Does the Alpha Tab plugin work at all with IDEA 903?

Hello Dave,

Most likely the plugin was written for IDEA's old tab implementation, which
used standard Swing tabs instead of the custom ones we use now.

Note that the recommended way to navigate between open files in IDEA is to
use actions like Ctrl-N (Goto Class) and Ctrl-E (Recent Files), rather than
switching tabs by mouse.

Or maybe I don't understand what it's suppsoed to do. I was looking
for a solution to the problem of finding the tab for the file I want
when I have a large number of files open.

I thought it was supposed to keep the tabs in alpha order by file
name, but when I open file-c, file-b, file-a in that order, that's the
order the tabs are listed. I've tried setting tabs to show in a single
row, and on the right, no difference, the plugin appears to do
nothing.

It's also supposed to bold the active tab, butI see no difference in
how that's done with the plugin enabled and that setting checked or
unchecked. IDEA shows it in a lighter color anyway, so I don't care
about this a lot, but it's more evidence that the plugin simply does
not work.

Are others seeing this? Any other suggested usability improvements
with a large number of files open?

Thanks,
Dave
---
Original message URL:
http://devnet.jetbrains.net/message/5270208#5270208

--
Dmitry Jemerov
Development Lead
JetBrains, Inc.
http://www.jetbrains.com/
"Develop with Pleasure!"

Thanks for your reply.

As to other ways to navigate between open files, I work primarily in ColdFusion/JavaScript/HTML/CSS/SQL/XML, so Go toClass isn't so helpful :|.

I use ctrl-tab quite often, but a) the one most recent file isn't all I need to get at, and b) I've found its action to be somewhat erratic. Most often it goes to the last file I touched, as I'd expect, but not infrequently it goes to some not-at-all-recently-viewed open file, or focusses a tool panel I haven't touched for quite a while. Wierd, and kind of annoying.

Opening it as Switcher rather than just a shortcut key is sometimes useful, but the files aren't in alpha order there either. Some kind of picker with all open files/tabs in alpha order (or even better, selectable alpha or last-touched order) would be helpful. Does such a thing exist that I don't know about?

I've also been using the navigation bar, which is great.

Thanks again,
Dave

Hello Dave,

As to other ways to navigate between open files, I work primarily in
ColdFusion/JavaScript/HTML/CSS/SQL/XML, so Go toClass isn't so helpful

Then you can use Goto File (Ctrl-Shift-N), which works for any file type.

--
Dmitry Jemerov
Development Lead
JetBrains, Inc.
http://www.jetbrains.com/
"Develop with Pleasure!"

Very cool, one more thing I didn't know about. I really need to find the time to read the docs all the way through; as it is, I'm pretty literally learning on the job.

You know, I really love IDEA. This is yet another example of its millions of productivity and code quality features. I work a lot in ColdFusion, where there are parsing and function discovery issues with the plugin that lessen some of the good stuff, and I'm still happier than I've ever been with an editor.

Ok, I'm done now...

Dave

Say I have the filename or project-root-relative path to the file I want selected in the editor. Is there a shortcut to open the same dlg as ctrl-shift-N, with that selected text in the box already? I know I can copy it, do ctrl-shift-N, then paste, and that'd be fine, just wondering if there's yet another shortcut I don't know about. Seems like a common thing to want to do.

Thanks,
Dave

Hello Dave,

No, there is no such shortcut. You should be able to use Tools | Start Macro
Recording to record a macro that performs that sequence, but as far as I
know the macro functionality has some known issues at the moment, so it may
not work in the current version.

Say I have the filename or project-root-relative path to the file I
want selected in the editor. Is there a shortcut to open the same dlg
as ctrl-shift-N, with that selected text in the box already? I know I
can copy it, do ctrl-shift-N, then paste, and that'd be fine, just
wondering if there's yet another shortcut I don't know about. Seems
like a common thing to want to do.

--
Dmitry Jemerov
Development Lead
JetBrains, Inc.
http://www.jetbrains.com/
"Develop with Pleasure!"

Filed a feature request, seems pretty easy I'd guess.
   http://youtrack.jetbrains.net/issue/IDEA-57690?projectKey=CFML

Haven't tried macros yet, good to know they don't actually work before I get involved (;-).

Thanks again,
Dave

Hmmm, I filed that against IDEA itself, but the link seems to have picked up the project key from where I was browsing at the time. Shold be this:
   http://youtrack.jetbrains.net/issue/IDEA-57690

Not that it probably matters to you...

Dave