Ability to persist, restore, switch between and sync multiple VSCode layouts (panels, views, sidebars, editor groups, etc)

[abflow]

With the recent addition of a right sidebar (#128599) and considering the thousands of different extensions in the marketplace offering their own unique views and activities, we need a way to persist and switch between multiple VSCode layouts (a particular set of panels, sidebars location and sidebar items visibility, editor groups, status bar items, etc), as well as the ability to sync them between devices and between vscode.dev and VSCode Desktop.

For example, one can have different layouts for coding in different languages, another one for debugging, another one for reviewing PRs, etc, in which one can setup the panels, views, status bar and sidebars according to the particular activity.

One could have for example a layouts.json file which would store all the different layouts in structured data that could be synced along with the VSCode settings.

It has been requested to be able to store a default starting editor layout (#137892), but it is not sufficient as it does not allow multi-tasking with different VSCode layouts in the same session, and does not allow to save and restore different layout settings for particular activities.

[abflow]

Another use case associated with it is when working on different computers with different screen estate as mentioned in this comment.

One may have a fairly simple layout for working on a laptop, and then a different, more complex layout when working with a wide monitor or AR screen. The ability to easily switch between different layout configurations would solve those issues as well.

[cognominal]

@abflow Even on the same computer, if one screencasts, he will likely choose a lower screen resolution than working alone as I said in
#140742 (comment)
As a result he will likely choose a different screen layout.
Just one another new use case.

[abflow]

@cognominal, that is very true, there are many situations when switching to a different preregistered layout would be very convenient, such as screencasting too.

The thing is that we are at 10 days of the backlog deadline and not many people upvoted it, so I'm skeptical about it being implemented. It may be an indicator that most VSCode users do not use fully the software to its maximal potential, and thus are not really aware of the utility to have different layouts at this date.

[cognominal]

@abflow vscode is a rich and complex but beginner friendly editor. These modal configurations are a concern only when you are reaching some proficiency. Personally, in the short and middle term, I am more concerned with the the total lack of support for raku language. Lack of support of Language Services. More generally the textmate contextual regex system does not cut it for rich contextual languages like raku. This can be addressed through semantic highlighting though. I hope I will reach a sufficient level of proficiency in ts and vscode APIs to contribute something in this area in a few months.

This to say, interest for the current issue is low because there are more pressing issues and if implementation and docs are not done properly, this would make vscode even more complex to learn.
Also people have seen and used that feature in other editors and made clear this was for them a prerequisite to switch to vscode.
So I am confident this issue will be revived in the future.

The current issue related to many long standing issues that have been closed like #367.
You may get the necessary upvotes by listing these related issues in this thread.

correction : or not, new mentions of an issue do not appear when its discussion is closed. But listing the related issues is useful in its own right.