Side-Panel Launcher

[dhirschfeld]

Having the Launcher be a Tab in the UI seems a bit strange to me.

Having it pop up as it does, when there are no other tabs open, is I think better than it was before because the little "+" symbol in the Files tab wasn't very discoverable.

I think the Launcher more naturally fits as a pane in the side panel rather than a tab in the document area. A pane in the side panel will also solve the discovery problem but it would still be possible to pop out the Launcher side-panel when there were no other tabs open.

Thoughts?

[ellisonbg]

There is a subtle interaction we are trying to figure out. When you open a launcher from a file browser, that launcher is "bound" to that file browser. If you change the cwd of the file browser the launcher's cwd is updated. Because of this interaction, a common usage case (we have observed this in user tests and our own usage) is to open the launcher and then navigate the linked file browser to a new directory. This interaction really requires both the launcher and file browser to be visible at the same time.

We have made some changes to this interaction in our recent release, and we will still be user testing this to make sure the model is working well. We may not have the final solution, but at least this explains our current state. Hope this helps!

[dhirschfeld]

When you open a launcher from a file browser, that launcher is "bound" to that file browser

Can there be more that one file browser?? If not, you could still link the launcher cwd to that of the file browser. Otherwise, I suppose the launcher cwd could follow the last used/active file browser.

Just musing about UI/UX here, but if the launcher were in a side-panel you could have the cwd shown/editable in a text box / dropdown at the top like in Windows Explorer.

Spyder implements similar:

...but doesn't have multiple file browsers to worry about.

[blink1073]

The google drive extension adds a new file browser. You could also want a separate file browser open on the right side to drag-drop files between two folders more easily.