It's time to release TC 9.0?

[Lefteous]

2ghisler(Author)

OK, for now I have added selection to "left mouse button selection mode" when the user clicks BEHIND the file name, and drags the mouse up or down. The selection works similar to dragging with the right mouse button in "right mouse button selection mode". I will not show a rectangle because the selection will not be rectangular (e.g. in brief mode).

Does it work more like full-row selection or does it consider filename length? In brief mode there needs to be some white-space between the items - otherwise I don't see how it could work there.

I will add an option to show the Explorer folder icons, and maybe add some extra whitespace to the left of icons, and make the column spacing larger by default.

Sounds good

complete redesign

I don't think a complete new design is required. I'd rather call it a visual fine-tuning. Exception: In my opinion the buttonbar icons need to be redesigned.

[sgp]

A major new function that I'd like to see is "support for user projects". What's that? It's a bunch of diverse features, many already available, that weave together to form a coherent project-oriented application. I believe this is what many users, including me, have in mind when they ask you, Ghisler, to improve tabs with colors, tab group saving/loading, and so on.
Now I think of TC as "an insert-your-praises-here file manager with 5 main applications: viewing, renaming, searching, compressing, and comparing files/folders". (Yes, I know there are 1000 more great things about TC but those five are so central that TC embodies them in self-standing modules, like lister, directory comparison tool, etc.)
I would like to think of TC 9 as "an ... file manager with 6 pre-configured applications: viewing, renaming, searching, compressing, comparing files/folders and managing user projects".
If you embrace this idea, and make "managing user projects" a category for TC 9, many forum members will be able to tell you which new/stable/improved features belong to that category. They'll even help you to prioritize them, I think.

Christian, even if you don't embrace user projects, still I think you need to set some umbrella applications and ask users to suggest within those applications. You need to set the direction. Features don't make applications. When suggestions are about tab color, icon size and copyright, background operation timeouts, and so on, they are important but do not help to set direction, prioritize, and give TC 9 big bang. Just my two cents.

I like the idea of having a UI designer re-design parts of the UI. I think that she could get help from some expert forum members appointed to explain why the UI is what it is and how important it is not to break functionality just for new looks.
I believe a fresh contemporary look, the cool factor, would draw more new eyes to TC than any new major feature we could come up with. Such is the world, IMO.

I like the idea of using an external site to gather feedback and suggestions for TC 9. For instance, JPSoft, the maker of TakeCommand, uses UserVoice, separate from the JPSoft forums. They call UserVoice their "feedback system". When a user suggests a new feature he pays a "coin" - everyone is given 20 free coins to start with. Other users can place their own coins on other people's suggestions. Features with more coins get higher priority. If a feature someone suggested gets implemented, all betters get the coins they placed back so they can make/support new features. It's just an example. They key idea is to separate/specialize feedback/suggestions from the rest of the forums, where there's too much noise.

[Lefteous]

2everyone who is interested in seeing his feature idea implemented

very long text describing an idea...

Try to visualize your idea in some way. It doesn't has to be a professionally designed mockup or an interactive prototype (although it wouldn't hurt) but it should be something to look at. It must be possible to understand your idea at first glance. From my professionell experience and the experience here in the forum it's really the only way to communicate and discuss things effectively. And it's the most convincing way.

[ghisler(Author)]

2Lefteous
It considers file name length. There is always some white space also in brief mode, especially when the names have different length.

[Samuel]

Christian,

I'm still not conviced to make a complete redesign - many people would hate that for sure.

Well, the question is what a redesign would entail. Lefteous usually has sound ideas regarding what's feasible, useful, practical and doable - worth considering.

Perhaps Lefteous should work together with Christian regarding the redesign. Usually I really support / like his ideas.

[nsp]

...
Regarding the redesign, I will add an option to show the Explorer folder icons, and maybe add some extra whitespace to the left of icons, and make the column spacing larger by default. But I'm still not conviced to make a complete redesign - many people would hate that for sure.

Could you support beter custom layout with:
- ability to hide/show column dynamically and by default
- ability to reorder columns with drag and drop
- ability to save tabs and layout in a file from a command with parameters

for viewer window and quickview i miss the ability to chose which wlx i want to use next (dropdown instead of '4' key )!

Also keep in mind better messaging support (documented), user command with parameters, much more internal command...

[sky66]

2ghisler(Author)

complete redesign

I don't think a complete new design is required. I'd rather call it a visual fine-tuning. Exception: In my opinion the buttonbar icons need to be redesigned.

