Author Topic: current file: marking and size  (Read 11764 times)

Void

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current file: marking and size
« on: March 06, 2012, 10:59:51 »
Hi. It seems to me that it's a bit hard sometimes to instantly realize the current file/where the current operation will act. Because of that I would suggest instead of a thin line that stands between two files some kind of background or file highlithing/bolding/... The line is quite thin, and it often takes a whole second to realize where it is and weather it refers to the previous or next file, sometimes I only notice it after moving it up and down.  Also about the current file I think always the current file should have some info displayed about it in the status bar. In particular I care about the file size and I think that is always relevant about the current file. Right now to find out the size of a file in a folder i have to navigate to it, select it, and then unselect it, and then do this  again for the next file and so on. Yes, I use MC in a sort of minimal mode with only file & extension columns to avoid visual clutter and since I only rarely need file sizes... but when needed I think this would be a fast and elegant way to show it. I see there would be plenty of space for this to be added to the status line by the usual (not so useful) 0 files and 0 folders selected text, even if both are kept, though possibly it would make sense to switch between these two modes: when you have nothing selected that line would show info about he current file, and when you had files selected it would switch back to what is showing now: the size and consistency of the selection.
Respectfully & thankfully,
Void lon iXaarii

Jungle

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Re: current file: marking and size
« Reply #1 on: March 06, 2012, 11:23:00 »
You can customize marking colors in settings

Void

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Re: current file: marking and size
« Reply #2 on: March 06, 2012, 11:44:33 »
hey, thank you. I couldn't find there to set a focused color background change, am I missing something? Would still be nice to have a bolded stroke around the currently focused file. Another idea would be how about having a black rectangle near it on the (center or both) panel border to make it clear that's where you're focused now. Also the ability to maybe have a focused font would be nice, like say when you have it selected it goes a little bit bold. For an even more dynamic visual effect the current file could have a 20% fade of color say into white and back, all very slowly, say looping in 5 seconds. Just some humble proposals to make the focused file more obvious.

Mathias (Author)

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Re: current file: marking and size
« Reply #3 on: March 06, 2012, 11:45:18 »
Explorer Panel Settings -> Color tab.

Make sure "Use file specified background colors" and "Use folder specified background colors" are checked.

Then for the "Focus" item under files and folders you can change the background for that item.

Void

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Re: current file: marking and size
« Reply #4 on: March 06, 2012, 12:03:08 »
Aaa, now I get it. That and the to me not obvious way to set the background color had confused me. Thank you very much! If I could make a suggestion it would be nice to have a checkbox to have files and folders behave in the same way so you only have to set the different states and colors for one, or lacking that a quick way to copy all the settings from one to the other.
Thank you so much for being so responsive. MC is becoming better every week! Thank you!!!

Mathias (Author)

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Re: current file: marking and size
« Reply #5 on: March 06, 2012, 12:08:26 »
hey, thank you. I couldn't find there to set a focused color background change, am I missing something? Would still be nice to have a bolded stroke around the currently focused file. Another idea would be how about having a black rectangle near it on the (center or both) panel border to make it clear that's where you're focused now. Also the ability to maybe have a focused font would be nice, like say when you have it selected it goes a little bit bold. For an even more dynamic visual effect the current file could have a 20% fade of color say into white and back, all very slowly, say looping in 5 seconds. Just some humble proposals to make the focused file more obvious.

Nice ideas, However I don't understand The black rectangle idea.
I might put some of the on my list of things to add.

However..

Adding style options is not an irrelevant task because some option might work in some situation on in some not.
A already had to remove some option because it was to easy to set option that was in conflict of each other and you got a weird behavior.

A lot of settings can be nice. But It can quickly become to much and it can easily become to hard to configure it.

In the beginning there was the possibility to almost configure everything, but the configuration look crazy.
You had  Normal, Focus, Checked , Selected , Checked and Selected, Checked and in Focus, Selected and in Focus , Checked and Selected and in focus
for both files and folders.
And then we got Text color, Background colors, Font, Font Style, font size.

5 settings per 8 state for both files and folder. Thats 80 settings options. And then I'm not counting all the other options there was like border settings, different colors if panel is in focus or not. and so on..

It was to much, There need to be a balance and also a lot of testing for all the style new options that are added so all conflicting situations are tested.



Void

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Re: current file: marking and size
« Reply #6 on: March 06, 2012, 12:46:56 »
I understand what you're saying. Anyway, the style is indeed not as important as the functionality.