Re: nb 4.1 feature request

Alan Stange wrote:
> Hello all,
> 
> I've been using the 4.1 Q build.  Works great.   I have 2 requests:
> 
> 1)  it would be great if somehow one could color the editor tabs in some 
> way that correlated with the project.  So, when I'm editing File F from  
> Release X of my project, all the tabs might have a red underline on the 
> file name, while File F from Release Y would have a blue underline.  Of 
> course, Release X is in Netbeans project X and Release Y is in project Y.
> 
> The underline color could default to "invisible" and a user could set 
> the color in the project properties.
> 
> There are some obvious extensions to this as well.  For example, in the 
> projects and files explorers, the left margin of the screen could have 
> this color in it.  For large projects, it's way too see only a list of 
> file names and not the project context.  Cut/Copy/Paste are tricky to 
> use when one can't easily see from where one is cutting, or to where one 
> is pasting, etc.
> 
> Right now, it's way too easy to clobber a file from the wrong project as 
> the only hint in the UI for the project name is in the window title bar.

It wouldn't be hard to do something like this, but I could easily 
imagine it getting more confusing than having nothing there at all; 
also, I use a mac most of the time, which has the ability to set the 
background color of the title of files in the Finder (equivalent of 
Windows Explorer).  I've never actually used this - typically I've found 
that with things which require some setup to use, like this, I'll use it 
the first time, and then never get around to doing it again.

Here's a possible alternative that would solve the problem:  Though it's 
not currently used in NetBeans, there is functionality in 4.1 to allow 
tabs to "blink" - basically they just flash a few times.

What if there were a shortcut that would blink all the files that share 
the same project with the one currently showing in the editor?  That 
would probably be relatively trivial to implement - would it solve the 
problem?

-Tim