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Bug 64713

Summary:	Support multicolumn editor (a la Emacs follow-mode)
Product:	platform	Reporter:	_ tboudreau <tboudreau>
Component:	Text	Assignee:	issues@editor <issues>
Status:	NEW ---
Severity:	blocker	CC:	issues, jglick
Priority:	P4	Keywords:	UI
Version:	5.x
Hardware:	All
OS:	All
Issue Type:	ENHANCEMENT	Exception Reporter:
Attachments:	Diff for openide/text to implement multiple columns

Description _ tboudreau 2005-09-20 10:14:01 UTC

It would be nice if the editor could be set up in multiple columns, ala Emacs. 
Perhaps an obscure feature but nice sometimes.

I'll attach a patch to openide/text (no bug category for that?) which works to
do this.  It's a bit crude (editor toolbar gets lost, for whatever reason;  and
error stripe doesn't really know what to do, but I'm not sure what it *should* do).

Comment 1 _ tboudreau 2005-09-20 10:14:44 UTC

Created attachment 24966 [details]
Diff for openide/text to implement multiple columns

Comment 2 Petr Nejedly 2005-09-21 09:00:53 UTC

I don't know what Emacs follow-mode is and can't make head and tail of your patch
(just uncoditionally creates two editor components and forces them to scroll in
sync?).
Anyway, what's the use case beyond of the things covered by "clone and drag
alongside".

Comment 3 _ tboudreau 2005-09-21 16:50:44 UTC

> Anyway, what's the use case beyond of the things covered by "clone and drag
> alongside".

Don't think we have any clone action in the UI anymore...

It's just a 2 column (or n column) editor - if you're using a small font, you
can see more source at the same time.  I used it all the time when I was working
on the NetBeans book in emacs, and Jesse asked me once upon a time to try to
implement it. 

It's hardly a thing our users are screaming for, but it can be nice to have.  I
just felt like taking another crack at it.  Since the editor is built to assume
 the possibility of multiple components over the same document, it probably
wouldn't be too hard to get it working really well - but probably it's up to
someone who really loves the feature to implement it.

Comment 4 Jesse Glick 2005-09-21 23:19:56 UTC

For text which is not too wide (filled, or otherwise obeys some right margin),
it permits you to display much more onscreen at once than you otherwise could,
like in a newspaper. M-x follow-delete-other-windows-and-split in Emacs.

Comment 5 Antonin Nebuzelsky 2008-04-17 15:15:23 UTC

Reassigning to new module owner mslama.