Re: Tab bar

[David De La Harpe Golden <david@harpegolden.net>]

Juri Linkov wrote:


>  I think we should do this as soon as possible because
> this single feature can improve Emacs usability for most users that expect
> a tab bar is a standard editor feature.
> 
> 


I think someone's already mentioned this several threads ago: there
needs to be some clear separation of concerns regarding "tab bars"

tabs in tab bars themselves are just gui widgets nothing more -  Indeed
much like icons in tool bars, just drawn a bit differently.  I don't
see why emacs shouldn't support a tab bar GUI widget or multiple widgets
(say toplevel tab bar for each toplevel frame, and tab bars for each
window (emacs window), perhaps with configurable positions)

But people keep talking about various other editors' features that are
"hung off" tabs kind of as if they _are_ what tabs are - such features,
while perhaps exposed to the user through tab widgets, should be clearly
separated from the tab GUI widget itself.

e.g. in some editors and browsers, clicking on tab-shaped GUI widgets
might well switch between top-level-frame-like things/ intra-app
subwindow configurations, perspectives... or they may just tab through
several pages of toolbars with tiny little icons (gah! I hate that), or
just switch buffers (therefore being considered attached to the
subwindow not the toplevel), or whatever.   They tend to be for
switching between stuff as a matter of convention, but what they switch
between varies.

(Personally I've always considered the top-level-frame-switcher sort of
tab bar rightly a tabbing WM's job (e.g. pwm), really, but that's not
the way people went for the most part, presumably since you don't see
tabbing WMs on windows/mac -  but if you're using a tabbing WM, then
multiple emacs toplevel frames can _already_ be tabbed between in the
"one" window system window, and the advent of browser "tabs" was pretty
uninteresting too...)