Multi Commander Support Forum

Multi Commander => Feature Requests and Suggestions => Topic started by: Void on March 07, 2012, 10:20:08

Title: not opening all selected
Post by: Void on March 07, 2012, 10:20:08
   I've been meaning to ask about this one for a while, but figured it can wait, but now I have a, I hope, more convincing example that will hopefully help me argue that it does not make intuitive sense or user friendliness that the enter key on a file opens not just the focused file but all the selected files:
       I was emptying my photo camera and was sorting the images and in the process of moving and sorting I hit enter to check one of the new files. Little did I know this would open not just the image I wanted but hundreds more (I dread to think what would have happened had i been working not with images but videos or audio files). This happened like 20 minutes ago. It totally froze my (rather powerful) desktop but since I was afraid of losing some important data I figured I'd wait. Since then I ate, and am writing this on my laptop. I think I'll wait a while more hoping not to lose data, but in the end I might have to force reboot via hardware. Something milder than this has happened to me before. I admit it may be argued it's my fault, that I'm not yet used to persistent selections, but even without them I would like to humbly argue that it makes more sense to open only the current file on 'Enter', and that for those needing to individually open tens of instances of windows with different files there's always right clicking and 'Open all'.

With respect,
Void
Title: Re: not opening all selected
Post by: Mathias (Author) on March 07, 2012, 13:39:07
If you have multiple files selected and selecting to execute them (pressing return) or some other option that will make windows open them or do something with them. What should happen?

And that is not an easy question to answer. It actually depends on the situation and user.

If you got pictures select and you press enter.. (And you do not have any special opened action is defined for picture files inside MC) then the execute action will be sent to windows and depending on what you got installed different things will happen.. You might get one instance of a picture viewer that will toggle between all the selected files or you might get multiple instances for every selected file.

If i select 200 mp3 files.. and press enter I will not get 200 instances on WinAmp.. I get one instances but all the selected files are queued in WinAmp.

I tried to keep the same for the rules for launching multiple selected files that Windows Explorer has.

However I can see how it can be a problem in some situation.

I do not think executing multiple items should be disabled, since it is used a lot. and even Windows Explorer support it is users expect it to work.
But maybe there needs to be an option to disable it. and/or an option to ask user what to do if more then X files are selected.
or some other option.

I will put it in my list of issues to find solution for.
Title: Re: not opening all selected
Post by: Void on March 07, 2012, 14:03:26
Great points! I just tried out it in windows explorer just to check. It is similar, but at the same time very different. It is true that selecting multiple images and hitting enter will open for me multiple instances of my image viewer, but, there's a crucial difference. Windows explorer is built and optimized for (to me slow moving/not so efficient) clicking people. Due to this clicking interface yes, you can select mutliples files, but only by holding ctrl & then clicking at different positions in the 2d plane. That makes it less of a problem, and to make it a complete non-problem whenever you manually move focus of a file with arrow keys the selection resets (often resets would also get rid of the problem in MC). In explorer there is no way to select a file and then use the arrow keys to move past a couple and then select another one.

Howeeever, MC is by design a tool oriented for more keyboard and shortcut use. I never use the mouse to jump around files in MC, always the keyboard. As such it is very natural to select, move move, select, move, select... and so on. So in explorer I would always be able to do what I was doing there with no problem because on my single click I would have already deselected. (if i were an explorer keyboard user (less of them) by moving away, and if i were a typical mouse user by clicking).

That's why I think in this instance MC should behave differently than Explorer because it's a very different beast, one which is meant for keyboard use, and further more as you brilliantly pointed out on the splash screen, it's a tool for professionals, eg people who care (a lot) about productivity and see the huge advantage of a second here and there for activities done hundreds of times per day every day of the year for whole careers.