Why I Positioned Sidebar to the Right
Yohanes Bandung Bondowoso
Posted on June 20, 2020
A few minutes ago, I opened twitter and scrolled the timeline.
I laughed when I read that tweet. It brings back so much memories of my previous workplace.
Positioning the sidebar to the right reduces distraction when I toggle it. If the sidebar is on the left, the text shifts around whenever the sidebar is toggled on or off. Readjusting my eyes for the moved text creates disturbance to my logical thinking. “Why are you not just leave the sidebar open?", you might be asking. I want to keep the screen real estate wide.
Back then, I often toggle the sidebar because two reasons. First, the project I was working on uses Redux - Saga. Second, I used to use VSCode.
Redux-Saga is a great states and IO management for React, I was blown away when I was first using it. Sadly, cannot grok the Redux paradigm easily. I often need to see the file structure when I write new files or refactoring. My current project uses Apollo GraphQL and Domain Driven Development paradigm. I am comfortable using the current setup.
In VSCode, manipulating file must be done with mouse. Using the built in Git also done in the sidebar, with mouse. Nowadays I use NeoVim. File management can be done easily with text command. If a more complex file management must be done, which is rare, I use NerdTree. Versioning with Git is done with the help of vim-fugitive which I found less disturbing.
As a closing: if you often toggle the sidebar, try positioning it to the right. That is, if your editor supports that configuration. It might help reduce the distraction when you need it the most.
Posted on June 20, 2020
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