why xp windows explorer is still more convenient (part 1)

[Quaraxkad]

hover to select is much faster than single-clicking. And much more convenient. It is especially obviously in case of executing: you have to click twice, i have to click once. And real 'heavy file-manager users' will always choose the way with less amount of clicking

I couldn't disagree more... There are two methods of hover-selection: either the mouse immediately selects a file with no pause when the mouse is over it, or there is a pause where you put the mouse over the item and wait, after Xms the item is selected. The second method is *clearly* slower than just single-clicking the item. And while the first method may be "faster", it introduces a whole host of new issues that can't be overcome. For example, multi-selections and accidentally touching the mouse and losing your entire selection because the cursor landed on another item. I don't know your work-flow, so maybe it works for your means, but I can guarantee you that 95% of heavy usage users would not be satisfied with hover to select/single click to launch.

Probably you are not familiar with tested and reliable small programs like: Shell Toys, Pitaschio, Better File Rename, Better File Select... The 1st of them is a shell extension which allows to make windows explorer much more handy. And in many aspects more convenient than xyplorer. But it is evidently that windows explorer does not have decent future (it was demolished in vista, it has no signs of life to this today). So this is the reason why i'm trying to explain here all the current disadvantages of xyplorer - i really want to make it my only file manager, but i still can't do it

Once again I will point out that these things are NOT part of Windows Explorer. So you can't say that Explorer is better than XY for these reasons. Also, XY has the ability to show Window Shell context menus instead of its own custom menus, so any tools that modify the Windows Shell should also be available in XY. As for file renaming and selecting, XY has a pretty comprehensive suite of tools for these functions. If there's something that any of these tools do that you like, specify them. There's a good chance that XY already does it, if not it could always be added. And Pitaschio doesn't really do much of anything specifically for Explorer... The few things that it does do are already a part of XY.

In the end, XY can't be everything to everyone, no matter how good it is. And you seem you want it to be just a clone of Explorer+All Of Your Addons and Tweaks. Sometimes it's better to learn a new way...

[j_c_hallgren]

admin, as i understand, part 2 of this topic in a separate thread is the thing that you do not want to appear. So i ask you to permit me to write some my new thoughts and questions later here in this topic
alternatively, i may create approximately 15 new topics + in this case i will also repost (in nearly 8 more new topics) my questions/thoughts/proposals from the 1st message of this thread

I would highly suspect that Don would not take kindly to either of those choices -and- creating that many topics in a short time would make you a spammer here in some folks eyes and thus eligible to be treated as such, ok?

Don will not make XY adapt to your special needs -- you need to adapt to it or find some other solution but I think based on the forum, most all folks are very pleased with XY.

[TheQwerty]

RE: Serial Rename and Tab/Shift+Tab...

Tab/Shift+Tab are incredibly easy to reach with just my left hand and it is much quicker to hit those than move my right hand back and forth between the arrows and home row. (Hence my remapping Capslock+H/J/K/L to match Vim's movement.) Most of my renaming also requires more than those characters only on the left side of the keyboard so optimizing for keeping the right hand on arrows is the wrong approach. I have no problems pressing multiple keys at once and with 10 fingers find it both quicker and more comfortable to use them for shortcuts than to remap everything to a single keypress in a more difficult to reach location. (I don't think I've ever owned a keyboard with function keys in a good position - why I sometimes map Capslock+1-0 to them.)

Guess I should thank my parents and childhood piano teacher as those years of training have clearly improved the dexterity, flexibility, and coordination of my fingers.

RE: This...

Use your curiosity, your brain, and you will succeed in making your file-managing-life easier.

And real 'heavy file-manager users' will always choose the way with less amount of clicking

But with such an attitude from the author, xyplorer will always have its today's tiny piece of the world market of file managers. I mean, is it really so difficult to spend not so much time in order to properly implement at least those my proposals about renaming?

mainly useless and not interesting to overwhelming majority of typical users of a file manager) program

Everything is not so simple as you think. I'm not trying to irritate anyone here.

