Re: Re: nb 4.1 feature request

Tim Boudreau wrote:

> 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?


Sending this from my Mac as well...


I think what you describe, some method to visually separate "these" from 
"those" instead of having to mark every package, would be sufficient and 
better than what I was thinking.   I'm somewhat partial to a more 
persistent visual cue like an underlined or bold file name or even an 
extra red dot in the corner of the tab. 

I have nothing against the blink as I think it's a move in the right 
direction, I'm just more partial to something that is always there.

-- Alan