Breadcrumbs, Scripts, etc.

[JohnFredC]

SpeedProject guys are really cool

I agree. SC also supports persistent tree visibility status by folder tab, a folder tab-based GUI for virtual folders, and named panel layouts. User interface innovations and efficiencies aside, however, in use SC seems somewhat slow compared to TC for day-to-day file operations and AFAIK doesn't yet support custom column configs.

Slightly humorous to me is how the "breadcrumbs" GUI paradigm is touted as "new". I have encountered (and written) similar GUI mechanisms in database inquiry interfaces (for example) in the past. Maybe some file manager developers are finally waking up to the fact that file managers are just tools to manage file data.

There are many efficiencies for managing lists of data implemented in spreadsheet and datasheet GUIs that would benefit file management tools like TC or SC or any of the others.

Imagine the TC lister offering the kind of flexibility and interactivity of an Excel spreadsheet, for instance. Lockable (for scrolling) columns & rows, direct manipulation of attributes & comments, formulaic columns in the lister, etc. These are conventional/universal paradigms for data manipulation that many users are already comfortable with and would make use of immediately.

I'd pay Dopus prices for that!

[Alextp]

2JohnFredC
What tool did you write?

[JohnFredC]

I write proprietary database inquiry and reporting tools, mostly in MS Access. Implemented a breadcrumbs-like thing some years ago for a large US bank by lining up combo boxes left-to-right, each representing a level in an hierarchical data model. Selecting a value from one of the combo boxes rewrote the SQL code that populated the combo boxes to the right of it. Not rocket science, and not original with me. I think I actually got the idea from the Next Cube's file manager (which used list boxes instead of combo boxes).

Breadcrumbs don't look like a row of combo boxes, but behave essentially the same way.

[Alextp]

2JohnFredC
Oh, I see. OK. One note: I think that BreadcrumbBar looks much nicer if it's done from SpeedButtons with attached popup menus - like here:

http://wiki.mustangpeak.net/images/c/c2/BreadCrumbBar.gif

[Hacker]

BTW: I still don't understand why the breadcrumbs menu is not expandable to the right, to also show subdirectories.

Roman

[DarkRuleR]

Lefteous, that SpeedProject guys are really cool.

I like their implementation of BreadcrumbBar. It's even better than in UltraExplorer.

Agreed!

I could even work without the little triangle.

DR...

[Hacker]

[mod]Some OT posts moved to [OT] Unreal Commander.

Hacker (Moderator)[/mod]

[DarkRuleR]

Hi!!!

I think that the whole bread crumb navigation has potential.
To show how it could be used within TC I made a little example picture.

http://img258.imageshack.us/my.php?image=tcbreadcrumbexamplefo9.jpg

Greetz,

DR...

[SanskritFritz]

2DarkRuleR
Hmm, I dont know what is new about this idea, if you shift-click on a folder you get there, and then you can do exactly the same in the panel: enter other folders.

[icfu]

Hasn't this been explained on the last four pages?

New is
- that you don't need to enter a directory before you can enter one of its subdirectories but you can choose the desired one in one step.
- that you have access to the complete file system, just like in the trees but more efficient.
- that you can drag&drop content from your working directory without leaving it or switching the target directory.
- that mouse users will benefit from it.

To make breadcrumbs perfect, they should of course be equipped with additional popup functionality for subdirectories, known from ShortPopUp, menuApp and the like, so you can also switch to directories located in a lower hierarchy level.

Icfu

[Hacker]

DarkRuleR,
The dirs should expand to the right in your picture, IMO.

Roman

[StickyNomad]

2SanskritFritz

I also have to admit I like the breadcrumb-navigation. Of course the way you describe already works, but a breadcrumb bar can be more fast in some cases. icfu stated exactly the points.

But the best is to check out such a breadcrumb bar for yourself, if you didn't do that already. I was quite surprised how nifty this way to navigate can be.

There exists a free and nice explorer-addon I tried: Explorer breadcrumbs

[SanskritFritz]

Ok, that sounds good. Being a keyboard user, I wonder how that could be done via keyboard only?

[StickyNomad]

Hmm, perhaps a shortcut can be used to open the menu for the parent dir of the cutrrent location, and then one could use TAB or LEFT/RIGHT to move through the path levels.

Just a very quick guess though...

[SanskritFritz]

I thought about it, this seems to be geared very much towards mouse users by nature. Well, I do use my mouse sometimes. This could be a case, if it really will be fast. Seems to me the main reason to introduce the feature.