Re: Tab bar

[Juri Linkov <juri@jurta.org>]

>     Just as web browsers provide an option to choose between opening pages
>     in a new tab or in the same tab, and similarly to the Emacs option
>     `pop-up-frames', we could create a new user option `pop-up-tabs' whose
>     non-nil value will always display a new buffer in a new tab, and we
>     could even set it to non-nil by default for the convenience of new users.
>
> This idea makes no sense to me.

Is this because you don't use web browsers?  In most modern web browsers
a tab displays a web page, but the same tab can switch between different
web pages (so web pages are equivalent to Emacs buffers).  When the user
wants to visit a new page, then depending on such option, the browser
can either open it in the same tab or create a new tab.  Often this
preference can't be defined in advance, so there are special keys
to choose between these options, e.g. simply clicking <mouse-1> on
a link opens a web page in the same tab, but <C-mouse-1> opens it
in a new tab.

> If the default usage of the tab bar is to switch buffers in the
> selected window, then every new buffer will inevitably get a "new tab"
> regardless of how it is displayed.  So what question are you
> talking about?

Of course, selecting a tab to switch buffers should not create a new tab
(internally this can be implemented using functions like `switch-to-buffer'
that don't create a new window or a new tab), but if the user invokes
a command that calls `display-buffer' then a new option `pop-up-tabs'
makes sense to allow displaying it in a new tab just as `pop-up-frames'
allows displaying it in a new frame.

-- 
Juri Linkov
http://www.jurta.org/emacs/