Tabs and tabs...

Hi!

Just a couple wishes about UI.

I wonder if it'd be hard work to implement multi-tabs canvas, like excel or processing? Has the idea been around?

Would it be possible to display icons instead of text in the toolbar tabs to reduce width (just like Rh5)? The horizontal scroll is a bit troublesome.

By the way, back then the receiver component had a very keen Go To feature. I'd love to see it again.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on March 11, 2013 at 5:04am

I wonder if it'd be hard work to implement multi-tabs canvas, like excel or processing? Has the idea been around?

You just want a tab-row for open documents on the canvas? You can press Ctrl+Tab to cycle between documents quickly.

Would it be possible to display icons instead of text in the toolbar tabs to reduce width (just like Rh5)? The horizontal scroll is a bit troublesome.

I concur tab scrolling is a major drag (ha! pun!). It's slightly problematic to have icons on tabs as it is not clear exactly who is in charge of supplying these icons. Tabs are created at runtime and they are populated by any number of GHA files. Which one is in charge of supplying the icon?

It's not the biggest problem I've ever faced though, there are definitely solutions possible. Another possibility would be to use Mac OS style scrolling when the width of the full-size tabs exceeds the window width. There's some patents there so I have to be careful.

By the way, back then the receiver component had a very keen Go To feature. I'd love to see it again.

Once wires become clickable objects this is something I'd like to implement. Double-click on a wire end and it transports you to the other end. In the meantime you'll have to use named views or jump objects.

David Rutten

david@mcneel.com

Poprad, Slovakia

Permalink Reply by Fred Becquelin on March 11, 2013 at 5:20am

You could display text if there is no icon available. If you want to create your own tab as a user or component developer you may or may not supply one. Obviously you would have to supply for the standard gh tabs my dear friend ;) It'd still gain space.

I didn't know you were onto clickable wires. Cool!

I meant one document with several canvases. Excel or Precessing like.

When Grasshopper 2.0 will be out, it'll include lots of features like enable/disable a whole tab, Export as cluster, Iteration maybe...

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on March 11, 2013 at 5:34am

You could display text if there is no icon available.

I was thinking more about if there's more than one icon provided for a tab.

I meant one document with several canvases. Excel or Precessing like.

So these then aren't views onto a single document, but actually disconnected parts of the file? Do these parts communicate in any way? I'm not very good at either processing or Excel, so you'll need to be specific about how it works in those apps and how you'd like it to work in GH.

Is it just easier bookkeeping with multiple documents wrapped up into a single *.gh file or is there some other problem you're trying to solve with tabs?

David Rutten

david@mcneel.com

Poprad, Slovakia

Permalink Reply by Chris Tietjen on March 11, 2013 at 5:44am

On the topic of horizontal scrolling would it be possible to make the clickable target on a tab (or maybe it's got something to do with the cursor) larger than it currently is? I find it difficult to locate the target with the horizontal scrolling cursor and I'm often clicking several times on a tab to get it to open where with the normal cursor this is never a problem.

Permalink Reply by djordje on March 11, 2013 at 6:06am

I am sometimes having the same issue - clicking several times on a tab, in order to open it.

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on March 11, 2013 at 7:52am

It's not the size of the target, it's actually that GH gets confused about whether you want to click or drag. It too often thinks you want to drag the tabs. I'll need to rethink the whole tab layout, maybe switch from "Params", "Maths", "Sets", "Vector" etc. to "P", "M", "S", "V" or indeed to icons when it gets tight.

David Rutten

david@mcneel.com

Poprad, Slovakia

Permalink Reply by djordje on March 11, 2013 at 8:07am

Thanks.

Would maybe something like this solve the issue:

Instead of scrolling the tabs, maybe an arrow could appear at the right and left of the tab line endings, in case the number of tabs exceeds the size of the grasshopper window. Clicking on arrows would move the tab line.

Just a suggestion.

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on March 11, 2013 at 8:35am

That's a very 1980's solution. I dislike it because if a tab on the overflow it's never visibly selected.

David Rutten

david@mcneel.com

Poprad, Slovakia

Permalink Reply by djordje on March 11, 2013 at 8:41am

I did not understand you: if a tab on the overflow?

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on March 14, 2013 at 4:57am

David Rutten

david@mcneel.com

Poprad, Slovakia

Permalink Reply by phillip on March 14, 2013 at 5:18am

I love it!

What is going to happen with tabs, where no Icons are provided, if you change display mode?

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on March 14, 2013 at 5:26am

I provide a default icon, but of course it's the same for all of them. I think I'll display the first letter of the tab if otherwise you'd only see the default icon.

David Rutten

david@mcneel.com

Poprad, Slovakia