XYplorer Beta Club

admin wrote:So what syntax do you suggest here. Like this?

Full
C:\folder
C:\longlonglonglong\folder

Compressed
C:\fold...
C:\..\f...

I think we talk here only about adding the drive letter
in front of the folder name IF we have checked "[X] Display Folder name only":

instead of
folder
longlonglonglong

i ask for
C\folder
C\longlonglonglong
or
C -folder
C -longlonglonglong
or like this. Read as DRIVE DIVIDER CurrentFOLDERNAME


"Tools > Configuration... > Tabs"
"[X] Display Folder name only"
" [X] With Drive Letter"

zer0 wrote:Then perhaps one should name their folders precisely to remove any confusion.

zer0, i hope you are just kidding around.

Stefan wrote:i ask for
C\folder
C\longlonglonglong
or
C -folder
C -longlonglonglong
or like this. Read as DRIVE DIVIDER CurrentFOLDERNAME

I was thinking more along the second of these as having some sort of a unique divider makes it obvious that it's not the true/actual folder path...maybe "C ~folder" instead as I doubt that the tilde occurs in normal file names but a "-" does.

j_c_hallgren wrote:

zer0 wrote:

nony wrote:With drive letter and Folder Name Only you will be sure that where you are working.

Then perhaps one should name their folders precisely to remove any confusion.

zer0: Sorry but I'd say that your answer above has some of sarcasm in it...the common case where folder names are identical but drive letter is the only difference is with an external backup drive which requires that folder structure be the same...so this is the perfect case where displaying the drive letter also becomes vital.

No sarcasm was intended in my phrase. If people are really so inclined to have drive letters in tab headers, then it's possible to rename a tab to say what you wish it to say. Right-click on it --> "Rename tab...".

Stefan wrote:zer0, i hope you are just kidding around.

Not at all. I think a person who's kidding is one who takes 2 steps forward by ticking that option and then takes a step back by trying to limit the scope of it.

I with zer0 here: if anything then the compression algo should be improved. However, I cannot see how. I think it works very well at the moment, and much better than Windows's own algo. So, please give an example of a path that's not compressed to your liking, and tell what is your liking.

zer0 wrote:No sarcasm was intended in my phrase. If people are really so inclined to have drive letters in tab headers, then it's possible to rename a tab to say what you wish it to say. Right-click on it --> "Rename tab...".

While tab rename is possible, it's not practical to do so! I often switch around my two internal and 3 external drives using a minimal amount of tabs so I'd have to keep renaming tabs constantly...that's why having another option to show drive letter if desired would be the solution for this type of case...I'm not saying that it should be always there, but when the user needs it, having it available would help greatly...and yes, I can hover and see it but I'd prefer to not have to do so.

Don, I already gave my idea...maybe just use a prefix like "C ~" to the existing folder value.

j_c_hallgren wrote:Don, I already gave my idea...maybe just use a prefix like "C ~" to the existing folder value.

Please give an example of a badly compressed path.

admin wrote:

j_c_hallgren wrote:Don, I already gave my idea...maybe just use a prefix like "C ~" to the existing folder value.

Please give an example of a badly compressed path.

I'm not saying the compression is bad..never did...I'm just requesting that type of prefix be added as opt when using "folder names only" (as Stephan posted) so that I can distinguish my C:\ from the matching G:\ when tree isn't showing and without hovering on tab.

j_c_hallgren wrote:

admin wrote:

j_c_hallgren wrote:Don, I already gave my idea...maybe just use a prefix like "C ~" to the existing folder value.

Please give an example of a badly compressed path.

I'm not saying the compression is bad..never did...I'm just requesting that type of prefix be added as opt when using "folder names only" (as Stephan posted) so that I can distinguish my C:\ from the matching G:\ when tree isn't showing and without hovering on tab.

Well, and I'm saying that the current compression is so good that most of the times it does exactly this automatically. No need to add something.

admin wrote:Well, and I'm saying that the current compression is so good that most of the times it does exactly this automatically. No need to add something.

Don,
It's not the compression of the path here at all.
It's about the option "[X] Display Folder name only"

Let's say i have this tabs/folder open:
[C:\User\Work\Project] | [D:\Backup\Project] | [\\Server\Share\Common\Project] |

Whit "[X] Display Folder name only" i see this only:
[Project] | [Project] | [Project] |


What we talked about was an additional option:
"Tools > Configuration... > Tabs"
"[X] Display Folder name only"
" [X] With Drive Letter"
To get:
[C:Project] | [D:Project] | [server:Project] |


It's not uncommon that you have the same path on different drives, it's rather the default.

