Preface
This will be a rant about my opinion on the use of models of anytype for the past few months.
I am aware that many people will probably disagree with my viewpoint, and they are welcome to do so. I’m not saying my opinion is correct, it’s just my opinion.
The problem.
Modals != navigation.
Modals are to show something. they shouldn’t be used as an editor or part of navigation. modals just show something. they waste space and add an extra click to get anywhere. It’s a waste of space. I have a 21:9 display. a modal looks ridiculous. example.
flexing aside, it’s not like it looks any better on a 16:9 display either…
(I gave the window extra height here and it still looks wimpy)
all that screen real estate. for what? nothing. and what makes it worse, is if I want to browse the explorer on the left I have 2 options. maximise the page, which it should have done in the first place IMO
or click off the modal and lose the page that I was viewing in the first place
They only seem to fit in one place for me. the cloud/graph view.
I mean it’s still tiny, but at least it’s not getting in the way of anything. so why does this work…
The Modal Mystery
Where do modals work?
-
Something needs the user’s immediate attention.
for example, let’s say a user needs to make an immediate choice for the program/web page to function as expected or to confirm an action. (confirm to save, alert that there are unsaved, notify an action succeded/failed) it captivates the user’s attention away from what was happening. -
do something that the current layout/form cannot
this in my opinion is where the cloud/graph view fits. you can’t just smack a high-level navigation/overview page in a hierarchical browser-like system as the anytype sidebar uses. they just don’t jell well together. (at least I can’t think of a way they could.) However, slap it in a modal and it fits perfectly. it’s another tool, a separation between a file browser and a cloud view. they don’t work well in the same view, so separate it with a modal. (just make it bigger. please.)
Why don’t they work here?
Multiple reasons ill bullet point them here.
- space waste
- navigation separation
- constant flow interruption
- constantly entering and leaving the modals
- even though we are constantly in them, they are never the final state. they are always mean to an end. increasing navigation input.
- SPACE WASTE (I got real estate for a reason)
Alternatives and related issues
- tabs
Tabs, in the application, would be perfect. I know you guys added support for multiple anytype windows, and it’s great, however, I never use it. I open anytype once, and never open another window. take gimp for example (the photoshop alternative not the guy in the corner wearing latex). not even they stuck with the multiple window system they created for multiple reasons
Impossible to manage windows on Linux. too many DM’s manage windows in too many different ways. you always end up dedicating a workspace to one application which no one wants to do. it defeats the purpose of workspaces also. it just looks ugly. it’s chaotic and relies on the operating system to work together. it’s a similar story on Mac OS. if I want to full-screen the application it gets its dedicated workspace. if I open another window and full screen, I now have to work between 2 workspaces… chaos. pure chaos. put modals on top of that and it’s just madness. it’s not organised, it’s not clean and it adds so many barriers to ease of use that it hurts my tiny dev soul. Windows is somewhat better at this than the others, but look at this.
vomit inducing. wasted space, duplication, noise, i just wanna work on these two objects side by side.
just gimmie tabs. please.
- Vim UI (Yes this is my way of telling you i use vim and linux. hate me.)
this is the visual equivalent of the above example in my vim config.
0 wasted space. clear and clean. nothing wasted completely flexible. (I’m aware this is on windows terminal, I’m not at my linux machine rn. point still stands)
I’m very aware that not everyone knows how to use vim. and i don’t expect something this simplistic to be the default. especially with the lovely aesthetic anytype has rn. but at the very least use your tools efficiently.
