Setting for orientation of multiple editors

[zpcspm]

This is a feature request for a setting that complements the "initial_split_orientation"
config option by describing the orientation of multiple editors in the Qt GUI.

I'm using initial_split_orientation = horizontal and I would like to
see multiple editors split vertically, not horizontally.

For reference: http://groups.google.com/group/leo-editor/browse_thread/thread/b9e349bb7a27f1ef

[Ville M. Vainio (villemvainio)]

I don't think an option for this makes sense - the orientation of editors should automatically follow from split orientation. You can toggle the split orientation by alt-x toggle-split-orientation, and the editors should follow this at runtime also.

[zpcspm (zpcspm)]

As pointed by Vicent in the google groups thread, there seems to be already such an option: "editor_orientation". The problem is that it doesn't work with the Qt GUI, which is the default now. It works with the Tk GUI.

If this will be implemented for the Qt GUI as well, I'd suggest also adding a command similar to "toggle-split-direction", that will make it possible to toggle the orientation of editors on-the fly.

Ville, I disagree that the orientation of editors should be tied to the orientation of the split. Here is my motivation:

Use case 1:

Two editors are opened for two nodes. The body of nodes contain source code. It is better for the editors to be oriented vertically, because otherwise the code will become less readable: single lines will get split to multiple lines or will get partially hidden depending on wrapping settings for editors.

Use case 2:

Two node bodies contain two lists of short strings. In this case in might be better to have the editors oriented horizontally, visual diff would work better this way.

I believe these are valid situations and prove that allowing the user to manipulate the orientation of editors won't add unnecessary bloat to the codebase of leo.

[Ville M. Vainio (villemvainio)]

On Tue, Jul 28, 2009 at 9:42 PM, zpcspm<email address hidden> wrote:

> Use case 2:
>
> Two node bodies contain two lists of short strings. In this case in
> might be better to have the editors oriented horizontally, visual diff
> would work better this way.

Ah, visual diff. Good point.

--
Ville M. Vainio
http://tinyurl.com/vainio