Stefan wrote:Don,
It's not the compression of the path here at all.

Except that it is. 'Show folder name only' is a static option, period. The width of tabs (and how the text of the headers is show) varies depending on the width of XY's window. Instead of working with Don on a good way to show a long path, "DriveLetter:\...\Folder" for example, you chose to go the other way and see if you could persuade him to undermine a setting by adding an exception to it. If the way a compressed path is displayed is not to your liking then work with Don on that. If a tab needs to be called a particular name, to avoid ambiguity, rename it to such that is of a distinct name. If that is impractical, then a swift gesture of the cursor onto the header will reveal its true path. Three different ways in which you can either help make XY better or make use of current functionality for your needs. Yet you're insisting on an addition of a suboption that will invalidate its parent's meaning. Also, what if it's not a drive, but a computer on the network? Show the full name in the header as well or would that be another suboption?

This thread is getting awfully off-track. The OP was about tab displaying issues -- that's the direction in which discussion should go.

zer0 wrote:This thread is getting awfully off-track. The OP was about tab displaying issues -- that's the direction in which discussion should go.

Off-track? Not at all...given that this topic was item #3 in the OP which, by the way, was by Stephan so it's his right to continue that item and it's just fine with me as I agree with his idea...now we know that you've been against this from the start, as shown in

zer0 wrote:

Stefan wrote:3.) Feature wish: 'Folder name only' should show the drive letter too.

I think that would go against it being called "Display Folder name only"

But be aware that NONE of your 'three different ways' solve the problem, ok? You're trying to force us to work around an issue that we see can rather easily be improved as an option and we're not insisting that you use it...so please don't try and block something that some of us would find quite useful.

Yes, "show folder name only" is an existing option and we're not trying to modify that...just enhance it with an additional feature...there may be some things that may need to be looked at futher, such as you mentioned with a system on a network, but that can likely be handled as suggested by using the highest level qualifier as "drive letter".

I don't want to be but remember that XY is great because we all have various ways of doing things and Don is often nice enough to adapt to user needs, especially when more than one of us would find it worthwhile.

For me it seems, that beside the option show folder name only there should be another show drive + folder name only (or something like that)?
As I, for my part, understand the arguments of both sides.

j_c_hallgren wrote:Off-track? Not at all...given that this topic was item #3 in the OP which, by the way, was by Stephan so it's his right to continue that item and it's just fine with me as I agree with his idea

That was a supplementary wish. The essence of the first 2 items and the topic's title is about issues regarding the displaying of information in tabs.

j_c_hallgren wrote:But be aware that NONE of your 'three different ways' solve the problem, ok? You're trying to force us to work around an issue that we see can rather easily be improved as an option and we're not insisting that you use it...so please don't try and block something that some of us would find quite useful.

There is NO problem to solve. The fact that XY does not display a drive letter in the tab header is not a problem (an inconvenience, but even at best), because if 'Display folder name only' is ticked then that's all you'll get - the name of a folder. I am not trying to force you to do anything. I have suggested 2 quite valid ways in which you can display the name of a tab to avoid getting mixed up if they are indeed called the same. The fact that you've dismissed those workaround tells me that you were just having a bit of a moan about not being able to get exactly what you want. I have also suggested that path compression should be improved if a user is not happy, but it appears that users are not willing to improve this particular behaviour.

j_c_hallgren wrote:Yes, "show folder name only" is an existing option and we're not trying to modify that...just enhance it with an additional feature...there may be some things that may need to be looked at futher, such as you mentioned with a system on a network, but that can likely be handled as suggested by using the highest level qualifier as "drive letter".

Enhance means improve and having this option would not improve XY. Having looked at suboptions in XY, all of the ones that I came across increased the scope of the parent option. This establishes a pattern. Having the suboption that is being suggested here will do the opposite and limit the scope of 'Display folder name only'. The whole point of having that option is to shorted the name of the tab header so more can be displayed in available space. Implementing the suggested suboption will go against this principle.

j_c_hallgren wrote:I don't want to be but remember that XY is great because we all have various ways of doing things and Don is often nice enough to adapt to user needs, especially when more than one of us would find it worthwhile.

