I agree this would be a useful feature.

I work with lots of open C++ files, and it's sometimes tricky when tabs for newly opened files show up at the far right of the tab group.

Taking mrmachine's suggestion a little bit further:

• There should be a new field in the preferences that lets you control the positioning of newly opened tabs
• The field should be called something like "new_tab_position"
  
• Possible options should include:
• "right_end" - current behaviour, where new tab appears at far right end of tab group
• "left_end" - new tab appears at far left of tab group
• "right_of_current" - new tab appears to the right of the currently focused tab
• "left_of_current" - new tab appears to the left of the currently focused tab
• Another new field in the preferences should be "switch_to_new_tab"
• This one would be true or false, and if true, the focus would switch to a newly opened tab. If false, focus would remain unchanged when a new tab is opened.
• Today I had a few cases where this would have been useful. I had about a dozen files open (in 2 column view). While working on a bit of code, I used Ctrl+P to open some files I went, because they also required some changes due to changes I was making in the current file. It would have been good to have these files pop up to the right of the current tab, but have the focus remain on the current tab, so I wouldn't have to use the mouse to switch the focus back each time interrupting the work flow.

This would be a "nice to have" feature, because Simple Text 2 is already a phenomenal tool!

Thanks & best regards

Markus