A question about V6.0 and a BUG maybe

[Raymond]

First of all, congratulation and thanks for the new V6.0 version, Christian!

Question:
I read this in the HISTORY.TXT file: "Added: Quick search now also works with a * at the beginning: Use Ctrl+Alt+"*" with "*" on the numeric keypad to invoke"
What does it mean? I failed to dig the feature out.

Bug(maybe):
Let's say I locked a tab which stands for A folder. Then I switch to another tab (let's say B folder), from there I delete A folder and tab A is still there(coz it's locked). I press ctrl+tab to switch to A tab, now A tab is unreachable, instead, there's another B tab appear...I'm not sure if it can be called a bug, but its behave is weird.

I'm under win2kpro.

[djk]

Question:
I read this in the HISTORY.TXT file: "Added: Quick search now also works with a * at the beginning: Use Ctrl+Alt+"*" with "*" on the numeric keypad to invoke"
What does it mean? I failed to dig the feature out.

It means that if you use eg. CTRL+ALT and type eg. "*es" the coursor will go to the first file where the part of its name has the string"es", eg. "test.txt". It seems to work ok.

[Raymond]

It means that if you use eg. CTRL+ALT and type eg. "*es" the coursor will go to the first file where the part of its name has the string"es", eg. "test.txt". It seems to work ok.

I got it. Thx, djk.

Do you or anyone else have the same problem I mentioned as bug above?

[Coco]

Yes you right, deleting such a folder give this problem.

[ghisler(Author)]

This is NOT a bug! When you lock a tab, this means that TC isn't allowed to change directories in this tab. So what can it do when it cannot open the folder of this tab (e.g. because the server is unavailable, or a program has deleted its temporary output directory)? You guessed it, it has to switch to another tab. But which one? The others may be all invalid too! So the only solution is to create a new tab with a directory which works. To get rid of the tab, right click on it and choose "Delete", or middle click on it (doesn't work with all mouse drivers).

[Coco]

Hi Christian,

Thanks for the answer.

What about just going back to the previous tab? (from where we came before clicking on this invalid tab).

Only create a new one if there is no valid other tabs.
So you will only create one new tab and one at each click.

[ghisler(Author)]

Unfortunately it's not always possible from where the user came - the tab control doesn't remember this.

[Hacker]

(That brings us back to the wish of going back to last active tab when current is closed...

Roman)

[wanderer]

This is NOT a bug! When you lock a tab, this means that TC isn't allowed to change directories in this tab.

So the only solution is to create a new tab with a directory which works.

Great. So when you click on a locked tab and doubleclick on [..], a new tab opens and you are transferred to it. So if you do that 5 times, you have filled the tab-line with tabs! Is there a way to disable this feature? Perhaps it would be nice if in a locked tab, the selected directory acted as a root. Explanation: you would be able to go to subdirs (only) inside the locked tab but when you pressed CTRL+\, it would transfer you to the directory you were in when the tab was locked. Perhaps this could be a new feature called "root-lock selected tab".

[Hacker]

Great. So when you click on a locked tab and doubleclick on [..], a new tab opens and you are transferred to it. So if you do that 5 times, you have filled the tab-line with tabs!

Don't do it 5 times then... Use newly opened tab for further browsing and you'll have no problems...

HTH
Roman

[ghisler(Author)]

Or close unwanted tabs with Ctrl+W or Ctrl+Click.

[JohnFredC]

you would be able to go to subdirs (only) inside the locked tab but when you pressed CTRL+\, it would transfer you to the directory you were in when the tab was locked. Perhaps this could be a new feature called "root-lock selected tab".

Thank you Wanderer. I fully endorse this proposed feature.

It is gratifying that I am not the only one who finds the new tab behavior peculiar. I keep having to close unwanted tabs in order not to completely overwhelm the interface.

Tabs need several new properties/options, all of which should be accessible from a tab properties dialog for each tab.

Fixed name (no matter where the tab points).
Toggle for lock navigate "up"
Toggle for lock navigate "down"
Toggle for delete (or hide?) tab if location not present and/or
Toggle and value for default location to use if tab's initial location is missing.
Exposed/editable mask in properties dialog value saved with tab.
Toggle to "restore tab properties upon tab activation" (or not)
Toggle to "automatically save tab properties on exit TC or load new tab file" or not.

