klownboy wrote:a named layout would be saved in the ini file by name and that layout used by multiple sessions by referring to the named layout.
Interesting idea! For the discussion, let’s call it Collective Layouts, that would be associated with sessions.
But… I dwelt a bit on it, and I only saw one Pro for several Cons, unfortunately.
So, to start with the Pro: the layout of several sessions could be updated at once if they shared a collective layout.
Which can be interesting if e.g. you want to have a pixel perfect width of the preview, or tree, etc. And that’s pretty much it… (But wait, a solution may come!)
Regarding the performance: when you enter a layout session, the new desired layout
has to be compared against the current layout (even if we’d know that the two sessions have the same layout), simply because you might have changed the layout of the current session since the moment you opened it. Also, note that the new "full layout" is not loaded, only things that are different.
So with a collective layout, there would be less entries in the INI file indeed (~1KB per layout…), but there would be absolutely no change in performance.
Which is not a Con per se, ok. But the problem is that these sessions and the collective layouts would need different management and entries (update with or without the collective layout, saving/updating the CL independently, converting session with CL to session with standard layout, management of deletion, etc.)
Now, as mentioned above, I understand it might be interesting at least to be able to "share" layouts more easily. Which can be done using the Default Layout (after it’s been backed up with a session), but it’s cumbersome… So, it’s not exactly the same as collective layouts, but what if I just added an "Alternate Layout" to the layout menu?
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@all
•• (maybe) Upcoming Feature ••
☛
Alternate Layout: a secondary independent layout.
Technically, it would just be two entries below the Default Layout and Toolbar entries:
"Save/Update Alternate Layout" and
"Load Alternate Layout", so no performance hit whatsoever.
You could use it to easily share layouts between sessions; and/or simply to have a custom made layout that you’d want to use regularly, but not enough to associate it with sessions. So e.g. you would keep your Default Layout as your normal fall-back layout (e.g. restored XY in Dual Pane), and the Alternate Layout as an extra (e.g. maximized XY in single pane…).
And, of course, the "Load Alternate Layout" would be accessible externally (keyboard shortcuts, catalog, etc.)
