Horizontal scanning back and forth turns out, in vitro, to be cognitively and physiologically more expensive than you would expect. (Much more than vertical scanning up and down)
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I just tried another layout where the focus arrows were placed to the left of the fold handles, but it didnāt look right ā¦ to much going on when those different control types were right next to each other. Iāll try to get controls to fade as when you start typing this afternoon and see how that feels.
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Iām hesitant to agree with the idea that it would make vertical scanning a worse experience without trying it out first, though Iād be curious to hear more of the idea that horizontal is worse than vertical.
On first glance I actually really like the structure of the additional pixel lines on screen, I think the lines could help further anchor my vertical scanning, like how I find the setting to āmark the current lineā helpful for the same reason. And, I think it helps communicate the idea of āthis button will focus in hereā better that a solitary arrow.
Even though the clear downside would be more clutter. Would love to try it though!
Oh and I think thatās a cool idea!
Long-form writer here. As Iām acutely allergic to any visual clutter when doing focused writing, my question is why double-clicking the fold-unfold triangle wouldnāt be a good solution?
Also, to mark focus mode, maybe the top triangle could get a box around it while focused in?
Iāve thought about thisā¦ it would match really well with the Finderās basic behavior of double-click to open. The problem is to distinguish between single and double-click would require that single click actions arenāt recognized until after whatever the max double-click time period is. Maybe this wouldnāt be the end of the world, but I donāt think that delay would be very satisfying.
Iām leaning toward settings at the moment.
It didnāt feel right to me to add a setting to just hide these focus arrows, but adding a setting to hide āoutline controlsā feels better. Instead of just hiding one new thing, itās hiding the new thing, plus a bunch of old things that weāve all gotten used to, but that are not outline content.
Hereās what it looks like at the moment when you have enabled the hide controls when typing:
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I like that.
- Enough information to show where lines are hidden by folding,
- and nothing redundant for the eye to decode.
Very good for focusing attention on the thoughts and words themselves.
I suppose my question was fundamentally about whatās wrong with using the existing outline handles as focus buttons. Plus, now that youāve killed the hover-over effect, youāve freed the graphic up to denote focused handles, haha.
My thinking is (and Iām probably wrong, I know nothing about app design) that basic outline navigation should be a function of the outline handles, not the ātextā section. A really badass solution would be to have a little magnifying glass slide out of the triangle to the left when you hover over it. Double- or even single-clicking the vertical lines could also do the same job. Part of the reason Iām considering this is if there is ever a companion iOS app, the focus arrows may not be too popular on tiny screens.
That said, I donāt think theyāre that intrusive on mac. Plus, āhide when typingā in conjunction with focus mode should do the trick for everyone. Itās one more setting to remember, but heyā¦ 
Please try preview release 131. It cleans up a number of things and adds and editor setting to hide secondary controls when typing. āSecondary controlsā are the outline controls that are grayed out by default since they do not indicate folded or focused rows.
This is a reasonable design, and itās the design that many web outlining apps use. For example in workflowly the default click on handle behavior is to focus that rowā¦ but when you mouse over the handle another arrow pops out that you can click to expand/collapse the row.
With that said I donāt really like that design! 
It just feels to finicky to have to first mouse over handle, and then second move mouse sideways to click arrow. I would rather just have a simple visible button to click on.
It also is reasonable to want to use the row handle for all outline structure interactionsā¦ thatās where I started, but I just donāt see a clean way to do it. After a while assigning to many behaviors to a single element starts to make things more complex then just adding two elements.
For what itās worth I am looking at the focus arrows as a form of auto-linking. Right now Bike hyperlinks work by placing a clickable arrow at the end of the link text. Focus arrows are similarā¦ they place a link arrow at the end of a row.
@jessegrosjean Love the new preview! The option in preferences to āHide secondary controls when typingā works so well! I didnāt think I would use that option, but tried it out and it works very smoothly. Very nice that the little symbols are gone when Iām typing, there when Iām āfiddlingā or āeditingā. Thanks!
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I like the new preview as well! Buttons hiding while typing is a nice addition, and it being toggle-able feels like the right decision. I do notice everything feels harder to read if the faint triangles differentiating each row disappear and I have lots of nested hierarchies. I think this happens when rows are on top of one another at the same level in the hierarchy, where it starts to become difficult to tell when itās a totally new row and when itās just the previous row wrapping.
I know Iāve previously written about this issue somewhere else on this forum and that increasing the row spacing helps with that issue, but at the moment I would say I strongly prefer disabling the new āhide secondary controls when typingā option + having 0.0 row spacing, instead of enabling it + having row spacing greater than 0.0.
But generally net positive!
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+1
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Just want to chime in and say I am a fan of the arrows!
I think its better to keep focusing and folding separate, and Iām sure I will get used to associating focusing with clicking at the end of the line and folding with clicking at the beginning. The colors donāt seem too cluttered to me with the default dark/light UI. Its nice to have another solution instead of having to cmd + click the caret if I want to focus in using the mouse.
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Still working away on this release.
Iāve changed my mind and added a setting to hide focus arrows. I also added one to hide guide lines. The editor settings panel is getting unwieldy, but it already was, and I hope to fix that up soon.
I think this release is pretty much ready to go, but Iām still holding it back to see if I can get license upgrades working for the releaseā¦ not working yet, but maybe by next week.
While I wait on some help on that Iām going to work more on path queriesā¦ fun feature for the future.
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What are guide lines? I must be missing something obvious but I donāt see them. I donāt remember every seeing or using them either. I do see in one screenshot above some guidelines, but werenāt they only briefly in a beta and then removed?
They have been in Bike for a long time, but they are pretty light in color:
You should be able to see the guide drawn down under āOneāsā handle? My intention is for them to be light, but visible. I think they are in the default color combinations, but if you have custom colors some combinations make them almost invisible.
Ah, got it now. Yes, they are pretty light for me. Thatās fine, as I really want them āoffā. Thanks for providing the option. Nice preview update!
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About guide lines: I find when youāre several levels deep their usefulness becomes muddy because itās just a bunch of lines.
The ways Iāve seen code editors solve this is by making them visually different in some way: different colours (which isnāt terribly aesthetic), different line thicknesses (maybe depending on which line youāre on?), etc.
Itās one of those things that feels like it could be extremely helpful for navigating an entire screen-full of words by eye, but still has a little bit to go.
This could be helpful, but I donāt think it is right for a Bike default setting. Remind me when I get to implementing themes and I will see if I can allow setting individual guide colors through a theme.
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