As i said, everything is not so simple as you think.

Please stop talking down to and insulting Don and the other members of this community.

Many of us have spent considerable time thinking about and discussing ways to make XY better and I think we've done a great job. While the reviews I've read mostly agree, I'll leave the true verdict on our success to the only one of us with any knowledge on the sales of XY.

[bdeshi]

@Adamantine, you do have an option open items with single click in XY. When that's enabled, you have to click the file icon to open it, and click the filename to select it.
Enable this option: Tools --> Configuration --> Menu, Mouse, Safety --> "Single click on icon opens list items"

[Adamantine]

Enable this option: Tools --> Configuration --> Menu, Mouse, Safety --> "Single click on icon opens list items"

enabling this option was 1 of the very 1st things i changed in configuration. i'm just trying to explain that alternative way could also exist in xyplorer without any problems. it will not bother anyone because it will be certainly disabled by default and it also could be absent in GUI

j_c_hallgren, i'm not going to create all that topics at once. And in order to reduce their amount, i will mention here some of the questions that in my opinion are most related to the current topic:

1) in xyplorer it is impossible to conveniently drag-and-drop a file (flac, mp3, cue...) to opened foobar. Because in the moment i begin to hold the left button, foobar goes to background (in other words, xyplorer takes all foreground forcibly). Windows explorer does not do that, it allows foobar to stay visible

2) there is a small but vexatious problem related to the tree of xyplorer. I've customized my windows explorer so that it shows each my hard drive with only 1 symbol: C, D, E. But every time i execute xyplorer, all my hard drives are showed this way: Drive (C:), Drive (D:), Drive (E:). The most ridiculous thing is that if i press 'refresh' (aka F5), all the drives change their titles instantly to C, D, E (just like in windows explorer). They stay in this desired state until i close xyplorer and open it again

3) an application 'better file rename' works both in windows explorer and in xyplorer. But an allied application 'better file select' works only in windows explorer. Is there a way to use 'better file select' in xyplorer?

4) capitalization 'A* A*.aaa'. How to customize this setting so that it does not lower those letters which are placed next to this symbol: '

[bdeshi]

"in xyplorer it is impossible to conveniently drag-and-drop a file (flac, mp3, cue...) to opened foobar."
That is a small annoyance, until Don makes this go away, you can drag the files to foobar icon on the taskbar, (foobar will come to foreground,) and drop them.

"3) ...But an allied application 'better file select' works only in windows explorer. Is there a way to use 'better file select' in xyplorer?"
BFS menu item will be displayed if you select "Show 64-bit Context Menu" in XY's context menu. But that app apparently works only with WE lists, and won't work with XY's custom list. However, XY has a similiar feature: Selection Filter, and related scripting commands. Though the Filter's not as advanced as BFS, with a little scripting magic, XY can far surpass what BFS has to offer.

[Quaraxkad]

1) in xyplorer it is impossible to conveniently drag-and-drop a file (flac, mp3, cue...) to opened foobar. Because in the moment i begin to hold the left button, foobar goes to background (in other words, xyplorer takes all foreground forcibly). Windows explorer does not do that, it allows foobar to stay visible

Alt+Tab works while dragging.

3) an application 'better file rename' works both in windows explorer and in xyplorer. But an allied application 'better file select' works only in windows explorer. Is there a way to use 'better file select' in xyplorer?

Instead of using either of those application, you should specify exactly what features you use them for. If XY doesn't already do it, as SammaySarkar pointed out, you can script it in XY.

4) capitalization 'A* A*.aaa'. How to customize this setting so that it does not lower those letters which are placed next to this symbol: '

This could be done using a custom RegExp rename. Although I would suggest that for complex renaming operations, no file manager or mini-tool like BFR can come close to a more powerful and dedicated renaming tool like ReNamer. BFR is incredibly cumbersome with a poorly thought out UI. Yes, ReNamer is different, and I suspect you will immediately hate it because it's not identical to what you are used to, but you need to give change a chance and not complain about these tiny little differences when there are so many massive improvements. You are free to make suggestions of course, but the way you approached it here is very off-putting and sounded like all you wanted to do was angrily rant and complain that XY isn't identical to what you are used to.

