Support a grid layout for editors

[Tekbr]

• VSCode Version: Windows 10
• OS Version: 1.7.0 - insider

-- Sorry for the English, I used Google Translator --

Leave even better drag and drop, detecting where we point out the window.(#224, #1749).

How does the Atom. I think it's more intuitive.

[bpasero]

@Tekbr what is wrong with our approach?

[Tekbr]

@bpasero I think it was not very clear. I'll try to explain better. Sorry for English

I enjoyed new in version 1.7, but it would be interesting to allow vertical and horizontal split at the same time.

As shown in the gif, three tabs. A vertical split, horizontal split at the same time.

Clicking a button (or use the shortcut) to change the orientation, it becomes a little boring.

Just as we drag the tab to the side it adjusts the window, dragging down, near the lower edge of this window to adjust, without the need to use "Toggle Editor Group Layout".

[nambrot]

I used the 👍 but wanted to provide verbal support for this usecase as well. I have a rather large monitor on which I use Sublime in a 2x3 grid which currently is not possible in VS Code as you have to choose between horizontal vs vertical.

[tomasiser]

After finally implementing #1749, this is another needed step towards making the workbench as flexible as in other editors (Sublime Text, Atom, vim, Emacs, full Visual Studio - they all support grid layouts). Especially on larger screens, it is very useful to use 2×2 or 1+2 grid layouts. Some people with very large screens tend to use even more crazy layouts, which can be useful when working on projects that have multiple related files (e.g. header files in C++).

Would be very lovely to have something like this in VS Code!

[Shahor]

I like to be able to split both vertically and horizontally and this is really missing here :(

Hopefully it will be implemented. This is the only major problem I have with vscode right now.

[mschwartz]

+1

I use WebStorm over VS Code for three reasons:

1. Can't split horizontally
2. vim emulation is mediocre (but thanks anyway, it makes it usable at all)
3. can't record keyboard macros

VS Code is really fast and I like that it's in JavaScript. It has soooo much potential. I'm sure it'll be my editor of choice when those things are implemented.

To be clear, here's a screenshot of WebStorm menu (what I mean by horizontal split):

[dgtlife]

For me, Atom has it perfectly ... split up/down ... split left/right ... and you can end up with 4 quadrants, or 2 on the left and 1 on the right, or 1 on the left and 2 on the right, or even more if you like ... each with its own set of tabs. A newly opened file goes into the section with focus at the time of opening. I currently use all three cases on my 4K monitor.

[wclr]

I wonder why it was not implement yet, or maybe VS team has some justifications against horizontal split?

[danwulff]

@whitecolor VSCode has horizontal split. You can enable it by pressing 'alt+shift+1' (toggles between vertical and horizontal splitting).

However, I would definitely agree that a grid layout allowing a mismash of horizontal and vertical windows is needed in VSCode. In my office, I'm the only person consistently using VSCode and one of the outstanding reasons is the lack of grid layout capability.

[wclr]

Right you can switch vertical horizontal, but can't use both, it is kind of strange.

[Shahor]

Is this going to be considered or should we just forget about it?

To be honest it is the only real bad thing I see about vscode right now, but I want to use it everyday and it's quite painful not to be able to.
I understand that time is not infinite, but I don't see much happening here so excuse me if I'm being annoying by upping this but I'd like this discussion to continue further :)

[kieferrm]

Please see discussion in #9443.

[andradei]

@kieferrm You closed issue #9443 referring people to this issue. So can we assume this issue is the one that will track the grid layout feature?

[kieferrm]

@andradei yes.

[seanhealy]

Also would love this. Arbitrary grid splitting is pretty central to my workflow. I'd love to switch to Code as it's amazing in other places but, this keeps holding me back. 😄

[panzer-planet]

This is the number one reason some of my colleagues aren't on the vscode train

[malthe]

Definitely. It's an integral part of most emacs' users workflow to continuously redefine the buffer grid, using the C-x-<n> key combinations. I would say the number one use is to split once to obtain two views of the same buffer and quickly navigate to a different part for reference – and then often unsplit shortly after.

[medikoo]

I'm just trying to switch from Emacs, and not having that makes migration painful

[AAverin]

Wow. I hate this. Any time you start some new software, play around a little and find something annoying, you go to open an issue – but it was either just resolved to be released in the next version, or discussion have been just finished that it needs to be done.
Anyways. Playing with React-Native, after Android Studio I really miss this splitting of screens

[ghost]

Agreed that we need to be able to split both Horizonally AND Vertically. Choosing 1 format over the other just isn't usable.

Might want to take a page from:
https://github.com/SublimeText/Origami

[yosefrow]

This is one of the only features that I would miss if I left Sublime or Atom and is keeping me from using VSCode

For serious Coders or Authors who multi-task this is a required feature which should at least be supported in a plugin.

[edasaki]

I've always felt that 3 windows is far too skinny/short to see anything clearly, and grid layouts are a great way to mitigate the problem. When I need two reference files open it's a pain to get it usable in vscode right now :(

Here's a little picture to help visualize why grids are far superior to what we have right now (although it's probably already quite clear)

Hopefully this will be on the roadmap for the future!

