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Comment by woile | Hacker News Reader

It looks really promising. I wonder why code editors have the file explorer on the left side by default, if you resize it you move the whole text (unless you write in a right-to-left language). A colleague made me aware of this a while ago and I cannot stop wondering. I moved it to the right ever since.

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Probably so that way your code doesn't start at the left edge of the screen. This means your head stays more centered instead of constantly turned to the left.

For the same reason almost all relevant ui-elements are left-aligned across operation systems and apps: because we are tuned to process things left-to-right and the mouse is more often on the left side than it is on the right, and it feels less intuitive to move it to the right end of the screen.

- window-operation buttons on macos (close, maximize ...)

- application-menus in gnome, macos etc (file, edit, view ...)

- heavy-used buttons in browser (page back, refresh ...)

Except for the scroll bar. I vaguely remember from many years ago (maybe it was on Windows or some Linux desktop at the time) that you could put it there. NextStep seems to have used it like that by default, judging from screenshots.

Afaik Steve Jobs was left handed.

So everything build for him (as NextStep and macOS) has every GUI element on "the wrong side"… ;-)

I think that Visual Studio has it on the right hand side by default, but that's the only editor I can think of that does it.

It does not have it by default on the right, but you can move it yourself.

Visual Studio Code does not. But Visual Studio does.

Nowadays, Visual Studio on the old days had it on the left by default.

Actually I don't remember any longer when they changed, maybe VS 2010 WPF rewrite.

IIRC they brought it into line with the old SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS), which always had the explorer on the right.

Hm, it depends how you use it, I would say.

I totally agree that in a ltr context left side screams "focus point".

On the other hand, the project drawers/file explorer is mostly toggled off while I work, so it doesn't take any screen real estate.

And when I need it, it makes sense to be on the left side.

I prefer to explore via some search mechanism though.

Project drawers are only needed for special cases, like getting a feel for the overall structure of a project.

I think the file browser is like the high order digits in a number.

> I wonder why code editors have the file explorer on the left side by default, if you resize it you move the whole text (unless you write in a right-to-left language).

Honestly, this behavior makes using a vertical monitor almost impossible. Wish VSCode let me configure it like Rider/IntelliJ so the sidebar is just a popover-style drawer rather than a push-style drawer.

Why is moving the entire text a problem? It needs to be redrawn, but that's not expensive - it's like moving an entire window.

If for some reason you needed to resize the left side very often, or it would even resize automatically, I would understand the concern.

It's not about computation, I like the text to stay still. When I was aware of this it started bothering me, so I've changed it to the right ever since. Of course this is a very small and picky detail.

Judging by the downvotes people are really annoyed by this :D I'd never know!

> if you resize it you move the whole text

the main reason I change the sidebar's width is to recenter my text depending on my position in front of my screen aha... guess it's a case of the 1172s

This is a valid point. File explorer is not something that is used very frequently so moving it to the right makes sense.

> I moved it to the right ever since.

What text editor are you using?

I'm using vs code which is quite flexible

Why do you want the text to start at the left edge of your display?

That's worse for your neck than keep it more center aligned.

It's needed. When I'm in vim I always open an extra terminal to the left so the text is more centred

> if you resize it you move the whole text

What's wrong with moving the whole text?

1. Select file to edit.

2. Edit text.

Flows from left to right.

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