I agree that XY is great, but adding a feature for the sake of just 2 extra symbols (drive letter and a semicolon) appears to be a waste to me. It's not possible to make XY exactly to everyone's needs. There are times when users have to accept the XY ways or consider the workarounds. Don said that, if anything, compression algorithm is what needs improving and I support him in this. It's too tempting to deviate along the path of suggesting a modifier to another feature to achieve the desired effect and discarding the underlying issue of path shortening.

Stand by for another long post...apologies to others but I'm trying to explain this to zer0:

zer0 wrote:That was a supplementary wish. The essence of the first 2 items and the topic's title is about issues regarding the displaying of information in tabs.

And this issue deals specifically with what is displayed in a tab so it matches the topic title perfectly!

zer0 wrote:There is NO problem to solve.

YES, there is! Sorry, but just because you may not understand/recognize that the problem exists doesn't make it go away...

zer0 wrote:The fact that XY does not display a drive letter in the tab header is not a problem (an inconvenience, but even at best), because if 'Display folder name only' is ticked then that's all you'll get - the name of a folder.

It IS a problem when you have the same named folders on multiple drives which occurs often and easily...And we have NOT said that the existing option needs to be changed, but rather that a new variant needs to be created.

zer0 wrote:I have suggested 2 quite valid ways in which you can display the name of a tab to avoid getting mixed up if they are indeed called the same.

And I'm saying for the upteenth time that those ways are not workable and/or practical!

zer0 wrote:I have also suggested that path compression should be improved if a user is not happy, but it appears that users are not willing to improve this particular behaviour.

Because while path compression may or may not be ideal, it's just NOT related to this issue! We don't want the path compression option...we just want the lowest level folder and the highest level qualifier in the path...no more...no less...just those two parts of the path...they provide all the data we need to know where we are when operating in this mode, ok?

zer0 wrote:Enhance means improve and having this option would not improve XY.

That's nice for you to say but you've admitted in other threads that you don't use some of the common features of XY, as have I, but different ones...so how do you know it won't improve XY?...for example, should I try and tell jacky & others that "oh, you don't need that enhancement/improvement for your script cause I won't use it and don't see the need"? No way! Unfortunately, that's the impression that you're giving here.

zer0 wrote:Having the suboption that is being suggested here will do the opposite and limit the scope of 'Display folder name only'. The whole point of having that option is to shorted the name of the tab header so more can be displayed in available space. Implementing the suggested suboption will go against this principle.

Maybe that's a problem, because we may have referred to it as a sub-option when in fact, it may be more correctly an alternate option choice instead....there are two choices right now: Display folder name only -or- not. We want choice #3: Display drive & folder.

zer0 wrote:I agree that XY is great, but adding a feature for the sake of just 2 extra symbols (drive letter and a semicolon) appears to be a waste to me.

It may appear a waste to you but not to Stephan & myself (and maybe others)...adding approx two extra characters will make the tab header much more meaningful and useful while still keeping it a minimal length...and since you appear to believe that having the drive letter in a tab header isn't needed, why not thus suggest that we remove it always? That's silly, you say? Well, if you agree that having it there is needed, then why say that it's not needed in this case?

zer0 wrote: It's not possible to make XY exactly to everyone's needs. There are times when users have to accept the XY ways or consider the workarounds. Don said that, if anything, compression algorithm is what needs improving and I support him in this. It's too tempting to deviate along the path of suggesting a modifier to another feature to achieve the desired effect and discarding the underlying issue of path shortening.

I agree we can't make XY fit everyones needs but here's a simple way to make it more productive without affecting anyone else, other than one more option in Config that they can ignore if they wish...and path shortening/compression is not the issue we are dealing with...that's an unrelated issue to this desired option as it deals with showing full paths or as much as possible thereof, whereas we want only two fixed parts of the path.

Didn't thought this topic could become a warzone.
The main problem was having same folder name in different drives that may confuse.
I don't(actually can't) write long posts. So in short

According to jc:
"Don, I already gave my idea...maybe just use a prefix like "C ~" to the existing folder value."

As users may have their own preference regarding separating drive letter from folder name, that's why I suggested the method of user defined format. Further as maybe Don could have enough cons/pros about the option, maybe for the sake of neatness of forum he may consider locking this topic up and makeup his mind and tell us.

Peace for all