coteditor
Tabs Don't Work When Opening a Folder Instead of a Single File
Environment
- CotEditor: 5.0.0 (674)
- System: macOS Version 15.0 (Build 24A335)
- Language: English
Short Description
NSWindow tabs cannot be used if I open a folder (such as a website project) in CotEditor. The View > Tab Bar command is greyed out. CMD+T doesn't work. There is no option to select a file in the sidebar and "Open in New Tab". This severely limits CotEditor's usefulness for coding.
Tabs ARE available if I do File > New and simply have a blank document open. I can then create as many tabs as I'd like.
Steps to Reproduce the Issue
- Open a folder of files in CotEditor.
- Try to open multiple files in separate tabs.
Expected Result
- Tabs should be available when I open a folder in CotEditor.
- Double-clicking or option-clicking a file in the sidebar should open that file in a new tab (or switch to the existing tab that contains that file, if any.)
I'd really like to use CotEditor as a replacement for Panic's Nova, but I definitely need the ability to open multiple files from a folder in tabs within a single window so I can quickly jump between them.
Even better: I'd like to open different files in split-view. Splitting the same document isn't as useful and putting two different documents side-by-side so I can reference one while coding in the other.
Yes, It's currently in spec. I'd like to solve this in the future, but I skipped to implement it in 5.0.0.
@bdkjones
Any idea when 5.0.0 might be available?
Today! https://itunes.apple.com/app/coteditor/id1024640650?ls=1
First, congratulations!
Second, I misunderstood. I thought you meant "this feature is coming in 5.0" but you meant "I dropped this feature so I could get 5.0 shipped." In that case, any idea when this feature might land?
In that case, any idea when this feature might land?
I have no idea yet. I will do that within the next year. However, for that, I need to make my own tab views and tab system. It might be hard. The current window tab system provided by Apple is very limited and doesn't work in this case. There isn't an easy way.
Please do not make a custom tab system. This is one of the reasons I ran away from other editors. It should be possible to implement using the Apple system; NSWindow exposes enough API to open tabs (menu item or user preference) or new windows (user preference) using addTabbedWindow(_:ordered:). What did find impossible to implement?
Hello! There is any update on this? With macOS Tahoe the problem persist
That decision should be revisited. There is not another editor that fails to support multiple tabs for various files in a single folder. Even Vim does so.
This single decision caused me to abandon CotEditor. Tabs are a non-negotiable, must-have capability for anyone working on code.
Hi there! I downloaded the source code from GitHub (I’m a web developer but I don’t know Swift). With Claude’s help I managed to restore the use of tabs inside projects as well, and I noticed that tab management was intentionally excluded from opening a project (meant as a set of folders and files) and enabled only when opening individual files. My implementation is obviously (almost certainly) terrible, and for anyone who’s fluent in Swift it definitely won’t be hard to improve!
How can I help?
With Claude’s help
Brave new world
From dev to dev: I didn’t mean to upset anyone, my bad