POLL: Remove 'Show close button on each tab' option

Lycan Thrope

@Coises said in Remove 'Show close button on each tab' option:

Notepad++ is for folks who want customization and control — those who want simplicity should probably look elsewhere.

Yeah, like Notepad.exe. :-)

Closing by the X, or right clicking and selecting close or pushing some key combo to close it is fine. If it makes your job easier, @donho then go for it. It’s your baby and if anyone complains later, you’ll hear about it. :-)

If you mean, just removing it from the preferences options dialog box and or the code base, by all means do it. Some things, unless extremely important, are just feature creep, most of the time…but your survey may help.

Alan Kilborn

I don’t use it, and never have. EDIT: by “don’t use it”, I mean the feature of having x on the tabs, NOT the “preference” setting – I use the preference setting to GET RID OF THE x!

Well… since the x is default to appearing (i.e., “on”), maybe I tried it in the beginning, but the first time the little x got clicked by accident (mouse stutter) and closed a tab I really didn’t want to be closed, I disabled it …permanently.

Since the default is “on”, if it is removed I predict a lot of complaints.

Testing it now by turning it “on” (temporarily) I see that it makes my number-of-tab-rows increase by 1 due to the additional screen real-estate needed – yuck!

xomx

@Alan-Kilborn said in Remove 'Show close button on each tab' option:

Since the default is “on”, if it is removed I predict a lot of complaints.

Yeah, they are using it, they even points to this “outstanding” N++ capability in theirs requests to other SW:

“…I need an option to remove close button from tabs because some times it get closed by accident when I am just trying to select it not to close it specially if I have many tabs opened I’ve seen this feature in notepad++…”

Personally, I do not use this Preferences option.

Snabel42

@Alan-Kilborn my interpretation of the question is that the current default behavior would remain.
The change would be to remove the option to hide the close button(s): “(Always show close button)”

Is that not the proposal?

Alan Kilborn

@Snabel42 said:

my interpretation of the question is that the current default behavior would remain.

The change would be to remove the option to hide the close button(s): “(Always show close button)”

Is that not the proposal?

You are probably right. I probably need to change how I voted. :-)

If the proposal is to merely remove the option and to always show the x on every tab, then IMO this is an extremely misguided idea and I hope it doesn’t happen.

Make code less complex and easier to be maintained.

This has got to be an extremely small complexity reduction. So small, when compared to all of the other bugs/requests that an aspiring developer could tackle, it’s downright negligible. So negligible in fact, I wonder why it is even being discussed…

datatraveller1

@xomx said in Remove 'Show close button on each tab' option:

“…I need an option to remove close button from tabs because some times it get closed by accident when I am just trying to select it not to close it specially if I have many tabs opened I’ve seen this feature in notepad++…”

Yes, exactly. Personally, I would even go further and suggest a new option “Confirm before closing multiple tabs” like FireFox has got one. It happens quite often that I accidentally close Notepad++ with many unchanged files opened and I have to open all these files again - but this is probably another topic or a new feature request.

Lycan Thrope

@datatraveller1 said in POLL: Remove 'Show close button on each tab' option:

It happens quite often that I accidentally close Notepad++ with many unchanged files opened and I have to open all these files again

Not sure I understand the problem here, unless you have the Remember current session for next launch option turned off. That would seem to the solution for that problem.

@donho If I understand the question now, that you’re thinking of removing the option to shut it off, then, I have to agree with the others, that removing the option might be a missed feature. I apologize if I didn’t understand the complete scenario, so I’ve changed my vote.

Mark Olson

I definitely would keep the x button visible by default to minimize confusion for noobs, and given that many people prefer having no x button, it seems obvious to me that the default is fine.

Alan Kilborn

@datatraveller1 said :

… suggest a new option “Confirm before closing multiple tabs” … but this is probably … a new feature request.

This is a good idea, and yes, it would be a new feature request (please make one).

datatraveller1

@Alan-Kilborn I have noticed this feature request already exists:
https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus/issues/15362

So maybe we can create a new poll if needed sometime.

donho

The motivation of this poll is due to the code review for the implementation of the feature Pin Tab:
https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus/pull/15750

Now I see people are against this idea so “Enable pin tab feature” will be optional as well:

Thank you for your votes & sharing your opinion!

Lycan Thrope

@donho,
I like this idea, although, honestly, right now if I want a document left open, I just leave it open after saving before shutting it down, although to speed up opening, I do usually close all documents and use the Files->Recent Files menu option, set to 30 documents listed. So although I find this an interesting/useful feature, it doesn’t usually come into play in my use case, but the option to turn it on or off, as well as the Close button on the tab does appear to be needed. I suspect the speed of opening will be sped up with it off, although I could be wrong.

Alan Kilborn

Let’s think more about Show close button on each tab.

As I tried to state above, for myself I don’t like to have a close button showing on each tab, because it is too easy for an errant mouse click to close something I don’t want closed, then I have to reopen and reposition it in the tab order – blech!

With the upcoming pin-tab feature, perhaps it is likely for a user to, again accidentally, hit the close button instead of the pin button when attempting to pin a tab. Let’s face it, these buttons are fairly small…

(Just so everyone knows, I don’t have any physical ailments that cause me to make errant mouse clicks, I just find them surprisingly easy to make.)

I’ve noticed in other software I use that the close button on the tab only appears on the active tab. This makes an accidental closure a lot less likely, and keeps the tabs “less wide” generally, because no space is dedicated for this little button.

So… let me state that I don’t ever enable Show close button on each tab…but if the feature were “Show close button on active tab” then I probably would enable that.

Snabel42

@Alan-Kilborn I second this, close button on active tab would be my choice as well

Alan Kilborn

@Snabel42 said:

close button on active tab would be my choice as well

I will make a feature request for that.

(I think maybe this POLL thread has “gone off the rails” a bit from where @donho was thinking it would go)

xomx

@Alan-Kilborn said in POLL: Remove 'Show close button on each tab' option:

close button on active tab would be my choice as well
I will make a feature request for that.

Already suggested once:
https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus/issues/15298

Alan Kilborn

@xomx said:

Already suggested once: …

Thanks for pointing that out.
Unfortunately, that issue was closed with a commit that had absolutely nothing to do with the request, which was entitled “Hide Close button on inactive tabs”. Lovely.

Note that I commented in a negative fashion (about the requested feature) in that issue thread. I’ve since changed my mind about it. That’s allowed, right?

donho

@Alan-Kilborn
The best I can do:
https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus/pull/15781

Alan Kilborn

@donho said in POLL: Remove 'Show close button on each tab' option:

The best I can do

And very nice indeed.
Now I can use the close-button-on-tab feature!
Thank you for your effort.
But if that is the way it is (no option), perhaps some will miss the old behavior (seeing a close button on all tabs including inactive ones).

donho

@Alan-Kilborn said in POLL: Remove 'Show close button on each tab' option:

Now I can use the close-button-on-tab feature!

Nice to hear of it :)

But if that is the way it is (no option), perhaps some will miss the old behavior (seeing a close button on all tabs including inactive ones).

The behaviour stays the same, only the visual effect is different. I do believe that the disturbing will pass away after few days of the usage anyway.
There will be no option for the new behaviour.