Total Commander

Suggestion to include a command palette for all regular menu items, user menu items and toolbar buttons to quickly filter thse items to find what is needed among the gazillion possibilities.

Even the de facto keyboard shortcut for command palettes - CTRL+SHIFT+P - is still available

Something like this?

cm_CommandBrowser in wincmd.ini

Code: Select all

[Alias]
cmb=cm_CommandBrowser
[Shortcuts]
CS+P=cm_CommandBrowser

- open command browser (via shortcut or alias)
- filter commands by typing keyword
- select with <enter> (command will be copied to clipboard; dialog closed)
- focus command line and <Ctrl+V> paste selected command from clipboard
- <enter> to execute

Regards
Holger

HolgerK,
Something similar, but only for commands already used in the Menu, Button Bar, Aliases, etc.

Roman

HolgerK wrote: ↑2021-04-05, 20:58 UTC Something like this?

I actually considered adding those to the list too, but figured that it would give too many duplicates.


For look and feel you might take a look at how Sublime, Visual Studio Code (editors) or fman (filemanager) implemented this.

+1 something similar viewtopic.php?f=14&t=73521&p=395367#p395367

+1
Total Commander is a software with a lot of features.
I consider that any software of that kind has to face the challenge of making those features available to its users in the most convenient and immediate way possible.
If this does not happen, many of these features remain unused or - at least - are rarely used.

In recent years, the use of the command palette has become popular as one of the tools that facilitate the discovery of commands.
I recommend reading The History of Command Palettes: How Typing Commands Became The Norm Again (https: //capiche.com/e/consumer-dev-tools-command-palette) to learn more about this tool.
There are many of us who enjoy its benefits in programs such as Sublime Text, Windows Terminal, Vim, Visual Studio Code, etc..

From the above, it seems that it would be very positive that Total Commander incorporates a command palette.

It seems that the basis for this could be what is currently the "Choose command" window (command cm_CommandBrowser).
Some time ago when I discovered the command cm_CommandBrowser I had the hope that TC already had as a hidden gem, the command palette and I associated cm_CommandBrowser to CTRL+SHIFT+P
Unfortunately when I invoked it I realized that it was only the same window that is used to associate commands to keys.
Beyond this, if its filter box was made fuzzy and the selection of the command triggered the corresponding action, we could have a basic command palette.

Best regards,
Claudio Salvio

URL "disarmed" by moderator until further investigation

2Claudio Salvio
Undocumented feature In the command browser is that clicking or pressing Enter on the command copies its the name to the clipboard.
Afterwards you can paste it in the command line and execute it.
I agree that it is not convenient like other command palettes that immediately execute it.

You can also check tool tcinc (viewtopic.php?t=42785) from user @MVV that launches simple command browser. It has mnemonic search and immediately executes the command.

Might I suggest that a TC command palette contain, in addition to the command and a keyboard shortcut, a very brief description. With so many commands and the need to keep command label length short, the command label itself may not convey its function so as to be able to decide whether to use it, or not.

In my opinion a command palette is much more than TC's command browser.

First of all it should show the associated keyboard shortcuts too. That is an easy way to learn the shortcuts for the next time.
And/or the location in the menu where that option can be found.

Second the description should be much more "human-friendly" [1].
Current descriptions are targeted at people who already know what is what. New users might need more context.

Also: there should be more descriptions/synonyms for the same action. 'Directory' is a word that was used in the previous century. Most people will now probably search for 'folder' and find only half of the commands. The rest will search for 'directory' and find the other half. Needing to search for both keywords to find what you are looking for is - again - not very human-friendly.

There is more to say about this subject, but that has to wait (out of time).
Thanks for the "The History of Command Palettes" article @Claudio Salvio; interesting read!



[1]
A propos "human-friendly", another suggestion: When browsing through TC's menu, a more descriptive explanation what each entry does is shown in the status bar when hovering over that menu entry.
For example: I expected menu entry Command => Source <-> Target to do some sort of synchronization as it wasn't in the Show menu but in the Commands menu, together with other synchronize entries.
That is: until I saw CTRL+U, a hotkey I am familiar with from other file managers. Not everyone is.
A status bar showing a less cryptic explanation like "Swap panels" will help here.