Column autosizing in List view

[ags]

Using build 3026 in List view mode.
Sorting and Columns -> Autosize columns is checked.

I have a lot of files with long names that I need to be able to see.

Expected behavior
MC would set the "Name" column width after the longest file/directory name. Or, if the name is very long, the width of the "Name" column would be equal to the width of the panel.

Obvserved behavior
MC badly truncates every name of my files and I can't read the information stored there. Why is this?

[Mathias (Author)]

Then you do NOT want autosize on.
Autosize column will adjust the columns to fit into the view, So when you adjust the size of date column for example., it will autosize the other columns so they still fit into the view.

Then you want to disable autosize so you can size the column and get an horizontal scrollbar

[ags]

Okay, unchecked the auto size of the columns. I can literally see no difference. It is exactly like the option does not have any effect.
I scroll through the list of files and I see about 50% of the name on all of them.

[Mathias (Author)]

Okay, unchecked the auto size of the columns. I can literally see no difference. It is exactly like the option does not have any effect.
I scroll through the list of files and I see about 50% of the name on all of them.

If you uncheck autosize, column should not resize it self when you make them very large.. and you can get a horizontal scrollbar.. that does not happen ?
Then you can dubble click on the divider between Name and the column you have next to it, and it will calculate the minimum size it can be set to change change the size to that

[ags]

I am not sure we are on the right track here... 

The fact is that if MC wants to show long file names, it has to read the list of files, find the longest and adapt the column width to fit as many characters as possible.

Can you make this an automated process, like in the other file managers?

[Mathias (Author)]

I am not sure we are on the right track here... 

The fact is that if MC wants to show long file names, it has to read the list of files, find the longest and adapt the column width to fit as many characters as possible.

Can you make this an automated process, like in the other file managers?

If you dubble click on header splitter between column it will auto size it. There is was full automatic before, But it was removed. Too messy when going in and out of folder and columns was resizing all the time automatically.

[ags]

So every time I enter a directory where I want to see long names I have to resize the Name column by double clicking the splitter?

[Mathias (Author)]

So every time I enter a directory where I want to see long names I have to resize the Name column by double clicking the splitter?

If they are so long that they do not normally fit in the view.. you can also temporary switch to 100/0 view to use full with or go Top/Bottom splitting instead of left/right

Constant autosize the column every time you navigated in and out of folder made people kind of dizzy. specially if you navigate using keyboard and go fast in and out. So it was disabled.

[Jungle]

What about optional wordwrap, multiline ?

[ags]

I don't know about displaying the files on multiple lines. Wouldn't this create a very busy list, difficult to read, when the names of the files are of different lengths? Some of them would wrap on 2-3 lines, and some of them would remain one line?

Different workarounds can be found. But the fact remains: MC does not know how to handle files with long names. And in a world full of files with long names, this is a big problem, a bug. I am petitioning here for the fixing of this bug.

[ags]

I know of and use or used the following orthodox file managers and they all know how to display long names, do it well and do it fast, without any problems or manual intervention:

- Total Commander
- Double Commander
- FreeCommanderXE
- EF Commander
- Speed Commander
- Unreal Commander
- Frigate
- ViewFD
- Far Manager
- Necromancer's Dos Navigator

How could practically anybody in the world have found a way to properly do an important task, but MC?

[Mathias (Author)]

MC do display long file names.. up to over 4000+ characters, Just make sure you have a large monitor to view it

And MC do auto size column it is just turned off.

[Mathias (Author)]

What about optional wordwrap, multiline ?

For wordwrap to work, dynamic row height need to be supported, and it is not becuse of performance issue.. I would cause a noticeable draw delay when entering a folder with just a couple of 100 files.

[ags]

I don't know if managed to clearly explain the problem. I will try again.
I'll exemplify with a screenshot of firefox's source code below.
MC panel is set in List view mode.

The archives names in the first column are truncated with the simbol "..." at the end.
Some files with long names have useful info stored in that long name: date, time, uniqueID, software component etc.

When constantly changing directories that host such files, it is annoying to have to do a manual job that the file manager should automatically calculate and do for you.

Also, my monitor is wide enough so that those archives could be displayed in full.

For comparison, I attached a screenshot from Double Commander, in the same List view mode. DC is also free and on top of that open source and displays correctly long file names without users having to manually adjust the Names column.

[ags]

Another bug in showing files in List view can be seen in the screenshot below.

In d:\Downloads directory I have many files, a few columns of them. You can see the scroll bar from the bottom.
MC does not calculate the number of columns correctly, since the last column is empty and should not exist.

[Mathias (Author)]

Doing it in List mode is even worse. If you have many files, and just 1 file is very long, all then columns are very width And Alternative is to use dynamic size of each column, but then you run into other issue.
I don't remember all. But the code for it is there but disabled at the moment (This is was trying to do dynamic size for all columns in list mode). mostly because I never use list mode my self. If I get some over i might enabled it and see a simpler version can be added.