I have a query about how people use Paladin or their other (heathen!) IDEs for development.

Paladin currently allows you to open multiple projects, each with their own project file list window. In addition to this, each project will have its own child windows. E.g. when you build Project A and Project B, they each get their own build error windows. Same for ‘Run logged’ to show stdout/stderr, and so on.

You can see this in the below image:-

The question I have is, is this useful? Or is it too many windows cluttering the screen? Would developers prefer one set of output windows rather than a set per project?

As you can tell from the above image I’ve started consolidating several windows in to one. This is still a window per project. I hope to have Build output, Run logged stdout and Run logged stderr as tabs in the same window.

Tools like Visual Studio Code have a set of windows per project too, but they are panels in the same IDE. Eclipse has multiple projects in the same navigation menu, and one set of output tabs embedded in the IDE.

The idea I had was maybe having a single window across all projects that would remember its placement and would also hide when not in use, and you could show/hide with a keypress anywhere in the application. This could evolve to be a general project notification panel including updates (E.g. new commits to the remote branch added, new issues in GitHub logged, and so on).

Personally I’d like all non code editing windows to be hidden unless I need them, but my brain works in a specific way and doesn’t like distraction, so I’m wondering if anyone else had their own thoughts or ideas outside of the norm of current IDEs?

Thanks in advance.