Why MATLAB 2021b LiveScript has large left margin column?

I have updated from 2021a to 2021b, and I found the editor has some unacceptable feature:

Both livescript and script editor has a really large and ugly margin which is definitely not functional.

Does this large border have any purpose or just a bug?

Compared with 2021a, you can see the difference.

Answer 1

[Navya Singam]

Hi,

The extra space in the left margin of the R2021b MATLAB is because of the addition of the "Run to Here" button in R2021b version.

"Run to Here" button appears on hovering beside the line number. The changes/ additions to the latest versions of MATLAB are captured in the release notes.

You may refer to the Debug MATLAB Code Files documentation to know more about the usage of "Run to Here" button.

[kan wu]

Hi, thanks for your reply. "Run to here" is actually not a new feature which just showed up in R2021b.

As shown in R2021a version below, the Run to here button was inside the editor besides the codes (this way saved the margin space). It was not build in the margin, which is totally not necessary.

Ugly is ugly. Bug is bug. Bad design is bad design, and no excuses.

[Jonathan Kwang]

The space where Run to here used to be located in the Live Editor was repurposed for the single click to select line feature in R2021b where you can click with your mouse in that region of the Live Editor and the line of code next to it will be selected.

If you'd like to reduce the size of the margin, you can hide the Run to Here space in the margin by right clicking in the margin and unchecking the "Show Run To Here Margin" context menu item.

[SK]

This behaviour is not only in the live editor, it is there in the regular editor as well. It would be nice if that whitespace had a different shade to distinguish it from the rest of the file. I not only agree with the OP that it is ugly but it is also inconvenient since you expect that you can backspace upto the start of the whitespace only to have the line prematurely deleted.