[Bf-committers] Addressing Vertical Tab Concerns - Followup

[Vilem Novak]

Sorry, sent mail accidentally with html, sending again without:

you wrote:
>I could only find this page, about horizontal tabs:
>http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:2.5/Source/Development/Proposals/UI/December_2010_-_Vilem_Novak

I understand you can't read everything, but this proves you didn't read the proposal. There is a section about tool access in this proposal, with several other ideas. I really should have done a video. Maybe then I can explain the simple math of multiplying the number of tabs that will potentially fit with the number of tools each tab can access, and compare it to the number of tools that are in blender and should be available through a subspace called toolbar.

 A simple calculation:
On full HD screen, with timeline visible at bottom, and last operator area on a reasonable size:

10 tabs * 20 buttons= 200. It's not bad, it's much better than it was! And really thanks for that.

20 menus with up to 32-40 options = 640-800 -that would be a bit better in my opinion.

both of these solutions require a 2 click access to any of the available tools and approximately same travel path of mouse. With menus, you save the extra space on the left. Regarding muscle memory, they are approximately the same, but tabs have uneven size. If you happen to resize your window, you start scrolling with tabs much sooner(again), which is much heavier than clicking regarding time if you measure it. It's a very rough estimate. 

a fast script loop over all operators in blender counts 1563 operators, of course, a fraction only are tools, but some operators are in the ui more times(with different options on call).So, really, I think tabs are a good improvement, as I allready wrote, and big thanks for those, I just think they are not the best solution. 

>The fact nothing happened with the idea is just because it's not an idea everyone immediately thought o>f "brilliant, let's do it, it solves all issues". I think we can do better. :)

I sincerely hope so, for many years allready :)

Vilem