3
adante
2y

Are there any IDEs out there that have a ribbon interface?

Comments
  • 7
    No. Thank god.
  • 8
    Lulz. This definitely gets a 🦭 of approval for being high quality bait.
  • 2
    That sounds pretty bad. Imagine it being mandatory.
  • 6
    Word
  • 6
    The best I can do is Microsoft Expression Web.

    Now excuse me while I go have a shower, I suddenly feel dirty.
  • 4
    Just to explain myself: I don't want an IDE with this. But I do find it interesting that the ribbon is a very polarising subject.

    I have met developers who are pro-ribbon. And I wanted to check if there are IDEs with ribbons. Because if there isn't, then the opinion of that camp feels a little bit like "Oh yeah ribbons are great - for other people. Not me, thanks!".

    I am vehemently anti-ribbon. If I ever become world ruler I will find and prosecute the inventors of the ribbon (along with those who changed the 3x2 on the keyboard to a 2x4, or introduced fn keys). But I figured I'd ask in a way to try to avoid introducing bias.
  • 1
    @adante Ribbons are like these transparent touch screens you see in science fiction movies. When you first see them, they look sort of cool. But like it really is no fun to focus on a semitransparent screen and having to keep your arms in the air for hours - it also is no fun to have to hunt for whatever you need right now in a convoluted pile of symbols (and minimalist design making everything look the same doesn't help).
  • 0
    While the semitransparent touch screen is just a bad idea in general (well, it works fine for "futuristic" movie sets i guess), ribbons could theoretically be a good thing - if the user can configure them to their special needs and they are just an addition to the classic fully populated menu. But the ribbons i saw where rather static heavily opinionated collections of things that some dev found worthy to steal my screen space all the time. And somehow the menus in that applications for some reason tend to get much less love than in applications that just have traditional tool bars or neither toolbars nor ribbons.

    So if you happen to implement ribbons for whatever reason: Make the grid cell dimensions, rows and columns configuratble and let the user place whatever they like in these cells. Also let them define their own groups.

    I definitely would use such a ribbon implementation as i am not that good at remembering the shortcuts of all the useful functions of modern IDEs.
  • 0
    P.S.: You would have to implement them for Jetbrains' IDEs though - i don't use lesser IDEs anymore...
  • 0
    It’s been a long time since I used it but doesn’t VS have something very similar? Fully configurable strips of controls.
  • 2
    It has a similar vibe to VSCode's sidebar, with the main difference being that you can move sections around between sidebar modes in VSCode.
  • 2
  • 0
    I can right click uncheck Toolbar in Intellij. Does that count?
  • 1
    Ribbons are kinda convenient, they accomodate my visual memory faster than conventional menus. IMO, stagnating UX decisions like dropdown menus need to be challenged, and ribbon interface is helping it.

    What every desktop app with a lot of commands certainly needs is a hecking command search. VS Code and other popular IDEs that I used recently don't neglect such feature.
  • 0
    ribbons, srsly? office 2007 called and wants their flame wars back..
  • 0
    @Oktokolo thanks for explaining ribbons. Don't worry, per my comments I'm not looking at implementing anything.

    @SuspiciousBug I mean 2007 sure, but as it continues to be popular to this day I'm not sure if we can so summarily dismiss it (although I do want to)
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