I fully realize that a lot of effort and thinking went into the design of the tab behavior, and I am trying to change my work habits to fit the current design, it's just that I have not yet identified an advantage to me for the current behavior over what I was hoping for.

[wanderer]

2JohnFredC: Here is my opinion on the things you describe.

>> Fixed name (no matter where the tab points).
Currently you can do this in a locked tab only. I believe it would be better to be as you describe it. If you rename a tab, it would keep its name nomatter where the tab points.

>>Toggle for lock navigate "up"
>>Toggle for lock navigate "down"

I don't know about the use of that. It would complicate things and i don't see its purpose (for the down part). I believe a simple lock which would lock the "up" direction only would be enough.

>>Toggle for delete (or hide?) tab if location not present and/or
>>Toggle and value for default location to use if tab's initial location is missing.

If i understand correctly: you have a tab TA pointing in a dir DA and you go at tab B and delete dir DA. You propose that tab TA will be deleted automatically or be transfered to a default location. I like the "delete" idea. There is a good chance there will be no need for it to be there any more so a toggle for deletion (in options) would be useful.

>>Exposed/editable mask in properties dialog value saved with tab.
>>Toggle to "restore tab properties upon tab activation" (or not)

??? I don't understand these.

>>Toggle to "automatically save tab properties on exit TC.
If tabs were loaded from a saved file, this could be useful. Good idea.

>>...it's just that I have not yet identified an advantage to me for the current behavior over what I was hoping for....

Well, tabs are not bad but i believe they are not as good as they could be. I believe that Christian is reading all the posts at the moment trying to decide what improvements to implement so let's keep posting our ideas.

[JohnFredC]

2wanderer

>>Toggle for lock navigate "up"
>>Toggle for lock navigate "down"

I don't know about the use of that. It would complicate things and i don't see its purpose (for the down part). I believe a simple lock which would lock the "up" direction only would be enough.

If the tab is locked both "up" and "down", then it's behavior would be the way a locked tab behaves in 6.0: clicking on a folder would open the folder in a new tab. I personally wouldn't use it that way very often, but some probably would.

>>Exposed/editable mask in properties dialog value saved with tab.
>>Toggle to "restore tab properties upon tab activation" (or not)

??? I don't understand these.

In the first item I am just requesting a combo in a "future" tab properties dialog in which we could assign a file mask (*.jpg, etc) to the tab. As far as I can tell, the file selection mask currently applies to all tabs on a panel, even after opening a new tab file. I want each tab to have its own filter.

In the second item, suppose we change a "saved" property of a tab (location, mask, etc.), then select another tab. What happens when we go back to the first tab? Do the changes persist? Or do they revert to the saved properties? I want a toggle in the tab properties that if set will automatically restore the saved properties when I re-enter the tab, no matter what I may have done in the tab before leaving it for another one.

For me, between the way it is now and the "best of all possible worlds", just 1) "unlocking" the "down" navigate behavior in a locked tab and 2) making all typed tab captions persist and 3) saving the file mask with the tab would be an enormous improvement and probably not too hard for Christian to implement in a fractional version (6.01 perhaps???).

[wanderer]

In the first item I am just requesting a combo in a "future" tab properties dialog in which we could assign a file mask (*.jpg, etc) to the tab. As far as I can tell, the file selection mask currently applies to all tabs on a panel, even after opening a new tab file. I want each tab to have its own filter.

Oops, i hadn't noticed that. I agree with you, each tab should have its own mask.

In the second item, suppose we change a "saved" property of a tab (location, mask, etc.), then select another tab. What happens when we go back to the first tab? Do the changes persist? Or do they revert to the saved properties? I want a toggle in the tab properties that if set will automatically restore the saved properties when I re-enter the tab, no matter what I may have done in the tab before leaving it for another one.

That would probably complicate things. IMO, the changes should persist until you close TCmd, then they should be lost unless you saved them to a tabs file. Perhaps a new feature (i.e. ctrl+rightclick on a tab) would reload the selected tab's settings from the tab file.

For me, between the way it is now and the "best of all possible worlds", just 1) "unlocking" the "down" navigate behavior in a locked tab and 2) making all typed tab captions persist and 3) saving the file mask with the tab would be an enormous improvement and probably not too hard for Christian to implement in a fractional version (6.01 perhaps???).

Couldn't agree more. I too believe these would greatly enhance the tabs system.