Clickable breadcrumbs.

[LeoDavidson]

And actually I'm not extremely flattered by Dopus stealing my ideas. This nothing but sucks.

It's odd how a feature similar to one of Opus's three Flat View modes ended up in XYplorer, right down to the trademarked name which no other file manager used at the time and which didn't really make sense when applied to only that mode (more a tree view than a flat view). Strange set of coincidences if it wasn't an idea and its name being copied.

:-)

[serendipity]

And actually I'm not extremely flattered by Dopus stealing my ideas. This nothing but sucks.

It's odd how a feature similar to one of Opus's three Flat View modes ended up in XYplorer, right down to the trademarked name which no other file manager used at the time and which didn't really make sense when applied to only that mode (more a tree view than a flat view). Strange set of coincidences if it wasn't an idea and its name being copied.

:-)

"Flat view" term was used much before Dopus, nobody cared to copyright it maybe. I dont really care, please keep it. The concept itself has been around since ms-dos days, so nothing new there, instead of the dos box its in a GUI form.
I've seen it used in context of a tool used in mac which was called Disktracker. Seems like it was mentioned here first (note the year, 2000):
http://tidbits.com/article/5843

And for XY itself using branch view, there was always "Show all items in branch" since 2006 which is essentially the same functionality as branch view but with a slightly different design.
And for heaven's sake, flat view is just a recurse view, nothing revolutionary. Get over yourself Dopus!!
Btw, see this relevant post from a former user Jacky who has a mockup of "full content view" back in 2006:
http://www.xyplorer.com/xyfc/viewtopic.php?p=7435#p7435

So if you think that XY copied its branch view idea from Dopus, you couldn't be more wrong Leo.
nuf said.

[lastudillo]

Breadcrumb navigation is so necessary in XYplorer. Please consider it... Thanks!

[admin]

Breadcrumb navigation is so necessary in XYplorer.

Why?

[kunkel321]

Why?

Because it's an industry standard. Everyone expects to be able to click the path and go there.
This can probably be traced back to our caveman ancestors and their penchant for hunting and gathering... If something looks like a berry, we expect it to be a berry. If something looks like a link to a folder, we expect it to be a link to a folder. Interestingly, this phenomenon has also been studied in the field of applied behavior analysis, and is called auto-shaping--or at least it's related to this.

[admin]

Why?

Because it's an industry standard. Everyone expects to be able to click the path and go there.
This can probably be traced back to our caveman ancestors and their penchant for hunting and gathering... If something looks like a berry, we expect it to be a berry. If something looks like a link to a folder, we expect it to be a link to a folder. Interestingly, this phenomenon has also been studied in the field of applied behavior analysis, and is called auto-shaping--or at least it's related to this.

OK, but I don't even have non-clickable breadcrumbs that might look like clickable breadcrumbs.

[admin]

I'm slowly (re-)warming up to this. During Dual Pane development in 2009 I had already thought about a clickable breadcrumb per-pane, even with a mockup (http://www.xyplorer.com/xyfc/viewtopic. ... 192#p33192). The idea then got out of sight somehow.

[eil]

that mockup is cool. though i don't need breadcrumbs so drastically as others may, i still find it good for XY to get them. plus i'm sure you'll eventually evolve them into something more, as always happened(XY-genes).

[Borut]

plus i'm sure you'll eventually evolve them into something more, as always happened(XY-genes).

He, yes, I already can imagine a right click popup so long as not to fit on the screen. BTW, I can not understand this fuss around breadcrumbs. They are already there IMHO, just a bit disguised.

[admin]

plus i'm sure you'll eventually evolve them into something more, as always happened(XY-genes).

He, yes, I already can imagine a right click popup so long as not to fit on the screen. BTW, I can not understand this fuss around breadcrumbs. They are already there IMHO, just a bit disguised.

I start to understand it:
- You can immediatly see the path of each pane (even if the address bar is hidden -- some people (will) do that). Especially of the inactive pane, which right now can be a mystery depending on your tab settings.
- You can move stuff by drag-and-drop within the current path (even if the tree is hidden -- some people (will) do that).
- You can browse the file system, clumsily but possible (even if the tree is hidden -- some people (will) do that). (Right-click a path component to pop a menu with siblings.)
- It will be more clear than ever which pane is the active pane.
- Of course, the whole thing is totally optional and can be switched on/off in a blink.

And some special ideas:
- Just as the current menu-based breadcrumb, it will have a "down"-part (not just "up").
- I will offer different visual styles (here is room for hipness!)

[eil]

simple mockups of your "history"-crumbs

bold is current, grey is last deep path

brea.png (1.22 KiB) Viewed 3068 times

green is color of TreePathTracing

brea2.png (3.53 KiB) Viewed 3068 times

[kunkel321]

I like the "history" mockups

Another style of breadcrumb is what the Open dialog in GIMP uses

I think I prefer the style the just looks like a folder path though...

Re "XY-Genes"
It just now occurred to me, but I guess XYplorer is male. Otherwise it would be XXplorer.

[admin]

It just now occurred to me, but I guess XYplorer is male. Otherwise it would be XXplorer.

Yes, and we have to get back to this dreadful topic very soon! (not male/female, but product name )

[jayfischer]

+1

All I would like is a full path with clickable elements (ie. drive and dirs) for each pane.

Thanks.

[tedy]

I think I prefer the style the just looks like a folder path though....

I think this should be thought of carefully.
Breadcrumbs (more than just the right click menu on the tab icon) are very useful thing. Very. At least for the up-only part - an easier interface element to jump to upper folders is a necessity, preferrably without taking another 'bar' from the precious vertical screen estate (integrated somewhere, address bar for example, but in a smart way).
I think clickable addressbar path components is not the right way. At least not directly implemented as-is. Often we need to click the mere text and make slight corrections (using double clicks on a folder in the path, for example) to the text. Otherwise it seems as a very good idea. Just there has to be a way to make easy corerctions of the addressbar as a text.
But no middle-click involved please (at least as an option) - most of today's mice are awful in their middle buttons. Some have no middle button natively (MX Rev).
Clicking on an empty space in the addressbar to turn it into editable text (WE style) is clumsy because often there isn't much space left (my addressbar is next to the toolbar).
Maybe the existing combination Alt+D would enter the text mode as it is now, otherwise it stays clickable with the mouse.
Or just another tiny 16px high breadcrumb bar below the tabbar, or just as a bar, customizable in its position like the addressbar.