Address Bar & Co.

[admin]

I'm currently working on the new Address Bar: i.e. make it support Unicode. The work is as nasty as expected because the Windows COMBOBOX control has some ugly manners. I don't know about you but I never liked how those controls look and work.

When you compare them to Firefox 2 or 3's address bar, or to the new Google Chrome, you get an idea about how dropdown controls could look and feel and work:
http://lifehacker.com/5044484/google-chrome-first-look

So, why not take a chance and write a better dropdown control from scratch?!? It must not take a lot of work since I have my Edit box and my List box ready. So it's just about combining the two and adding the little arrow-button that makes the list drop down.

Does this inspire any ideas?

[serendipity]

How about clickable paths?

[TheQwerty]

Well you could certainly make it interesting.

1. Borrowing the stars from FF3 to mark Favorites might be nice, same with the folder icons.
2. A real clickable breadcrumb has been desired for a while.
3. An easy way to turn off mouse wheel events on the bar unless the list control is visible.
4. Ctrl+Backspace (or similar) to function like Ctrl+Shift+Left and then Backspace (use the same word separators).
5. Tab/Shift+tab to navigate up/down, but only when the list is visible.
6. It would be awesome if the MRU list could be broken into sections (similar to what the IE8 beta supposedly does). Then we could have a sections for recent locations, searches, filters, and/or scripts, though we'd also need to tweak the number of results from each.

I'm sure we could come up with enough ideas to quickly change your mind about making it custom.

[ivan]

While we're on the subject, how do you disable the address bar? For real, I don't need it at all. Cheers

[serendipity]

menu "Window>Show Address Bar"

[admin]

Well you could certainly make it interesting.

1. Borrowing the stars from FF3 to mark Favorites might be nice, same with the folder icons.
2. A real clickable breadcrumb has been desired for a while.
3. An easy way to turn off mouse wheel events on the bar unless the list control is visible.
4. Ctrl+Backspace (or similar) to function like Ctrl+Shift+Left and then Backspace (use the same word separators).
5. Tab/Shift+tab to navigate up/down, but only when the list is visible.
6. It would be awesome if the MRU list could be broken into sections (similar to what the IE8 beta supposedly does). Then we could have a sections for recent locations, searches, filters, and/or scripts, though we'd also need to tweak the number of results from each.

I'm sure we could come up with enough ideas to quickly change your mind about making it custom.

All okay. Concerning the mouse wheel: I would rather turn that off completely. It's a constant source of anger for me when a combobox is suddenly wheeled. So, where's the one who starts crying now?

[TheQwerty]

All okay. Concerning the mouse wheel: I would rather turn that off completely. It's a constant source of anger for me when a combobox is suddenly wheeled. So, where's the one who starts crying now?

Well, when you say turn that off completely you mean make it behave so that the wheel does nothing unless the list is visible, and provide no option to change this behavior, right?

If so I completely agree.
If however you mean ignoring the wheel even when the list is visible, I think that would be a bad choice.

[admin]

All okay. Concerning the mouse wheel: I would rather turn that off completely. It's a constant source of anger for me when a combobox is suddenly wheeled. So, where's the one who starts crying now?

Well, when you say turn that off completely you mean make it behave so that the wheel does nothing unless the list is visible, and provide no option to change this behavior, right?

If so I completely agree.
If however you mean ignoring the wheel even when the list is visible, I think that would be a bad choice.

No, I mean the good choice.

[kartal]

One thing that can be very very goodis "tab" support for autocompletion. Right now to auto complete the user needs to press down key and enter. I think pressing tab one time to auto complete is very good solution. Because tab is right under the left pink generally(for right handers)

[admin]

One thing that can be very very goodis "tab" support for autocompletion. Right now to auto complete the user needs to press down key and enter. I think pressing tab one time to auto complete is very good solution. Because tab is right under the left pink generally(for right handers)

Tab is usually used for moving the focus. Where have you seen "tab" support for autocompletion?

[kartal]

Well, if you use launchers to browse folders you will see what I mean.

I use launchy and Farr and both supports tab for auto completing folder names.

[avsfan]

Well, if you use launchers to browse folders you will see what I mean.

I use launchy and Farr and both supports tab for auto completing folder names.

As does the windows command line (pretty handy -- after entering zero or more characters, hitting tab cycles though all matching files/folders)...

[kartal]

Yes another good point! Can we have it now please?

Well, if you use launchers to browse folders you will see what I mean.

I use launchy and Farr and both supports tab for auto completing folder names.

As does the windows command line (pretty handy -- after entering zero or more characters, hitting tab cycles though all matching files/folders)...

[admin]

Well, if you use launchers to browse folders you will see what I mean.

I use launchy and Farr and both supports tab for auto completing folder names.

As does the windows command line (pretty handy -- after entering zero or more characters, hitting tab cycles though all matching files/folders)...

Wow, I never knew that. Nice one!

[lukescammell]

Tab completion is used in several web apps I use, so it gets my vote.

I like the idea of the Firefox star, very nice idea.

FYI the Chrome Omnibar is Awesome

Don, please make your tabs work like Chrome's - I've fallen in love all over again. Tab management with Chrome is the best there is right now. I just love being able to tear off a tab and create a new window, then add more tabs to that new window from the old one etc (if I could do this with XYthen I wouldn't have to keep reminding you that cached searches would rock). Frankly, if you could recreate the omnibar I would be amazed, astounded and extremely happy