Re: Too many editor tabs?

After reading some more comments, I come with yet another vision :-)

Let's get rid of editor tabs completely. Instead, enhance functionality 
of the Navigator panel such that it allows quick navigation between open 
files:

+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| ConfigDialog.java  |                                          |
| Main.java //////// |                                          |
| ValueComparator.ja |                                          |
| config.xml         |                                          |
+--------------------+                                          |
| Main()             |                                          |
| main(String args[] |                                          |
| version()          |                                          |
| toString()         |                                          |
|                    |                                          |
.                    .                                          |
.                    .                                          |
.                    .                                          |
|                    |                                          |
+--------------------+------------------------------------------+

The currently opened file is highlighted in the list of opened files 
(the top left part). Below the list, there is a navigator for the 
selected file.

There is an action for switching between open files (e.g. Ctrl-Tab). 
This action activates the list of opened files. To switch to another 
file, you select its name in the list and press Enter - the file is 
opened in the editor and the editor receives focus.

As the selection changes in the list of open files, contents of the 
navigator updates so that a structure of the currently selected files is 
always displayed.

When in the list of opened files, the user may also press Tab (instead 
of Enter) which leads them to the navigator panel where they can select 
an individual element (method/constructor/etc.). Pressing Enter in the 
list opens the selected file in the editor and jumps to the selected 
element.

During navigation (debugging, Ctrl-clicking, etc.), no extra component 
is opened/displayed. When a not-yet visited file is displayed, its name 
is added to the bottom of the list of opened files, with a special 
markup (slanted, gray, etc.), marking it as "semi-opened". As soon as 
the user leaves the file, its name is removed from the list (if the 
navigation leads to a regular open file) or replaced with a name of 
another semi-opened file.

Semi-opened files can be changed to regular open files quickly with a 
simple action (e.g. by pressing Enter on the name of the semi-opened 
file in the list of files). The only immediate visual change is that the 
file name loses its special markup. When the user navigates out of the 
file, it is not removed from the list of open files.

There is a "history" action (similar to the one known from Firefox, IE 
and other web browsers). When the action is invoked, the list of file 
elements (the bottom left part) disappears, the list of open files (the 
top left part) vertically expands and a list of previously semi-opened 
file is added below the list of regular open files (with a special 
markup). As soon as the user selects one file, the navigator returns to 
the original state, i.e. it displays both a list of files and a list of 
elements.

Marian