Tab bars scroll buttons, double-click creates new empty tab

[duianto]

Godot version

v4.0.beta16.official [518b9e5]

System information

Windows 10 22H2, Compatibility, Geforce GTX 550 Ti

Issue description

When the tab bars scroll buttons are double-clicked, then they create a new empty tab.
Expected: Scroll the tab bar twice.

Steps to reproduce

• open the attached project: issue, next or prev tab buttons, double click adds empty scene.zip

The right side of the tab bar shows two buttons: scroll tabs left and scroll tabs right
when there are more tabs than fit on the tab bar.

When Godot is maximized on a display with a resolution of 1920x1080,
then the tab bar shows the tabs, from: scene_name - Copy (10) to: scene_name - Copy (15)

The project has 16 tabs, hopefully, that's enough to fill the tab bar on larger resolutions.
But if the person that tests this has a large enough resolution to show all tabs,
then the tester needs to either:
unmaximize Godot and possibly shrink Godot's width, until the tabs don't fit
or create and save additional scenes to overfill the tab bar

• to the right of the last scene tab: scene_name - Copy (15),
  click on the button to scroll the tab bar to the left

now the tab bar shows the tabs from: 9 to: 14

• click the scroll tab bar left button twice within 1 second

Expected

The tab bar should scroll to the left twice, and show the tabs from: 7 to 12

Observed

A new [empty] scene tab was added to the right of scene 15,
the tab bar scrolled to the rightmost position,
and it now shows the tabs from 11 to 15 followed by an [empty] tab.

The same thing happens when the button: scroll tab bar to the right, is pressed twice within 1 second.

This means that it isn't possible to scroll the tab bar quickly, by pressing the scroll tab bar buttons quickly.

A possible cause

Double-clicking on an empty area of the tab bar, to the right of the rightmost tab, creates a new [empty] tab.

If the scroll tab bar buttons don't have a specific double-click action,
then maybe the double-click event is picked up by the tab bar, behind the scroll tab bar buttons.

This is possibly confirmed by the fact that the double-click action,
also happens when the scroll tab bar buttons are disabled.

The scroll tab bar right button is disabled when the rightmost tab is focused.
The scroll tab bar left button is disabled when the leftmost tab is focused.

Minimal reproduction project

issue, next or prev tab buttons, double click adds empty scene.zip

[Calinou]

double-click creates new empty tab

This is intentional behavior, but it was recently discussed to remove it as it's obscure and rarely used.

[gelvinp]

To add my two cents, I "use" this feature all the time, but always accidentally when I'm just trying to navigate through tabs, which has caused me to compile my own version of the editor with this feature specifically removed. Especially since the "add new" tab button is right next to the arrow buttons anyways, I'd love to see this removed officially.

[djrain]

Ah, so that's what I've been experiencing all this time. I was wondering where all those new tabs were coming from. I also thought it was just incredibly buggy.

The whole scrolling arrows thing is terrible UX in the first place, and personally I'm making a plugin to replace the scene tabs entirely. But yeah this should be removed asap.

[Calinou]

On a similar note, the ability to change scenes by scrolling the mouse wheel on the list of tabs was removed in 4.1 by #70800. It was often accidentally triggered.

The whole scrolling arrows thing is terrible UX in the first place

What do you propose instead?

[djrain]

What do you propose instead?

I'm still experimenting to find the set of features that is really best, and I'll make a proper proposal once I'm confident. But just having the tabs as Buttons inside a ScrollContainer is a massive improvement. As in VS Code for example.

[gelvinp]

I am honestly completely confused by removing the ability to change scenes by scrolling and not even making it an option. If I have to use the two arrow buttons to scroll but I also have to take my time and carefully make sure I don’t click either of them too quickly to count as a double press so I don’t unintentionally make a new scene instead, I’m going to completely stop using the official builds and patch that back in myself. I consider that a usability nightmare.

[Calinou]

I am honestly completely confused by removing the ability to change scenes by scrolling and not even making it an option. If I have to use the two arrow buttons to scroll but I also have to take my time and carefully make sure I don’t click either of them too quickly to count as a double press so I don’t unintentionally make a new scene instead, I’m going to completely stop using the official builds and patch that back in myself. I consider that a usability nightmare.

Unfortunately, options that are disabled by default suffer from poor discoverability. They often end up being dead weight in terms of maintenance, as we have to maintain something that will not be used often (and may be buggy for several months if not years).

@djrain's solution should make it easier to switch between large amounts of scene tabs while avoiding the usability pitfall of accidental scrolling. You can also rely on the Quick Open Scene dialog (Ctrl + Shift + O) to open scenes without having to use the mouse.

[kitbdev]

Fixed by #79852