[phoenixsampras]

Well those are internal IP ranges, not public IPs. You can learn more about it on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_network

…

On 28 May 2018 at 13:47, Lucas Andión Montáns ***@***.***> wrote: @phoenixsampras <https://github.com/phoenixsampras> @michaelduminy <https://github.com/michaelduminy> IP's and at least a DB password... I'll recommed taking it down 🤦‍♂️ — You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#14909 (comment)>, or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AB37QPG3mjlaU8bbCEuA7e1h190rdZj2ks5t3DgYgaJpZM4KoZDu> .

-- Best regards, *CP*

[dnutels]

@bpasero How do we actually install these, though?

[bpasero]

@dnutels you should be able to just run the provided downloads without installation by unzipping and double click the application binary. I did not want to put installers up because since this has not yet landed in insiders, you would get an update notification shortly after that would bring you back to the previous version.

[alxgrtnstrngl]

@bpasero Just tried the builds you posted and it worked flawlessly, thank you!

[drewbietron]

Awesome feature without any limitations! Great work @bpasero

[BonesyWonesy]

Thank you! This is awesome! I've been watching this issue for years. Congratulations on this!! Thanks for everyone's really hard work and perseverance to work through the terrible comments of 'I won't ever use VSCode with out this!'.

[patrys]

@bpasero Works great but I think the areas to initiate a split are a bit small. Are you planning to support panels like "output" and terminals in the new layout?

[Plesin]

Working great, love it! Thanks @bpasero!!! Where should I send the 🍾 ? :)

[Plesin]

Only thing I noticed.
If I initially have full page with a symmetric 2 x 2 grid.
I resize the editor to only half a screen and make it full screen again, it does not maintain the ratio of open sections.
The first column is very narrow.
I notice this with manual resize and using Magnet as well.
Not important but a nice to have. 😄

[joshjensen]

VSCode team you are amazing! Thank you, thank you, thank you. 🍾🍾🍾

[Jack-Works]

Does this feature make 3-way diff in vscode possible?

[lig]

Could this be extended to any window by any chance? Like getting rid of the sidebar at all and allow me to construct my own tiled UI from all the windows I need including terminals, code overview, explorer, problems list, etc.
In this case, the sidebar could act as sort of a palette for available windows and autohide.

[pallapo]

graet job @bpasero I really love it!
Thanks, thanks a lot!!!!

[bpasero]

People interested in grid support for other UI elements than editors should thumbs up:

• Both left and right sidebar / multi sidebar Allow multiple views to show at the same time #26777
• Allow to dock editors, views and panels anywhere in the workbench Allow to dock editors, views and panels anywhere in the workbench #11472
• Allow to show multiple panels at the same time (split pane) Allow to show multiple panels at the same time (split pane) #11889

[PixelT]

@bpasero during a discussion about grid layouts, maybe also this topic:
#16927

As I wrote there, similar functionality to this:
Atom -> https://github.com/santip/maximize-panes
SublimeText -> https://github.com/jisaacks/MaxPane

[jaswinder-s]

This is brilliant! Hope it makes it's way into the Stable build very soon! 👍

[eighteyes]

Please consider keyboard shortcuts for grid window actions for those of us who dislike leaving home.

[mohamedmansour]

It would be nice if Terminals could be part of the Grid system, so we can arrange our terminals in any grid too! https://twitter.com/_rctl/status/1004704690586705921

[bpasero]

@eighteyes I am counting ~35 new commands being added as part of grid that all can have keybindings assigned so please let me know which one is missing and we can look into adding it...

[BradAndreBurns]

This is awesome! It's simply fantastic that the VSC team has been able to work on this and make it a reality. Can't wait for the stable release. As time goes on, I'm sure the team will bake in the ability to split in terminals, git windows, etc. For now, I cannot complain that this is coming and am simply ecstatic. Thanks for this! 🥇

[sdegutis]

Dear VS Code team: you put in the VS Code release notes that we should subscribe to this issue on Github if we want to be notified when the feature is ready: "This feature will be available in our Insiders release in the beginning of June. Subscribe to issue 14909 to receive a notification when this happens." Cool idea in theory! Minimal work on your end, leverages existing tools, users already know how to use Github, etc. But in practice, I'm getting a lot of noise from this issue, and I imagine other people are too. I subscribed within the last 24 hours and already received a dozen or so notifications through Github unrelated to the release that made me want to subscribe in the first place. I hope this constructive criticism is helpful! But I am definitely going to unsubscribe from this issue, and I do hope that another way of subscribing to new features can be worked out. Sincerely yours: some random guy.

[pelotom]

@sdegutis https://tellmewhenitcloses.com

[sdegutis]

Awesome @pelotom thanks for the link!!

[bpasero]

Closing this as the feature has landed in insiders (download). You can see this query for work that is still planned for this milestone (as for example to support "Centered Editor Layout" properly).

Feel free to continue to report issues or feedback (after checking for duplicates).

I will mark this issue as readonly to reduce the number of notifications people get.