Description Dirk Bergstrom 2004-05-26 18:56:59 EDT

There are three separate ways to change the active editor.  They're similar, and
they have similar names, so it's very hard to figure out which does what based
on the name.  I do a lot of switching between editors, and I'd like to see the
functionality condensed and streamlined.

Here's the three methods:

"Open Editor Dropdown" - Shows a list of open editors, allows type-ahead-find
for editor name.  Hitting return dismisses the list.

"Next Editor" - Brings up a list of editors with the current editor on top, and
the most recently visited editors below that.  The previously visited editor is
highlighted.

"Switch to Editor" - Opens a very large dialog with a bunch of buttons that have
little to do with switching editors ("Select Clean Editors", etc.)

I use "Next Editor" most frequently, since I generally want to switch repeatedly
between two editors.  However, I find it frustrating that when the editor I want
isn't one of the recently used ones, I have to visually search the list, then
hold down the down arrow to get to it.

It would be great if the functionality of "Open Editor Dropdown" was combined
with that of "Next Editor", so that you got the dropdown, with the editors in
most-recently-used order, with the most recent one highlighted.  That way you
could either:
 - hit return to get to the editor you most likely want.
 - use the down arrow to get to the other recently used editors
 - start typing the name of another editor to quickly find it.

This would really speed up my work.

I've never used "Switch to Editor", and I can't see the value in it.  At the
very least it needs to be renamed; really it should either be removed, or
expanded into a "Manage Editors" dialog (like the Buffer List function in emacs).

Thanks.