Nice to have new buttonbar icons, but suggest also keep current buttonbar icons for some old users.

2everyone who is interested in seeing his feature idea implemented

very long text describing an idea...

Try to visualize your idea in some way. It doesn't has to be a professionally designed mockup or an interactive prototype (although it wouldn't hurt) but it should be something to look at. It must be possible to understand your idea at first glance. From my professionell experience and the experience here in the forum it's really the only way to communicate and discuss things effectively. And it's the most convincing way.

For the visual fine-tuning, here are some suggestions in my opinion:

1. Please add icons for Function key buttons(optional), please refer to the below pic.
Image: http://i.imgur.com/Vbeamr2.jpg
Additionally, if user pressed CTRL or ALT or SHIFT, the icon and text will be changed accordingly.
eg. F3 View => Alt+F3 Alternate viewer

2. Currently we can only enable or disable "Windows XP theme background", suggest let users can use their favorite background pic or define custom gradient color.
Not only menu+all bars, but also have some options for "Drive combobox line" & "Status bar" & "Function key buttons".
(Refer to Firefox or Chrome. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/themes/ )

3. Please add user can adjust the width for Root button[\], Parent dir[..], Hotlist button[*], History button[▼], because these buttons are a little too small for full HD screen.
Image: http://i.imgur.com/CLogjNL.jpg

4. When copy, move one file/dir, please show the file/dir's Icon or Thumbnail in dialog.
This will remind you that what file/dir you will copy or move, not file/dir name only.
(If checked "F8/DEL deletes to recycle bin" in TC, you will see the effect during delete one file/dir.)

5. Please add one "Contents bar" above the Status bar.
We can also let user to define the columns in Contents bar, I think some user will use this function to show the longer file comments.
(Refer to Win7 Explorer, if select one pic file, it will show Thumbnail, XResolution * YResolution, date...above the Status bar, and it can modify & save some of the file detail contents directly.)

6. Cursor color can set custom or predefined gradient color, and also can set Cursor border color.
Image: http://i.imgur.com/vor1QbQ.jpg

7. Please highlight the search result in "Compare by content".
Now we have green underline only, it is not obvious.
Image: http://i.imgur.com/vkTEb11.jpg

8. Please use "Tree panel" style( Ctrl+Shift+F8 ) for "Directory Tree" dialog (Alt+F10).
Because current "Directory Tree" dialog, no icons and cannot be folded, it is very hard to find/select one dir in HDD with thousands of dirs.
Image: http://i.imgur.com/MBCDVr8.jpg

[Sob]

About the "redesign", it may be useful to break it down a little and make clear what it does and does not mean, explain terms, etc. As I see it:

• Big YES to standard Windows controls and themes, continue on this right path and fix what's missing.
• Big NO to things like full skins or such (nobody said that, but I feel a little suspicion when I see "fresh contemporary look" or "cool factor" :). Things like simple custom backgrounds are not a problem.
• Icons (buttonbar, menus, ..) don't matter. They might be made new, but they don't really influence anything, they are just "sprinkles on top", separate task. IMHO TC could and probably should include more than one set by default. E.g. with the goal to fit in target OS, you can hardly come up with just one set which fits perfectly with all Windows versions.
• A lot of parts (dialogs) don't need redesign, they just need consistency. Consistent spacing between elements, consistent alignment, etc. It's not even a design thing, more like technical rules. This is where this "unpolished" look/feel comes from, almost every dialog looks like it was created by different person. Unless you take them as consistent in inconsistency. ;)
• Some parts could benefit from making things different. It may go from simply rearranging existing controls to something completely different (Settings dialog comes to mind). Real UI expert would help here.
• Added UI flexibility/customization (e.g. as mentioned by Hacker) would be nice too.

[Hacker]

sky66,

Additionally, if user pressed CTRL or ALT or SHIFT, the icon and text will be changed accordingly.
eg. F3 View => Alt+F3 Alternate viewer

The problem has always been translations for all of these (many strings) plus a user can define eg. F3 to do anything, so to be consistent you would need to translate the whole totalcmd.inc.

Roman

[Samuel]

sky66,

Additionally, if user pressed CTRL or ALT or SHIFT, the icon and text will be changed accordingly.
eg. F3 View => Alt+F3 Alternate viewer

The problem has always been translations for all of these (many strings) plus a user can define eg. F3 to do anything, so to be consistent you would need to translate the whole totalcmd.inc.

