Total Commander

ghisler(Author)

Good morning,

• That's a suggestion related to this MESSAGE in the French section.
- There, the user Freddy told that he has not any [Lister] section in his <wincmd.ini> that a priori seemed incredible
- He had a [ListerPlugins] section though, that darkened the issue a bit more…
• Actually, after that Paul Vansumsen has performed some tests, we discovered that Freddy had never changed anything
in his Lister settings (!) from the time he installed TC, thus the section was not created !

• I guess that at least that section (empty) might be always created in any fresh INI
to avoid such unsuccessful searches and wasted time.
- Probably some other (empty) missing sections could be written too…
The current behaviour -to save some KiB- is obsolete and to make cheeseparing economies.
- For instance, in XnView the default INI contains ALL sections and entries having a GUI, the sections in the file
and the entries in every section are sorted in alphabetical order,
and NEVER messed up when the user changes some option.

Unfortunately, that's another story in the TC INIs… Everytime you change any option,
it's moved from its alpha. location, and added unsorted at the end of the section,
so the long work to sort the file nicely by hand is lost and to remake endlessly, example :

[Configuration]
…
;
;V
Viewer=none
Viewertype=1
;
;W
WantXpLook=0
WatchDirs=0
Win32TipWindows=1
Win95Delete=0
WmfAllowed=3
noreread2=G
lastmd5=1
CompareCaseSensitive=0
CompareIgnoreRepSpace=1
CompareIgnoreRepeatedLines=1
CompareVertical=0
LastRunAs=Claude
IgnoreListFileEnabled=1
IgnoreListFile=tcignore.txt
SeparateTreeWidth=215
OleComments=0
SyncFlags=0
SyncButtons=63
FirstTime=0
;
;X-Y-Z
;
…

• I ought say that despite its shortened title, this topic is not limited to the lack of default empty section¦s,
but includes the above-mentioned messy management of the writing in the INIs.
- That is important for the ß-testers and advanced users who help to the public ß-test
to spot the sections and entries in their INI files easily and quickly…

• Please, should it be possible to improve that in a next major version ? TIA !

VG
Claude
Clo

Support++

BTW That is one of the reasons why I use RedirectSection variable with separate files for each section.

2fenix_productions

Hi Karol !

• Thank you to support !

…BTW That is one of the reasons why I use RedirectSection variable with separate files for each section.

- Yes, Paul does so too, but that solves the issue partially only, since that avoids the wild adding of “new” sections
unsorted at the file end, but doesn't prevent the shambles brought in the changed entries
for every redirected section INI-file…
- The part of my INI I show above is the 7.5 test versions one, I'd to prepare the folder in a hurry,
and then missed time to remake the sorting and set redirections.
- When 7.5 final is out, I'll re-sort all entries in red… {Sigh…}
- Besides, too many separate INIs are getting confusing too…

 KR
Claude
Clo

Hi Claude

Clo wrote:- When 7.5 final is out, I'll re-sort all entries in red

As far as the sorting is concerned, having TC sorting the options per section would be nice and helpful but an external utility or addon could also do the job. Isn't there anything in the net?

wanderer wrote: As far as the sorting is concerned, having TC sorting the options per section would be nice and helpful but an external utility or addon could also do the job. Isn't there anything in the net?

There are some python or some MSVC++ code that reorganize ini file but all of them mess up comments and TC numbering from 1 to 9999 instead of 0001 to 9999 !

TC section are too big and not organized with sub sections..

To do a specific tool that can we miss an official full ini template that evolve following all TC version ...

I'm also looking for a usable ini template in order to reorganize my stuff and only keep what i need and add note to what i should not forgot !!
does M. Gisler have such a text file

I have requested the same long time ago in the Beta board.

As far as I remember Christian wrote back, that with the functions he calls to write the ini's, there was nothing he could do about it

2petermad

Hi Peter !

• Well, I also mentioned the mess issue already a long while ago about a limited case (English language), unsuccessfully…
- However, why is it possible in XnView, and not in TC ? Are “better” functions called ?
Both work in the same Windows, after all…
- Like nsp says above, a full INI template and a really appropriate tool to re-sort could do the trick, at the very outside…

 KR
Claude
Clo

Clo,
Is this really necessary? I tend to agree with petermad - to write one's own functions for INI reading and writing and keeping in alphabetical order just so that the INI looks nicer is overkill IMO.
I am not saying I would be against a nicer INI, but the usefullness / effort ratio is way too low.

Roman

2Hacker

Hi Roman !

• Prior, I didn't understand that Peter said that it's useless !!!
- It is useful to me, not only a mania, I'm not an obsessively tidy guy at all !
- Maybe are you thinking that rummaging in > 750…800 lines and more to find out an entry
is convenient when the order has been messed up ? I don't…
• And again, just check you <xnview.ini>, there is no finish photo…
- Why really this way can't be applied ? That is the question.

 KR
Claude
Clo

Hacker wrote:to write one's own functions for INI reading and writing and keeping in alphabetical order just so that the INI looks nicer is overkill IMO.

Through TC's configuration UI, the user can alter some of the available options so manual INI editing is not uncommon. The purpose of having a sorted" INI would not be to "look nicer" but to be more easily edited, so it would indeed be nice to have a "sorted" ini. At the end though, i'd have to agree with Hacker. It would probably be better for Christian to use this time to implement a more visible-to-the-user feature than "to write one's own functions for INI reading and writing". IMO, the "tidy ini" is a job for an external utility. An external TC config manager perhaps...

All

With more than 150 lines only in the [Configuration] it's a mess.
With a non-redirected ini I have more than 1400 lines it is an absolute shambles.

If you add manually an already existing line, it is almost impossible to find why it does not work correctly !

I strongly support an alphabetical sorting, sections and entries within them !

Friendly

Paul

Clo,

It is useful to me

Well, yes, as you say, to you.

Maybe are you thinking that rummaging in > 750…800 lines and more to find out an entry
is convenient when the order has been messed up ?

Yes, that is exactly what I am thinking.

I don't…

And that is why you use the Search function of an editor.

And again, just check you <xnview.ini>, there is no finish photo…
- Why really this way can't be applied ? That is the question.

I guess because XnView is not open source so Christian cannot use the functions Pierre wrote.

Roman

I doubt that an alphabetic sort order is the only order which may be preferred by all users.

How about:

- Temporary keys placed at the start of a section?

- Comment lines like ; disabled for test

- Grouping in categories? (Not all keys from one category starts with the same character/word)

- Different point of view for categories (e.g. speed vs. security)

Regards
Holger

2wanderer

Hello !

…It would probably be better for Christian to use this time to implement a more visible-to-the-user feature than "to write one's own functions for INI reading and writing". …

• Yes, in the principle… But in the practice, I notice that many suggestions to improve¦increase the Options as GUI
-I mean mainly in the test-forum, but not only- have been ignored totally,
other testers and I wasted our time to write messages
and draw mock-ups which land, finally, in the Bottomless Well of the Forgotten Good Ideas…
- Even the proposal to create a "Postponed" section for such suggestions remains unanswered till today…
- Besides, always bandages, workarounds and external stuff suck - especially about that topic,
while other programmes can get this natively, without any extra stuff…

 KR
Claude
Clo

2Clo

Ok, let's not forget TC is a one-man show with a todo list of a million items. A new user will not purchase TC for its ability to write a sorted INI, he would purchase it for its features though, that's why i believe this is a job for an external utility. Of course it would be better to have it built-in to TC but it seems not possible to have such a feature in the near future (like many other requested features)...