tab-title-redux package

Sets the tab title of a temporary buffer (one not yet saved to disk) to match its first line contents.

Inspired by similar packages like tab-title and un-untitled; these packages were in turn inspired by a similar behavior in Sublime Text.

How does it work?

First, a definition: a temporary buffer is a buffer that does not yet have a location on disk. When you create a new editor via the Application: New File command, you have created a temporary buffer, and it stays temporary until you save it to disk.

Instead of making each such temporary buffer have the same untitled name, we make it so that they have names that mirror the first line of text.

This package has no commands, no menus, and no keybindings. When activated, it applies a patch to a text editor’s logic for what to call itself. When deactivated, it reverts the patch. It does no direct DOM manipulation.

This package does no direct DOM manipulation. Instead, it spies on Pane items and overwrites any getTitle and getLongTitle functions to substitute custom logic for determining the window title when the buffer is temporary. This logic reverts to the default if the buffer is saved or if this package is deactivated.

Pulsar is not used to the editor’s title changing more often than the editor’s path on disk changes, so we insert extra logic to update tab titles on every keystroke that changes the first line of text.