Strange history build up

[Gauner]

I leave it up to You to consider this a bug or a feature request:
I'd rather see the history work like in a web browser, like said here https://www.ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic.php?p=365592#p365592 too:

In Total Commander, the mouse back/forward buttons do the same as in a web browser: Go to previous/next directory in history.

(It's not about the mouse buttons here, it's about cm_GotoPreviousDir in general, no matter how it is called.)

Now, here's a demo case:
1. I'm in directory c:\
2. I go to directory c:\a\
3. I go back ("cm_GotoPreviousDir"), I'm in c:\ now (so far expected behaviour)
4. I go to directoy c:\b\
5. I go back again. Now, instead of being in the previous directory from step 3 c:\ I'm in c:\a\ now (from step 2)

This is especially annoying, when I follow symlinks inside a directory, one after another. At the lastest after the second one I don't directly come back to my starting point (the directory with the symlinks in it, and which is not just one level above like in the demo case), but to the last symlink I visited. So I'd have to do cm_GotoPreviousDir as often as I have visited other symlinks before, which can be many.
And it is annoying, since it is somehow unpredictable. Sometimes cm_GotoPreviousDir means what it says, sometimes it doesn't, depending on what happened "before before".
It might be right, it's previous in the tc history, but still the tc history gets stacked up in a strange manner, compared to all experience a user has with web browsers and Explorer. Both rewrite the history from where I am. Maybe tc's shiftings in the history have their reason too, but please don't destroy the "previous directory" behaviour by that. There must be a way to keep that together with whatever requirement You have for shifting around in the history, if there is one.

So, I suggest to make it really strict: "previous" means really previous where I came from, no matter what I did. When implementing, please also test directory changes with directly clicked .lnk-Links, with directly entered cd-command and with edited path ("cm_EditPath").

[Stefan2]

Not sure if this is related to your issue:

https://www.ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic.php?p=393047#p393047

--- "Configuration" -> "Options..." -> "Operation" -> "Main program" -> "Directory history thinning"

--- When using history thinning, Alt+Cursor down or click on the history button
     only shows directories where you stayed a bit longer, or started some kind of file operation.

--- To temporarily view all history entries even with thinning enabled, use Alt+Shift+Cursor down, or Shift+click on history button.


- - -


Or rather HistoryCut

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=57551&p=369720#p369720
Post by *ghisler(Author) » Sun Feb 09, 2020 10:58

This isn't a bug. It's a unification of behaviour (which btw has nothing to do with history thinning).

In TC 9.22a, when you went back in the history via button bar "<-" or Alt+Cursor left,
and then switched to a diferent directory, the entire history behind that point was lost.

That's how it also works in a Web browser. But Total Commander isn't a Web browser, it's a file manager.
Losing the previously visited directories is not nice.

Also in TC 9.22a, if you picked a directory from the dropdown history (triangle button or Alt+Cursor down)
put that directory at the end of the history. So when you then went to a different directory, the history wasn't lost.

TC 9.50 tries to unify this:
when you go to a previous directory via button bar "<-" or Alt+Cursor left, and then go somewhere else,
that new directory is appended to the history so the history beyond that location isn't lost any more.
This is more similar to what happens when you use the dropdown history in TC 9.22a or 9.50.

Please try this new option (TC9.50) in wincmd.ini section [Configuration]
HistoryCut=1

It should handle the history similar to TC 9.22.

?

[Gauner]

HistoryCut=1 works fine, thank You.
I couldn't reproduce the delay behaviour Stefan2 explained. Maybe because my problem

has nothing to do with history thinning

Sorry that I didn't find all that material about this issue. It was because, before I started posting I wasn't aware that the history is the key (word), not the behaviour of the "cm_GotoPreviousDir" command.

[petermad]

2Gauner

HistoryCut=1 works fine, thank You.

If that is the case you must be using a version of TC older than TC 9.50a, because the default value for HistoryCut was changed to 1 in TC 9.50a RC1 - Maybe time to update...

12.02.20 Release Total Commander 9.50a release candidate 1 (RC1)
11.02.20 Fixed: Changed default of HistoryCut option from 0 to 1 until a better solution is found (32/64)

30.10.19 Release Total Commander 9.50 beta 3
28.10.19 Added: New option in wincmd.ini [Configuration] HistoryCut=1 Cuts history after current entry when in the middle of the history and the user goes to a different directory (32/64)

[Gauner]

That's right, i have 9.50