XYplorer Beta Club

This feels similar to my prior bug report however this one has been in XYPlorer for years.

Correct:
1. Click into address bar
Begin typing: C:\t
Entry "C:\temp\" appears in drop down list.
Press down-arrow to select the item.
Address bar now reads: "C:\temp\"
Cursor moves to end of text, the contents of the field are NOT selected.
Continuing to type appends to the previously entered text.

Incorrect:
2. Click into address bar
Begin typing: \\test
Entry "\\testserver\" appears in drop down list.
Press down-arrow to select the item.
Address bar now reads: "\\testserver\"
Cursor moves to end of text however the contents of the field ARE selected.
Continuing to type overwrites the previously entered text.
In order to append, you must press the right arrow key (or click) and deselect the text, then continue.

The impact is in usability since the address bar does not feel consistent.
Sometimes selecting an item means you can't type again, sometimes selecting an item picks it from the available options but allows you to keep entering text to type a deeply nested path.

Personally; More often than not I'm typing away, trying to reach a deeply nested path and somewhere near the end I forget and accidentally clear everything in the address bar, making me type it all again.

Demonstration GIF:

First of all, you can generally stop this auto-selection by unticking this:
Configuration | General | Controls & More | Drop-down Lists | Select all on item change


Yes, there is an inconsistency, but it's elsewhere. Configuration | General | Controls & More | Auto-Complete Path Names only applies to local paths, not UNC paths, and auto-selection only applies to MRU, not Auto-Complete Path Names. You can make Auto-Complete apply to UNC paths by setting this tweak: AutoCompleteOnUNC=1 then you'll see that local and UNC behave the same.

So why does auto-selection work for MRUs, but not for Auto-Complete Path Names? That's because of the 6 Key Navigation (https://www.xyplorer.com/release_12.20.php#A6KN) which would be destroyed by auto-selection.

So I think nothing needs to be changed. Just uncheck Select all on item change.

admin wrote: ↑27 Sep 2023 09:36 First of all, you can generally stop this auto-selection by unticking this:
Configuration | General | Controls & More | Drop-down Lists | Select all on item change


Yes, there is an inconsistency, but it's elsewhere. Configuration | General | Controls & More | Auto-Complete Path Names only applies to local paths, not UNC paths, and auto-selection only applies to MRU, not Auto-Complete Path Names. You can make Auto-Complete apply to UNC paths by setting this tweak: AutoCompleteOnUNC=1 then you'll see that local and UNC behave the same.

So why does auto-selection work for MRUs, but not for Auto-Complete Path Names? That's because of the 6 Key Navigation (https://www.xyplorer.com/release_12.20.php#A6KN) which would be destroyed by auto-selection.

So I think nothing needs to be changed. Just uncheck Select all on item change.

Appreciated.
The complexity of XY certainly seems like a double edged sword; I love the power I can wield, but at the same time if something relatively simple is working unexpectedly I'm at a loss of where to look (especially with 15 years of improvements since I bought it) generally.

Thanks again!

On second thought, I find the whole Configuration | General | Controls & More | Dropdown lists | Select all on item change not very practical. Why should you select an item in the dropdown and then replace it completely by typing?

-> This setting should not be enabled by default, right?

admin wrote: ↑27 Sep 2023 16:55 On second thought, I find the whole Configuration | General | Controls & More | Dropdown lists | Select all on item change not very practical. Why should you select an item in the dropdown and then replace it completely by typing?

-> This setting should not be enabled by default, right?

I would say not; The use-cases I presume are essentially 1) "I want to continue typing" and 2) "I'm done typing" (which is often followed by Enter).

With the exception of needing to copy and paste a path (if it were a common activity for you) where you would always want it selected, it's definitely a breaking setting for the first use case, which seems far more common.