Re: Gtk tabs in emacs, new branch

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

Jan Djärv writes:

 > > I have build that, but when I start Emacs, I don't 'see' any tabs. How
 > > can we enable those? I have a desktop file which opens several file when
 > > I start Emacs, so I would expect to see them in tabs! :-)
 > 
 > I don't think that is a good idea in general.  I have desktopfiles with over 
 > 50 files.  50 tabs isn't manageable.

XEmacs's tabs by default group files by mode (cc-mode, make-mode,
LaTeX-mode), and the tabs list the top N according to "buffer-list".
I *do not* think this is optimal, and wrote a proof-of-concept
"group-by-project" mode.  Nobody uses that, everybody uses the default
mode, and nobody complains (although people typically respond
enthusiastically when somebody suggests alternative uses of the tabs,
that itch has for some reason never been scratched despite
availability of proof-of-concept).

In XEmacs, buffer-list gives a frame-specific grouping, which works
well.

Bottom line: put a limit on the number of tabs, and use the first N in
buffer-list (perhaps filtered by mode).  This is good enough to start
with (Jan himself might opt to turn them off, but I bet most users
will find this mode a usability improvement).

You do need a way to turn off tabs, some people don't like them, some
app-specific frames shouldn't have them.