Roman

That would need translation so we wont implement it annoys me. (not only in this case) Really good suggestions are not implemented because of this reason. The program should fallback to english if no translation is available. Perhaps with a Message shown: "Some new features are not translated yet: Help translating here..."

[Balderstrom]

Aren't all these reasons just as annoying?

No, "TC Behaviour that wont be changed."
No, "Not Planned. Too complicated."
No, "Not Planned. Not Useful for enough users."
No, "It's quite improbable for the reasons I gave above. No, this is by design, sorry. The request involves Tab/Filter improvement.
No, Dead Silence.

Some links:

Intentional
By Design
It's quite improbable for the reasons I gave above.

This thread even has some new ones I haven't seen before.

"NO, there's thousands of requests, and it will only improve TC by 10%"

It's only been 9 months since the last TC update , lets wait a few more years. There might be some worthy feature requests by then.

TC 8.x Changelog ::

2014: 16 "Added:" lines.
2013: 163
2012: 41
2011: 86
2010: 0 :: port to Lazarus.

[Samuel]

Aren't all these reasons just as annoying?

No, "TC Behaviour that wont be changed."
No, "Not Planned. Too complicated."
No, "Not Planned. Not Useful for enough users."
No, "It's quite improbable for the reasons I gave above. No, this is by design, sorry. The request involves Tab/Filter improvement.
No, Dead Silence.

As I am a programmer myself, I usually can understand Christians decisions. Especially as he is the only TC-programmer until now (AFAIK) and therefore has limited ressources.

TC 8.x Changelog ::

2014: 16 "Added:" lines.
2013: 163
2012: 41
2011: 86
2010: 0 :: port to Lazarus.

I personally really appreciate that Christian provided TC for Android for free. (big project in the last time)

[Balderstrom]

I'd rather buy a new license Every Single Year. If it meant things would actually be done. Instead of thrown onto a huge pile of "I'll think about it". Or redirected to "Behaviour that wont be changed."

Great, a free version for Android, while TC for Windows - the license we paid for just languishes for a whole year.

Oh now, he's working on TC for WinPhone. Bonus.

It's Christian's choice to be the sole developer. And Christian's choice to leave it closed source. Everything is Christian's choice, and user opinion doesn't matter worth a rats ass.

I imagine many of TC's users are programmers. It's not that complicated.

Lets follow the Opera-train-of-thought: 18 months to add Bookmarks.

[sky66]

sky66,

Additionally, if user pressed CTRL or ALT or SHIFT, the icon and text will be changed accordingly.
eg. F3 View => Alt+F3 Alternate viewer

The problem has always been translations for all of these (many strings) plus a user can define eg. F3 to do anything, so to be consistent you would need to translate the whole totalcmd.inc.

Roman

That would need translation so we wont implement it annoys me. (not only in this case) Really good suggestions are not implemented because of this reason. The program should fallback to english if no translation is available. Perhaps with a Message shown: "Some new features are not translated yet: Help translating here..."

Yes, we will need translation, but it should be not too much. Ctrl+F1~F8 & Alt+F1~F8 & Shift+F1~F8. (3*8=24 simple strings, equal to three lines.)
Compare to difres851(new850.txt), there are around 58 new lines added or updated in file *.lng.
Please refer to the concept:
Image: http://i.imgur.com/bauLJhj.jpg

If user redefine the key, we do not need update it. (as TC 8.51 did)
eg. When you redefine F4 or F5 in TC 8.51, the function key bar text will not update automatically.
But advanced user can modify WCMD_XXX.LNG line#1072~1078 if they need.

I still remember when I was WCMD 3.5x new user, I will always open function key buttons bar for reference. But it lack of Ctrl+ , Alt+ and Shift+ hot key, so I will often press F1 to check Keyboard layout.
Therefore I think this suggestion will be useful for new user.

[Balderstrom]

User Definable Function Bar, Built-in Regex Filters, Show Junction Paths, Colored Tabs.
Image: http://i61.tinypic.com/ml1h03.jpg

Core Settings (Junction Settings), Panel Settings (Mouse Functions)
Image: http://i60.tinypic.com/eqt3f6.jpg

Multi-Data Viewer
Image: http://i61.tinypic.com/53mziv.jpg

Multi-Data Viewer with on the fly (or saveable) Highlighting
Image: http://i58.tinypic.com/oihbpx.jpg