[Feature request] Hide Close button on inactive tabs

[WildByDesign]

[Feature request] Hide Close button on inactive tabs

[CennoxX]

For me, this solution looks less busy than the status quo and seems to be a better than completely hiding the close button.

[WildByDesign]

@donho

Could you try from your side to a transparent ico and use it to replace closeTabButton_inact.ico?

Yes, transparency is working perfectly and the icons that I am working on right now for close buttons are showing up sharp and nice at scaling 100, 125 and 150 so far.

I just have to nail down the exact measurements between those scaling scenarios for perfect consistency. They should be done tonight or tomorrow morning at the latest.

[WildByDesign]

@alankilborn @CennoxX Can I please get your opinion on this?

I brought back the close buttons on the inactive tabs but made them dimmed to about 10%. I also added a little animation to the close button when actually closing a tab. These are very subtle changes but I really like them so far.

You may have to click to start the animated gif.

[ozone10]

Notepad++ use LoadBitmap which I think does not support transparency, I will see what I can do.

[alankilborn]

The proposal is not a good one.
It would turn a one-step close action into a two-step action -- first have to activate the tab, then press the x.

Hmm, okay...hoving. Still, I'd have some amount of hover-delay, making the operation slower.

[CennoxX]

It would be better, if the x shows direct, when hovering above the tab, not the place, where I suspect the close button to come. And I think it has to be possible to deactivate this behaviour.

[WildByDesign]

when hovering above the tab, not the place, where I suspect the close button to come

This is a very good point, I agree.

[donho]

@WildByDesign
I will see if it's easy to be implemented. But I promise nothing.

[donho]

@WildByDesign
Different from file state images (saved, dirty, RO & monitoring) on the document tab, close buttons are in BMP format.

After some googling, the bitmap support the transparency:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/14195289/can-a-bmp-image-format-handle-transparency

So if you manage to create a transparent bmp and use it to replace closeTabButton_inact.bmp, and it does want you want visually, then this FR is feasible.
Could you try it and let me know the result please?

[WildByDesign]

@donho

Could you try it and let me know the result please?

I just tried this morning with all formats of BMP transparency (A1:R5:G5:B5 (16 bpp), A4:R4:G4:B4 (16 bpp) and A8:R8:G8:B8 (32 bpp)) and they all failed to show the transparency. The two 16 bpp formats caused all of the close button icons to fail to function. The 32 bpp with alpha didn't cause the failure in functionality but did not show the transparency.

Also of note, Notepad++ has always had that built-in functionality with BMP icons to grab 1 pixel from a corner and automatically turn all pixels of that matching color into a layer of transparency. That works for all other BMP icons in Notepad++ but has never worked for the close button BMPs for some reason.

I have an idea based on what @CennoxX said above. This should come first before the icons but is related. We need to know which inactive tab the mouse is hovering over so that it can trigger a slightly brighter color. And as a future step, it could also potentially trigger an icon change.

Example inactive tab mouse hovering (from Firefox):

EDIT: You might have to click on it for animated GIF.

Is this possible?

[donho]

@WildByDesign

Thanks to @ozone10 's PR (merged into the master), we can have this feature with codeless or less coding effort.

Could you try from your side to a transparent ico and use it to replace closeTabButton_inact.ico?
If it does work for you, then I will see how to make it as an option.

[donho]

@WildByDesign
Take your time :)

When you're ready, please commit under the name "closeTabButton_hidden.ico" and also add the transparent icon in standard icon folder.

[WildByDesign]

@donho I just submitted the PR (#15321) for the close buttons.

I will attach the hidden icons here separate from the PR because I think that we should only add them if you are able to add some sort of hover indication when hovering over the inactive tabs. For example, having the inactive tab turn a slightly lighter color as you hover the mouse over the inactive tabs and/or having the normal (unhidden) close button appear when hovering over any part of the inactive tab.

closeTabButton_hidden.zip

[donho]

8e1f641