Dual Pane - Formal Proposal Thread

[TheQwerty]

Just to try to keep things a bit more organized I've created two separate posts for bugs and wishes related to Dual Pane.

Bugs: http://www.xyplorer.com/xyfc/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3630
Wishes: http://www.xyplorer.com/xyfc/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=3631

I feel it would be better to use those than continue in this thread, since most people looking to post either are more likely to post there than here.


EDIT: Gandolf, I quoted your post over to the Bugs thread. (If you could add future edits to that thread it would be appreciated.)

[TheQwerty]

Or I pasted it in the wrong tab and quoted it here!

[Mesh]

Just to try to keep things a bit more organized I've created two separate posts for bugs and wishes related to Dual Pane.

Bugs: http://www.xyplorer.com/xyfc/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3630
Wishes: http://www.xyplorer.com/xyfc/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=3631

I feel it would be better to use those than continue in this thread, since most people looking to post either are more likely to post there than here.

I appreciate the effort, but I'm not sure it serves a purpose. Personally, I plan on posting bugs or feature requests seperately - with each set getting its own thread, just as it's done right now. Trying to put them all in a single thread will just muddy the waters and make it difficult to organize and find information.

[admin]

What's the first / second / both panes flexible? That's the behavior when resizing the list panes. I know that a better wording is due. Any ideas?

The inactive pane does not update on file changes: I know. No problem to add that. I just was not sure whether it's good.

I know that a number of things are still missing. This is all trivial compared to turning a singler paner into a dual paner. You know, from now on, everything is easy...

[j_c_hallgren]

Just to try to keep things a bit more organized I've created two separate posts for bugs and wishes related to Dual Pane.

I appreciate the effort, but I'm not sure it serves a purpose. Personally, I plan on posting bugs or feature requests seperately - with each set getting its own thread, just as it's done right now. Trying to put them all in a single thread will just muddy the waters and make it difficult to organize and find information.

I think both methods are really needed, in that a combined thread for the little stuff makes searching for it later easier, but separate threads for the major stuff also makes it better...now what makes the difference? Hard to say, but if bug/wish can be described in a line, two or three, I'd say it's minor and go in the consolidated thread.

[TheQwerty]

I appreciate the effort, but I'm not sure it serves a purpose. Personally, I plan on posting bugs or feature requests seperately - with each set getting its own thread, just as it's done right now. Trying to put them all in a single thread will just muddy the waters and make it difficult to organize and find information.

It's for small things.. there's going to be a bunch of them and for anyone looking to post small things it makes more sense to put them all in one thread than to have the first page (or more) of threads in the bugs and wishes subforums all about dual pane. It also tends to reduce the number of threads that are about the exact same thing, and I find it's easier to search.

We introduced a single thread when Scripting was first introduced and I think it worked very well.

[Gandolf]

... The inactive pane does not update on file changes: I know. No problem to add that. I just was not sure whether it's good.

I think that is essential. My particular situation is possibly a little unusual (watching files arriving), but simply copying / moving from one pane to the other using keyboard requires that the other pane (assuming it's the destination) is updated instantly.

[Mesh]

Okay, Don - I just gave 7.90.0400 a quick gander. It looks great! So, here's some feedback on the first few things that caught my eye (some of which others have brought up).



1. There needs to be an easy way to set the properties of the second pane equal to the first. By that, I'm referring to columns, column positions and widths, Date/Time formats, etc... You wouldn't want to copy "Default Tab" status or "Home" location, but all the rest of it. Aside from it being tedious to configure two panes instead of one for a first time config, it also might be common to change the parameters of one pane for a temporary job - after which, you would want to set it back to defaults again.

2. The inactive pane must have live autorefresh. I know this has been mentioned before, but it's an absolute must. Also, since this topic is up, I'll mention that there are many circumstances where the Tree does not reflect changes made by other apps, and it must be manually refreshed for those changes to show up. This behavior has been around for a while, but it would be nice if the Tree could keep up as well.

3. There needs to be a KB shortcut to switch panes. It would be nice if this could be configured both for the Tab key to include the inactive pane in its cycle, as well as for the option to use a seperate configurable shortcut. If I had to choose one type or another, I'd probably choose the Tab method - but there seems to be enough call for both methods for it to be considered.

4. When the Info Panel comes up, it resizes the bottom pane (when using Horizontal panes) - which is fine. Under certain circumstances, however (which I have not yet been able to duplicate), when the info panel is closed, the pane size is not restored, which leaves the bottom pane considerablely shorter than the top pane.

5. The Search Tabs are locked now. This is an annoyance, because it makes for extra steps to close it down.

6. Dual Trees.



Also, now that I've seen it in action, I like the method used to show which pane is active. It's subtle, which clearly has already caused a bit of confusion, but nice. In my opinion, once you know what to look for, there's no issue with making the distinction.

[admin]

Thanks for the comments so far!

I think I should have made clear before: In the last 2 weeks I did not care a lot about the actual usability of DP. All my effort went into making a solid, smooth, and fast implementation of the beast.

Now, indeed, is the time to add all the stuff that makes it usable.

[Gandolf]

... Also, now that I've seen it in action, I like the method used to show which pane is active. It's subtle, which clearly has already caused a bit of confusion, but nice. In my opinion, once you know what to look for, there's no issue with making the distinction.

And, as I said, if the focused item is not in view how do you know which is the active and which the inactive pane??

[serendipity]

Thanks for the comments so far!

I think I should have made clear before: In the last 2 weeks I did not care a lot about the actual usability of DP. All my effort went into making a solid, smooth, and fast implementation of the beast...

Yes, i expected as much too. You cant make a house by installing the furnitures before building the walls. I would wait for couple more betas before making any comments (except bugs ofcourse).

[admin]

... Also, now that I've seen it in action, I like the method used to show which pane is active. It's subtle, which clearly has already caused a bit of confusion, but nice. In my opinion, once you know what to look for, there's no issue with making the distinction.

And, as I said, if the focused item is not in view how do you know which is the active and which the inactive pane??

In "classic" tab style no way (apart from the focus rect). In "Windows themes" style you have a kind of highlight on the open tab of the active pane.

[Gandolf]

O.K. so in Classic mode there is no indication.

I have no intention of using Windows Themes, they look revolting and I get two lines less of information.

[Mesh]

O.K. so in Classic mode there is no indication.

I have no intention of using Windows Themes, they look revolting and I get two lines less of information.

The default theme is indeed quite ugly. However, the Silver theme is quite nice.

[Gandolf]

It's not the colour, that's easy to change. It's the whole appearance - rounded corners, shaded everything etc... It's just "eye-candy" and serves no useful purpose.

Further, I looked at XY with Windows Themes and I see what Don has done. Try it with 30+ tabs in each pane and see how long it takes to determine which is the active pane compared to a different coloured pane title bar. I use a 1920 x 1200 display - that's a lot of screen to scan!!