File tabs enhancement - shows most recently opened first

Development Tools IDE 2.x
1

I'm seeking feedback on an enhancement idea of mine. The tabs row at the top of the editor gets an option to show the most recently opened files left-most. The sort order (from left-to-right) is based on the file update time. A special keyboard command selects the tab: Command/Alt 1 = select the left most file, Command/Alt 2 = select the file one to the right, Command/Alt 3 = etc.

With enough encouragement I would be glad to make this enhancement happen. I'd use it everyday.

2

Hi @fcohen. When a sketch contains multiple .ino files, they are concatenated during the Arduino sketch preprocessing stage of the build process:

https://arduino.github.io/arduino-cli/latest/sketch-build-process/#pre-processing

All .ino and .pde files in the sketch folder (shown in the Arduino IDE as tabs with no extension) are concatenated together, starting with the file that matches the folder name followed by the others in alphabetical order.

Arduino IDE's editor tabs use the same ordering in order to communicate the concatenation order to the user in an intuitive manner.

3

That's good to know. And, is different from my use. I have 1 .ino file and 98 .cpp and .h files. I am often scrolling vertically in the pop-up menu on the right side of the file tabs bar. My code is here for your info: ReflectionsOS/src/ReflectionsOS at main · frankcohen/ReflectionsOS · GitHub

4

In order to facilitate navigation of the project, you might find it useful to organize the files into folders. You can do that by moving the files under a subfolder of the sketch named src. Arduino IDE compiles all the source files under the src subfolder recursively, so you can organize the files into any folder structure you like under that src folder.

You will need to adjust the #include directives in the project accordingly. For example, if you had an #include directive like this in your .ino file:

#include "Foo.h"

And you moved Foo.h to src/Bar subfolder (leaving the .ino file in the root of the sketch folder), then you would change that line to:

#include "src/Bar/Foo.h"

Note that all .ino files must be located in the root of the sketch folder. But that won't be any problem for your project since you only have the one primary .ino file anyway.

Although Arduino IDE automatically opens all files from the root of the sketch folder in editor tabs, it does not do this for files under the src subfolder. The files under the src subfolder are opened and closed by the user on demand:

  1. Select File > Preferences... (or Arduino IDE > Settings... for macOS users) from the Arduino IDE menus.
    The "Preferences" dialog will open.
  2. Check the box next to "Show files inside Sketches" in the "Preferences" dialog.
  3. Click the "OK" button.
    The "Preferences" dialog will close.
  4. Click the folder icon in the activity bar on the left side of the IDE window to open the "SKETCHBOOK" view.
  5. You will see a listing of the contents of your sketchbook folder. Click the ❯ icons to the left of the relevant entries to navigate to a code file from the current sketch that you want to open.
  6. Click on the file in the "SKETCHBOOK" view.

The file will open in a new editor tab. You can browse and edit the contents as needed. When you no longer need the tab, click the X icon on the tab to close it.

I think this approach will be quite beneficial to you since you can have only the files you are currently working on open in the IDE, and thus won't need to search through 99 tabs to find the file you need.