Allow the repository list to be expanded all the time

[rlabrecque]

This was possible in the native version.

Not sure how the best way to do this now would be though. This could be a UI setting in the options, it's not really something you change ever once it's set to your preference. I would prefer not to clutter the UI with a button just for that.

[shiftkey]

With the classic apps, we just assumed that people wanted to quickly switch between repositories. But this took away a lot of screen real estate as a result, and we weren't doing much else with this view.

With the changes in the Electron app we decided to reclaim that space. Looking at our interactions with our users, we knew many weren't tracking many repositories in the application, and to support things like side-by-side diffs down the road horizontal real estate was at a premium.

That's some back story on that change, but I think this is part of a bigger discussion around what we want to do with the repository list post 1.0.

[rlabrecque]

Understandable, that's likely why SourceTree got rid of theirs as well in their latest version.

It's definitely something thst most people don't need, that being said I think it's pretty important for anyone that uses git with multiple projects per day especially with enhancements like #1599.

Given the enhancement tag it seems like something you guys may consider? I'd be implementing this at some point if no one else does as it's pretty much make or break for me personally; (pending cooler shit that I don't know about yet!) Just depends on where this would end up, whether it's in a fork 🤢, some kind of custom interface theme/plugin/tbd, or pulled in behind a user preference? Either way post 1.0 is definitely fine.

[shiftkey]

@rlabrecque to be honest, we're still digesting the launch, the reaction and catching up on fixing bugs as quick as possible. We haven't really thought much about the future, especially post-1.0.

[rlabrecque]

Sounds good, thanks for the heads up and congrats on the launch of course!

[clairernovotny]

I agree with @rlabrecque 💯. I monitor >20 git repos and want at-a-glance info of the repo status and per-branch status. Tabs hide too much for me.

While screen real estate is valuable, there's a difference between people on a laptop and people with multiple large displays. I'm in the latter camp and I want to maximize the information I have available at-a-glance, that's one reason why I use multiple monitors :)

[clairernovotny]

@rlabrecque have you found any alternative to SourceTree that does this?

[rlabrecque]

Not really unfortunately. I started writing my own Git GUI last week because of this and other SourceTree regressions.

This is pretty directly a feature exclusively for advanced users and it pretty much depends on what direction GHD ends up going. There's a bunch of valid routes to take. For example I found the native clients a little too simple to use day-to-day personally but they were the best clients for beginners and just 'the easiest and quickest way for people to get their code onto GitHub'. But with some customization (which is pretty easy now given the platform!) this could be both an amazing, simple out of the box experience, and an amazing power user experience. They just have to commit to the Advanced Settings :)

There's other semi-related advanced features that aren't fleshed out yet, Like there's no tag support at all yet, multiple remote support is non existent, no tags, history view only ever shows one branch at a time.

Either way though what's here already is an amazing base if they do decide to focus on the new user experience instead of power users.

[mort666]

I also feel this is a app breaking change for me, I track in the region of 50 repos for our development and I want at a glance to to be able to select and view any of those.. This change has added to my workflow not made it simpler..

Real estate isn't a problem, making this an option to enable it for the people that want/need it is the way to go.

There are two things that this beta changes which alas has made me uninstall it and go back to the previous Github Desktop app, this is one of them.

[j-f1]

If you want to quickly change repositories, ⌘/Ctrl + T will open the repostory dropdown and focus the search box, so you can start typing the repository’s name. ↑ and ↓ move through the list, and return selects the repository.

[mort666]

@j-f1 Alas, I know you can do that, however it is still not as straight forward as you having a permanent list to select from in one click.

One of the cited reasons for making this change is lack of real estate, well some people don't have that problem so having the ability to pin that list open would make the tool more suitable for those that have lost that functionality as it stands. I have 3 screens on my iMac 2 x 4k and the 5k screen of the iMac, I have available real estate in spades, screen space saving features are not what I'm looking for, I look for the functionality to support my workflow.

Hence I've returned to the old GHD because the beta is not fit for purpose.

[danqing]

Jumping in here, I think most people actually do have > 1 repos that they work on, and being able to switch between them easily is a huge plus.

I would also assume that many programmers have big monitors or 15' laptops, so space shouldn't be an issue. I don't even full screen the old desktop app. It usually takes up less than half of the screen.

[rlabrecque]

This project is highly driven by stats and analytics. The stats came from the old native versions. That being said stats could be skewed towards the audience they are going for. There's a pretty big difference from a usage standpoint between something like GHD and SourceTree, SmartGit, or Fork. I.E. Most power users might straight up avoid GHD because of things like this, or people might only use a few repos in GHD because it works best like that.

