Poll about default indicator for unsaved changes in view and editor tabs

[vogella]

Until Eclipse 4.41, unsaved changes in a view or editor tab were marked with a leading asterisk (*) in the tab title.

With Eclipse 4.40 an alternative was added: a bullet-style indicator that overlays the tab's close button, replacing the asterisk in the title.
The close button reappears as soon as you hover over the tab.
This is the same presentation used by VS Code and other modern editors, and it makes tabs narrower, which helps when many tabs are open.

Old (asterisk in the tab title):

New (overlay on the close button):

On hover for a editor you stll get the same X close button:

In 4.40 the new indicator was opt-in.
Starting with Eclipse 4.41 M1 it is enabled by default, so that everybody uses it during this development cycle and can form an opinion based on daily work.
The discussion that led to this can be found in eclipse.platform.ui#4045.

Users can switch back to the classic asterisk at any time with a single click via Preferences > General > Appearance > Indicate unsaved changes by overlaying the close button.
The setting takes effect immediately for all open stacks, no restart required.

The key question for the community is:

Should the asterisk remain the default, or the new overlay?

We would like to hear the broader community's opinion on this topic.

This poll is non-binding and will run until 15 August 2026 (which is before 4.41 M3).

[Mailaender]

I don't see a lot of space gain. The big dot looks a bit more polished and is more noticeable, though.

I am more used to the 💾 symbol from @KDE Kate:

[iloveeclipse]

... Which in turn confuses me, because I can't click on this "save" "button" to save :-)

[ewillink]

Presumably all uses of the *-prefix are replaced. i.e. the Editors Panel Show List popup will have blob suffixes.

Or, may be, the strange Show List ergonomic of bold face for hidden / normal face for visible with two concatenated alphabetic lists is replaced by a single normal face alphabetic list with an open/hidden icon prefix optionally overlaid with modified.

[merks]

Yes, this has the suffix:

This too:

This issue/poll is only about the dirty indicator; nothing else.

[merks]

On the topic of the style itself, the circle somehow, to my eyes, looks bolder/blacker than all other things in the body of the IDE, I guess the same but opposite is true in dark theme. I.e., it's kind loud; maybe loud is good...

[iloveeclipse]

Yet another opinion: IMO this can be also colored in red to keep attention on dirty editors. I did it few years ago in my "Extended VS Presentation" plugin for 3.x Eclipse.

[merks]

Red also screams error and of course 8% of the population (mostly men) is red/green color blind. 😁

[iloveeclipse]

Red also screams error and of course 8% of the population (mostly men) is red/green color blind. 😁

Which of course needs a dedicated preference for color blind people.

[azoitl]

TBH I was rather skeptic about this change. Nonetheless I have it as default setting for all my Eclipse instances and also for 4diac IDE. Yesterday I had to use an older Eclipse version and immediately noticed how much cleaner and in the end better the new version is. So I stand here corrected.

The only thing that I still notice is that the circle is a bit visually heavy. What could help is to make it a bit greyer in light and dark mode. However I don't know if that can be easily done.

[merks]

Yes, that was my feeling too. I really like it but it just feels "too bold". Mostly because it's such a large blob of the same color that it just looks bolder than the text of identical color. Maybe @vogella would consider to tweak it a bit to blend a little?

[vogella]

Sure, please create a new issue for it.

[merks]

https://github.com/eclipse-platform/eclipse.platform.ui/issues/4252

[vogella]

Poll is closed, as we passed 15. August.