I remember suggesting this somewhere else but I can't find the topic anymore. I think that the functionality of the "Close inplace editor" icon on the device list on the time-line should be expanded to -open- the editor as well. Then you'd have two complete ways to both open or close the editor, double-click the region itself or single-click the icon. It could then be renamed simply to "Region editor" (I think "Region" is clearer than "Inplace").
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If there's only one region selected, open that one. I there are multiple regions selected, open all of them. If there are no regions selected, open all regions in the track (which would mimic a very useful Flash feature -not implemented in Next- where you could select all regions in a track simply by clicking the track's name). I remember suggesting a while ago somewhere else that multiple open regions on a given track would be a very desirable feature.
I know, you can only open one region at a time in any given track. Would it be very complicated to have several open? You can already have several regions open simultaneously in different tracks. The new situation wouldn't be very different from this and their individual editing would be exactly the same as it is now. I think that it would be very useful. I've seen it in other DAWs and I often find myself repeatedly opening neighbouring regions when I need to look at the content of one as the reference for another, basically making sure that things that are split in different regions (melodic phrases, automations and so on) transition smoothly from one to the next.
For the present situation (just one open region per track), I think that the icon could open regions with a "last selected region" priority. If there aren't any regions selected, the one closest to the middle of the viewport. Is this complicated to implement?
I understand that this would have to be carefully designed but, as far as events overlapping areas of neighbouring editors are concerned, I don't think it would be such a problem. Editing areas should be transparent and any event should be visible. Clicking on any event would give focus to the region that owns it and any events belonging to another region wouldn't be affected. Some DAWs even allow superimposing regions so that one can act as a reference for another. Regions could be even locked to prevent changes. The loop range problem could also be solved if you consider each loop marker like another event inside the region. Clicking any of them would give focus to the region that owns it and would change the loop of that region. In short, for me the concept is that many editors can be open but only one has the focus, the one where any of the events belonging to it (even if they lie outside of the region span or overlap other editors) was clicked. But I agree that this isn't something that should be designed anytime soon.