[danqing]

Understood. I actually switched from SourceTree to GHD because I like GitHub's look and feel better, but I do miss some ST features.

That said, many Git clients support more advanced features that GHD simply doesn't offer, but I think for functions GHD does provide (like this one), making them easier to use is important. The new GHD has basically all its features hidden in either the app menu or the top menu, which is kinda defeating the point of GUI.

[mort666]

@rlabrecque the other thing to remember about stats that GHD collects your power user is more likely to have disabled the sending of stats to GitHub, like myself. As a result so you are often making decisions about a class of user you actually have no data on because they disable a system you use to collect data you base your decisions on.

[attilam]

The sidebar is lacking a lot of functionalities, but this one is the most problematic I think. I have been adding a lot of repos to GHD lately (200+ now) and it's now impossible to have an overview of what I have locally. I guess many of the problems I have would be multiple enhancement requests, but just adding the ability to pin the repo list would help a LOT.

• If I go through multi repos checking what's updated as soon as I click on a repo the list closes. The scroll bar position isn't even retained, so I have to find where I was when I want to go on
• The GitHub user name is only shown if there are multiple repos with the same name. Try finding your own/any specific repo in a list of 100+ that is closed over and over again. The search bar isn't the holy grail, sometimes you just have to see a name to remember it's 'the one'
• The state of local copies isn't shown in the repo list, so you have to visit each one by one. I know I have dozens (if not more) local copies that I have deleted, but can't see which ones. Can't find them easily either, since again, the list closes all the time and you have to find where you left off.
• No multi selection to remove repos or update at once. Can't do it easily, because the list... you get the picture

I guess there would be more problems, but just making the sidebar always on would make these problems at least a little bit easier to tackle. Screen real estate isn't a problem for me as much as not having an overview is... Or at least save the repo list scroll bar position if nothing else.

[joshaber]

Thanks for taking the time to write all that down, @attilam! That's really helpful feedback.

[rlabrecque]

Here's a good thread with similar feedback, It's for SourceTree, but I feel like the arguments are identical for GHD as well.
https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/SRCTREEWIN-7176
It's their one of their most commented, most voted, and most watched issues.

[gingerbeardman]

Really could do with this, hopefully it comes soon.

How about right clicking on the Repo List tab gives an option to pin it “always open”?

[mort666]

@gingerbeardman alas it will probably never be fixed.. It seems that the 'Design Decision' to create extra steps and hurdles in the workflows who use more than two repos for their development activities is not a concern of the development team because their 'metrics' say we don't need it, which is plainly not the case..

I think the only way this will be addressed is by forking this version of the client here and adding it ourselves or stick with the only version of the Github desktop client that meets our requirements, one that you can no longer download.

[gingerbeardman]

Sad but, most likely, true.

[artberger]

I was very surprised when I downloaded the new GHD version and found that not only did it not port over my repositories from classic, but also that it did not even support the old view, which I relied upon to switch back and forth, particularly between staging & prod repos and repos for similar microservices in our product. I'm deleting the new GHD and will just continue to use Classic.

Thanks for leaving this issue open and for considering to restore this important functionality back into the product.

[nicolasbadia]

It's been a few month now that I'm using the new GHD and I still not get use to the lack of the side bar... It is so anoying to have to type the first 3 characters of each repo I want to open, instead of a single simple click.
I still hope to see it back soon. It is for me the only missing feature.
If you decide to add it back, it could be awesome to be able the sort the repos alphabetically or by last used / most used order.

[brianjenkins94]

This is the only reason why I'm still using the Native version.

[billygriffin]

Hi folks, thanks for weighing in on this. We're looking at this more holistically in #6460, so while I can't promise we're going to implement the always open sidebar, we are researching the various problems that people have in navigating between a bunch of repos and making that process easier and less painful. Since we're researching the problems there and iterating, I'm going to close this issue. Please feel free to weigh in on #6460 if you think anything you experience isn't properly captured.

[gingerbeardman]

How disappointing.

[KnIfER]

Electron Apps are webpages. You can always inject user script/styles to modify the behaviour and look.

here is my workaround : GitHubDesktop pin repository list - gist

20240602_163243_Concat.0_Concat.No.0.mp4

clicking on the left edge of screen is my unique design, feeling like a sniper game : quick & accurate —— Use right-click to toggle the pinning state of repository list, then use left-click to toggle it's visibility.