then I
find its usability quite good. The tabbing and grouping of views seems
to work well, IMO, as you can collapse a whole set or auto-dock
individual tabs. Even better (and something I've suggested in a ticket
before) is that you can pick your orientation as well, so you can
auto-hide at the bottom (which gives you a 'button' similar to
MonoDevelop pads) and pick whether a vertical or horizontal view makes
most sense.