Smarter Breadcrumbs for Locked Homes

[TheQwerty]

The idea is to make the breadcrumb menu a little smarter about the context in which it is called, and at the same time convey a little extra information about the state of the tab. Particularly this would be useful when the tab is locked or has a home and is also iconified where that information is not as easily conveyed (the underline is not shown).

1) If the tab has a Set Home location that is on the menu, I'd like to see that item marked in some manner.
Perhaps bold it or add an [H] for Home ([LH] for Locked Home) or some other text to the caption.

2) Likewise, there should be some indication on the menu when the current location is locked.

3) A tweak which alters the menu such that locations above the locked home zone are not shown.
For instance, given the current location of "D:\Downloads\Awesome Apps\XY" on a tab with a locked home zone of "D:\Downloads\".
Calling the breadcrumb menu with the tweak would only display:

Code: Select all

D:\Downloads
D:\Downloads\Awesome Apps
D:\Downloads\Awesome Apps\XY

To be honest the only one that I'm really after is #3, but I think the other two could be useful as well.

[admin]

Hm. Try to find a fellow for this wish!

[TheQwerty]

Calling all fools!

[jacky]

Well, what are you trying to do with this? Seems that what you're trying to do (#3) is to not allow something that works fine currently, only will result in opening/switching to a new tab, due to the locked state of the current tab. While I can see why one would want to avoid that, to "forbid" it might be too much. How about simply adding a separator, so in your example, the menu would actually be this:

Code: Select all

My Computer
D:\
-
D:\Downloads
D:\Downloads\Awesome Apps
D:\Downloads\Awesome Apps\XY

Thus indicating which locations will work in the current tab, and which will cause to "move away" to another one. Of course, how do you know which are which, and then there's the case of all locations moving to another tab (e.g. breadcrumb menu of another tab when the current one is locked).
Maybe locations resulting in moving to another tab could be bolded or something (adding a * before/after?), but would that be good?

I have to admit, I rarely use breadcrumbs so I don't really have a strong opinion on the subject. About indicating locked/home state on the menu though, I'm not sure what good it would do, not to mention how it could create confusion when poping up the breadcrumb menu of another tab : which would it refer to, current tab or "clicked" one? (Besides, I don't really see a need for this, the tab's tooltip does already indicate whether or not the tab has a home (and if so what it is) as well as its locked state.)

[TheQwerty]

Well, what are you trying to do with this? Seems that what you're trying to do (#3) is to not allow something that works fine currently, only will result in opening/switching to a new tab, due to the locked state of the current tab.

Nope.. I'm trying to get a smaller menu that actually corresponds with how I'm using breadcrumbs to navigate to parent folders of the current location in the same tab. As I've locked the tab's home zone, and made the choice I don't want to navigate to above that root, there is no need to show me the other entries.

Maybe locations resulting in moving to another tab could be bolded or something (adding a * before/after?), but would that be good?

Again it has nothing to do with opening another tab. It would be more useful to indicate the Locked and Home because this information can then be easily inferred. It also means at most 2 items would have emphasis, where there could be many more items that would open a new tab.

About indicating locked/home state on the menu though, I'm not sure what good it would do, not to mention how it could create confusion when poping up the breadcrumb menu of another tab : which would it refer to, current tab or "clicked" one?

It would refer to the corresponding tab, just like the menu works now. You don't get confused by the paths that are possibly entirely unrelated to the active tab when you pull the menu up for background tabs now do you? If so then this tweak is obviously not for you!

Besides, I don't really see a need for this, the tab's tooltip does already indicate whether or not the tab has a home (and if so what it is) as well as its locked state.

As I said

Particularly this would be useful when the tab is locked or has a home and is also iconified where that information is not as easily conveyed (the underline is not shown).

Using the tooltip requires using the mouse. I find it quite convenient to pull up the BC menu via CKS, and in that case this information would be truly appreciated. When the tab is iconified the tooltip is the only way to retrieve this information, and I'm sure other would agree relying on the mouse isn't ideal.



I suggested it as a tweak because it's obviously not for everyone, and it clearly wouldn't make sense as the default behavior. But, like every tweak, it's something that makes the feature, and thus XY, much more usable for some people.


You don't use breadcrumbs, good for you; don't play with the tweak then and you still won't be affected!