first of all: I really like this software, well done!
However, when more often working with it, I always have to move between those small windows like for attributes, code and design.
Often I'm re-arranging their width, then moving back and so on.
This is of course not efficient. For my point of view, it would be great to have the option to undock the code window into a separate (hopefully full-screen) window.
And then to be able to toggle view between coding and ux (I'm duing this with alt-tab)
Coding view should still contain the different tabs like for css, js etc. Here it would be great to jump into next/previous tab with alt-pageUp or alt-pageDown
Thanks for the suggestion! This would be a great addition to the application. We've considered the ability to detach panels in the past but decided to leave it for when we have a better idea how this would work.
In your example for detaching the code area, one thing that is problematic is what should happen when you switch to a different design. Should the contents of the second window be replaced with the editors for the new design? Should you be able to open another code view? How will people associate the second window with the correct design then?
These are all usability, and not technical issues. I will love to hear your opinion on this.
I would think it would do the same as it does now wouldn't it? If you have a specific project open and you open another project the windows should all follow whatever project is focused same as it does now. If you close the last project it should close the editor window.
I was messing around in Pinegrow, nice editor, but not as nice as this one smiles, but it does have a lot of nice features and the breakout of the code editor is one of them. They added a little button at the top of the editor window to allow you to detach it easily. This way if you close the last editor window, it's very easy to reopen the detached window when you open or start a new project.
If you open another project, then the contents of the window should follow whatever element you select in that newly opened project same as it does now.
If you open another project, but nothing is selected yet, then have the window be empty maybe? If you switch back to the other open project then the window would show whatever element is currently selected, same as it was before you swapped to the 2nd opened project.
I guess in the end, I would just say, let it work the way it does now and really the only change would be what to do if all projects are closed, and that to me would just say "close the detached editor window".
Important: I would like to also stress the importance of having it remember the locations you set it at last. In other words, each window that detaches should remember the last location it was positioned at when the app is turned off so that they go back to those positions when you detach them again. Right now the app itself doesn't do that so you'd probably have to initialize that in the app itself as well in order for the rest to work. The app seems to open on whichever monitor is considered active by the time the startup of the app reaches a specific spot of the startup. This means if you don't click the other monitor fast enough, you will get the app loading in the wrong monitor. It seems to default to the main monitor of my Mac (or to my Mac since it's all built in lol). Anyways, that's what I would consider as important as having them break out the windows, so that we don't have to reposition them every time we open the app. That would be very helpful as well.
If you keep it logical & easy to activate/deactivate I'm sure it will be good no matter what you do to implement it. :)
sorry for not replying earlier! I agree to Jo: If we consider each project as separate instance, then the editor would show each related files accordingly.
+1 - This addition would be so helpful, and I also agree with Jo, the content should follow the active/open project - Besides since we have that sexy function ctrl + c and v, one would easily be able to switch to another open project at the top copy needed code and switch back to the project you want the code in. Easy right?
@martin, I guess the idea that if you have an open project and open another, the detached windows would effectively open another set of those windows for the newly opened project and so on. This would mimic the behavior you see in things like the Dev Tools of web browsers that they spawn a new Dev tool console for each tab that you open the Dev tools on. But if you switch pages within a single project you then the detached components for that project should update accordingly, similar to how the web browsers do.
I'd be happy if you did it the way that VSCode, and lots of other editing tools, do it and just hide the window/panel when we don't need it. For example, being able to toggle/pin the "Components/Overview" and "Options/Design" panels would open up the centre panel so I can work on the HTML and CSS more easily.
VSCode is SDI, so only one project/folder is open at a time. I don't have a problem with that.
I have a problem with that. I would definitely prefer it to allow us to utilize the multiple monitor setups that many of us use. Just expanding the area of the main window doesn't give us anywhere near the flexibility we are asking for and for what this thread was started for.
Also agree with this.
I run a triple 24 inch monitor setup and this program feels too cramped in one window.
Running the windows version yet to try the OSX install.
When doing custom code I have to pull up the drawer do the code collapse the drawer again to see the preview then pull up the drawer to do the css and on and on.
I would love to be able to just detach windows and stick them on a second monitor so I have the game maker on the primary, custom code, attributes and options on my secondary etc that way I don't need to pull up and collapse drawers all the time to do things.
On OSX for example with Adobe and most other products you can do this have the main design on the primary monitor and tools and other things on a second one to have a reduced cluttered workflow.