New "File Tags" feature

[admin]

Tag Labels: Say you change the default "Red" (index = 1) to "Production" (GUI will come...), where should this user setting be stored? In the INI file or in tag.dat? Remember that you can have more than one INI file in appdata but only one tag.dat...

Note: These labels will be used in the menu/buttons where you apply tags to files, and in the new (coming up) "Tag" column in List.

[jacky]

Tag Labels: Say you change the default "Red" (index = 1) to "Production" (GUI will come...), where should this user setting be stored? In the INI file or in tag.dat? Remember that you can have more than one INI file in appdata but only one tag.dat...

Definitely tag.dat IMO, since as you said it'll be shared among config files. Wouldn't make sense to me to have the same items tagged the same way, except the actual tags aren't named the same depending what INI is used!

[admin]

Tag Labels: Say you change the default "Red" (index = 1) to "Production" (GUI will come...), where should this user setting be stored? In the INI file or in tag.dat? Remember that you can have more than one INI file in appdata but only one tag.dat...

Definitely tag.dat IMO, since as you said it'll be shared among config files. Wouldn't make sense to me to have the same items tagged the same way, except the actual tags aren't named the same depending what INI is used!

I agree. That's what I reserved line #2 in tag.dat for...

[serendipity]

I have a mixed feeling about the color tag here. Especially when it comes to sorting or searching it would be more powerful to be able to sort column or search based on color filters rather than color tags. Also, since you have a nice gui for color filters already, you can build more rules into it to include path|color index here.

Well, seems to me you're thinking of another feature, one that allows to use patterns to define "groups." I'm not saying it's not a good idea, but this tag feature is something else, where you tag individual items. It's just a different thing, I think. (And not for grouping/sorting, to searching by color filters can done already, since a color filter is nothing but a pattern )

Hmmm i see where it can be useful. I was just worried that having another color thing might confuse users. But I guess having a the name "tag" helps here to separate it from color filters. And I see a good selling point in having two functionally different tags; visual tag (color) and details tag (comment). OK, I am starting to buy it now.

[jacky]

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      - For performance reasons the tags are retrieved only if at
        least one tag-based column is visible, i.e. either "Tag" or
        "Comment". If you add the column(s) only after browsing, you
        have to do a refresh (F5) to fill the columns and show any tag
        colors.

Makes sense, except for one thing maybe : the color. Maybe one would want to have files shown in color without bothering with the Tag column, no? I'm not sure yet on how/if I myself will use the colors, so I'm just wondering at this point...

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    + File Tags: The colors are now painted over the file name only. This
      better matches the similar "Highlight Folders" feature in Tree, and
      there are less conflicts with other kinds of markings in the List.

Good, but when tagged items are selected, shouldn't the background color be visible on the right a little, much like it does with color filters and background color ?

[serendipity]

The tag and comment thing is looking really good, also i guess you made 0 tag on purpose (or was is accidental?) for those who dont want any color at all. But I am experimenting with both color and comments and its already making my sorting easier. Also, sometime in future could there be an option to color only the tag column apart from full row etc you suggested?
For example, I might assign orange tags to all the XY related stuff and comment XY scripts as "Scripts", XY backups as "XYBackup" and so on. But reading filename from orange color all the time would be hard on the eyes. Dont know about others, but having tag color in ONLY tag column is what I would prefer.

[jacky]

hmmm... another thing, too. Maybe already on your list, but it would be nice if tag.dat would actually support relative syntax, to keep up with XY's portability and so that one can use tags/comments and have them still work even when "moving around".

[j_c_hallgren]

Also, sometime in future could there be an option to color only the tag column apart from full row etc you suggested?

But reading filename from orange color all the time would be hard on the eyes. Dont know about others, but having tag color in ONLY tag column is what I would prefer.

That's why on Saturday, I posted this possible approach:

I might also give you the option (in the tag definition) to paint only the file Name, not the whole row.

I'd think the ability to define what to color would be nice...so that you could define one of these three-five choices: 1) File Name only 2) Entire line 3) Tag col only 4) Name & tag col only 5) no color

[serendipity]

Also, sometime in future could there be an option to color only the tag column apart from full row etc you suggested?

But reading filename from orange color all the time would be hard on the eyes. Dont know about others, but having tag color in ONLY tag column is what I would prefer.

That's why on Saturday, I posted this possible approach:

I might also give you the option (in the tag definition) to paint only the file Name, not the whole row.

I'd think the ability to define what to color would be nice...so that you could define one of these three-five choices: 1) File Name only 2) Entire line 3) Tag col only 4) Name & tag col only 5) no color

Oh yes I did read that, just was adding another fool to that wish. I should have simply quoted you and pointed at your choice #3.

[admin]

Let me just fix the obvious bugs, then we talk about the coloring. This is very easy to do and we'll sure find a good solution quickly.

[admin]

Let me just fix the obvious bugs, then we talk about the coloring. This is very easy to do and we'll sure find a good solution quickly.

Okay, I'm now ready to talk about coloring styles. I really don't want to get too crazy about options, so I think we should find the best and the 2nd best. Thanks for your votes...

[admin]

hmmm... another thing, too. Maybe already on your list, but it would be nice if tag.dat would actually support relative syntax, to keep up with XY's portability and so that one can use tags/comments and have them still work even when "moving around".

No, not really possible. Actually this might be the non-portable part of XY, and it might be even good because if all paths are absolute your can easily share tag.dat between installations or users of the same network.
Also: For technical/performance reasons the paths must be absolute. Of course I could resolve them when reading the file, but that would cost time (I expect 10,000s of items in tag.dat...), and then it would get very tricky when writing tag.dat: There's no way to reconstruct any lost distinctions between what was absolute or relative when reading the file.

[serendipity]

Let me just fix the obvious bugs, then we talk about the coloring. This is very easy to do and we'll sure find a good solution quickly.

Okay, I'm now ready to talk about coloring styles. I really don't want to get too crazy about options, so I think we should find the best and the 2nd best. Thanks for your votes...

Like I said I would prefer an option to color tag column alone, because I dont have to care about color filters clashing with the tag colors.

[jjk]

Surely File tags is a nice feature. Don, how do you plan its future ?
Surely a GUI for tagging files, and next ?
- copy/paste/move files with their tags (as an option) ?
- apply same tags to multiple files, even in differents diirectories ?
- ability to add CR/LF in comments ?
- searching inside tags/comments ?
- even, more than one tag column e.g. to visually find "prod/beta/alpha" and at once (or in another directory) "pop/rock/rnb" (bad examples) ?
I find colored tags nice. But comment column, with its free content, is also indispensable.
I think also that descript.ion format of NortonDos (then 4NT and others), used also by Total Commander, is a very good (and standardized) format for comments. But there is one descript.ion file by directory while XY has only one tag.dat.
So I say you : feel up to doing that, because for me it is one the best latest enhancements for XY.

[j_c_hallgren]

I really don't want to get too crazy about options, so I think we should find the best and the 2nd best.

Like I said I would prefer an option to color tag column alone, because I dont have to care about color filters clashing with the tag colors.

I don't want to get crazy about options either, but I think in order to satisfy most users, having a numeric that converts to choice would be best, as in:

0=no color
1=tag only
2=name only
3=tag & name

That should provide sufficient choices, I think, and is a bit of a reduction from my prior stmts, as having entire line colored is too much of a conflict with existing options.