I think the fundamental problem is that code bases (and consequently, file trees) keep increasing in size. This puts pressure on all of the support tooling. For example, reduction of build times was a major reason for the development of Golang.
Clearly, each tool has to handle this growth in some manner. My text editor (BBEdit) uses a sidebar with disclosure triangles and such. I asked them to consider extending this as follows:
- Leave any unambiguous names alone.
- Add enough of the enclosing file path to clarify any ambiguous names.
- Use globbing syntax to elide any common directories.
- Sort by the resulting string.
- Show as much as will fit in the available width.
They said they have received “a number of prior inquiries like yours about more easily identifying open files, which is an issue we do intend to address going forward, and I’ll be happy to add your feedback to the existing case.”