[Adamantine]

there is an excellent program 'Everything' by David Carpenter. You know it

so it has its ini-file. Which (surprise, surprise) has the following line (0 is the default setting):
rename_move_caret_to_selection_end=1
replacing only 1 byte (0 to 1) changes behaviour of the whole program - when you begin to rename an object and press 'Right', the program moves the caret not after the dot but BEFORE it

so it's not that difficult to implement, as we can see. Nobody was dissatisfied when this line appeared in the ini-file. And now everybody has the opportunity to CHOOSE between these 2 options

when you begin to rename an object and press 'Left', the program 'Everything' also behaves logically and conveniently - moves the caret to the beginning of a file name

[highend]

Adamantine wrote:
3) an application 'better file rename' works both in windows explorer and in xyplorer. But an allied application 'better file select' works only in windows explorer. Is there a way to use 'better file select' in xyplorer?


Instead of using either of those application, you should specify exactly what features you use them for. If XY doesn't already do it, as SammaySarkar pointed out, you can script it in XY.

Tztz...

There is... http://www.xyplorer.com/xyfc/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=12364

[Quaraxkad]

there is an excellent program 'Everything' by David Carpenter. You know it

so it has its ini-file. Which (surprise, surprise) has the following line (0 is the default setting):
rename_move_caret_to_selection_end=1
replacing only 1 byte (0 to 1) changes behaviour of the whole program - when you begin to rename an object and press 'Right', the program moves the caret not after the dot but BEFORE it

so it's not that difficult to implement, as we can see. Nobody was dissatisfied when this line appeared in the ini-file. And now everybody has the opportunity to CHOOSE between these 2 options

when you begin to rename an object and press 'Left', the program 'Everything' also behaves logically and conveniently - moves the caret to the beginning of a file name

In case you haven't been paying attention, this tweak has already been added to XY and released.

[Jeff Bellune]

"in xyplorer it is impossible to conveniently drag-and-drop a file (flac, mp3, cue...) to opened foobar."
That is a small annoyance, until Don makes this go away, you can drag the files to foobar icon on the taskbar, (foobar will come to foreground,) and drop them.

+1 for Don to make this annoyance go away.

Cheers,
Jeff

[Adamantine]

In case you haven't been paying attention, this tweak has already been added to XY and released.

when renaming, the behaviour (after pressing 'Right' and 'Left') is normal now
but what about serial rename? It was bad, but at present (since 14.30.0408 beta-version) it is drastically worse because now i often have to press 'Down' TWICE in order to reach to the lower file. Will this renaming nightmare ever end in xyplorer?

[Quaraxkad]

but what about serial rename? It was bad, but at present (since 14.30.0408 beta-version) it is drastically worse because now i often have to press 'Down' TWICE in order to reach to the lower file. Will this renaming nightmare ever end in xyplorer?

This is your idea of a nightmare...? Lower your expectations, you are not entitled to have everything your way immediately. Leave and write your own file manager software if XY is such a nightmare.

You only have to press up or down twice if there is an active text selection, otherwise up and down is immediate. As I said before, unless/until Don decides to change this behavior when serial rename option is enabled, try the Edit Item Names function.

This too, among all of your other demands, is probably achievable with scripting. You have a nearly endless power with scripting in XY. It's not the fault of the software if you can't write a script to do things your way.

[grindax]

.

[admin]

Code: Select all

v14.30.0409 - 2014-08-20 09:53
  *** Edit Boxes: Now when there is a selection and you press the Left (Right) 
      key the caret will jump to the beginning (end) of the selection and the 
      selection will be removed.
      Note that the Windows shell itself behaves differently, e.g. Windows 
      Explorer: caret moves one step into the direction, selection is removed. 
      But most modern software seems to behave like the new way -- it seems 
      simply more practical.