"Tentative discussion": Multiple windows in one process?

[i336]

I've been using Geany for longer than I'd like to admit. It certainly isn't the worst editor I've used. I'm yet to find something I can straightforwardly switch over to without too much re-thinking. This being said, there are a few, er, design decisions that occasionally hit my usability thresholds and momentarily prompt serious (re)consideration of what else is out there. For now, nothing else meets my criteria, so I thought I'd complain about Geany a bit. :P

One of the big issues I face is the "way too many open tabs" problem. Chrome "solves" this by simply falling apart at the seams if there are too many tabs in a window. Definitely a hacky approach to UX design; it prompts users to discover the wonder of m̩͈̊͂u̩̟̾́l͈͇̀̒t͍̞̎́ḭ̥̊͘p̞͔͐̄ḻ̛̜͌ě͔͔͘ ͉̜̔̃ẁ̖͖͛í͉̦̀n̜̯͐͒ḑ̳̆͌o̳͆̅ͅŵ̟͖̾s̖͕̒̾ of too many tabs ę̷̳̝̙̰̯̞̮͇͈͍̝̪͉a̶̡̧̝͙̹͉̲̮͉̖͎̜̹̠̫͜c̷̨̢̢͖͍͍͓̺̫͙̪͎̱ͅh̴̢̢̨̨̤͓̝̙̞̙̦̩͍̣̘̻, which d̛͙͉̹̤̳͊̃̒̕e͇̹̗̟͙̎̇́̓͑ȅ͔̯̖̺͚̒̆̾͆p̦̤͚̜̀̈́̓̂̕͜ë̢͉͔̙͈̃̿̕͝ň̟̤̥͚̦͋̂͗̍s͍̜͈͚̫̐̉̅̓͠ ̲̗̫̖͔͗̀͂̍͌t̡̪̹̹̤̾͑͌͌̐h͙̺̥͍͕͑̇̄͒̽ē̼̦̰͉̖̑͑̄̑ ̨̼̬̩̏̎̔̌͝ͅr̹̣̻͔͛̂̓̍́͜ą̛͚͈̙̦̓̉̀̕b̧̠̦̹̈́̃̏͌̔ͅb̩̱͓̤͑̑̎́̇ͅi͖͓̫͍͈̅̉̂̽̓t̼̺̤̞̜̃̑͆̍̎h̤̠̲̥̦͑̅̃̐́ő̲̦̘̗͎̑̋̋͝l̲̦̞̘̮̐̔̂̄̈́e̟̲͎͉̳̐̆́̊͘ temporarily mitigates things somewhat.

Geany provides no such opportunity; I'm stuck lumping files I occasionally edit every six months but don't want to forget about into the same spot as code I'm currently working on. (Project files too are heavily self-specifying/opinionated for me to apply them as a generic solution to this problem.) Being reminded of old things and "ah, that old tab, no don't accidentally cl--agh, go and reopen it, okay now go drag it all the way to the left" tends to be very flow-breaking.

I'm currently trying to work around this issue by opening multiple instances, but that introduces problems of its own (see #1834). Besides the implementation bugs, the biggest gripe is the clunkiness of the UI.

It would be awesome if I could drag tabs between instances.

It would certainly be possible to use drag-n-drop and X11 IPC to do a complex dance to "move" files between instances. But that would be a ton of work for one comparatively tiny feature.

[elextr]

Chrome "solves" this by simply falling apart at the seams if there are too many tabs in a window.

We can arrange that Geany falls apart at the seams too if you like, but I suspect all the tabs will fall out the holes 😁

Please do not do whatever it is that you did to make Github fall apart at the seams 😁 with some of your text, dunno what you are saying there. (Check encoding?)

GTK supports drag and drop of tabs, it just needs somebody to code it, but note that there is a fair bit of stuff hidden behind a tab that you have to handle, perhaps by only transferring the file path and re-opening it in the new instance. It would have to be saved in the old instance too.

You are aware you can already drag text between instances?

[ghost]

Are strange encodings used? My browser shows like ... 5% gibberish at the threadstarter's post.

Anyway. I remember that drag-and-drop was somewhat doable with ruby-gtk, and that was back in gtk2. I am not familiar with gtk3 but I guess it must exist for gtk3 as well.

I never tried to drag tabs between different INSTANCES of a program, but I believe this should also be possible in theory. Do we know of any program that does that? Perhaps there is already code for that which just could be tweaked to achieve that.

[elextr]

@shevegen just like dragging text between instances, its possible to drag the GTK tab object, but there is a lot of Geany stuff behind the simple GUI object, and thats not going to be handled automatically. As I said it may be easier to have the drag close the file and re-open it in the new instance so everything gets set up properly.