Missing features

We welcome any suggestions for new features or improvements in Altap Salamander. Please post one suggestion per report.
Kris
Posts: 19
Joined: 11 Apr 2013, 10:09

Missing features

Post by Kris »

Hi fellow members and Altap staff,

I have been using many NC clones over the years and here are a few things I miss in Altap Salamander:

1. In NC and other clones one can access the last command line history by pressing "Ctrl+E" or by holding "Ctrl" and pressing arrow up and down to access the history. In AS, one has to indicate the command line with the mouse before one can press the "Ctrl" and arrow up and down, it is annoying as one of the main reasons for using a tool as Atap Salamander is to do many operations from the keyboard without having to use the mouse as one has to do today.

2. If I run a command line and it executes then it would be nice if one could press "Ctrl+O" to access the underlying DOS shell, as it is possible in many other NC clones, I do realize that I can switch off the auto close of the dos box, but it is just a highlight, and I am fully aware of the potential issues with making this possible, as from what I can see you have not designed Atap Salamander to be able to do this, anyway just a notice that I came across, I can live without it...

3. When doing a search, then one will get the results presented in a list which is great as in any other NC clone. When I scroll through the list I want to be able to press enter as I would do in any other NC clone to get to the file that I just searched for, now I have to press "Focus" which is another annoying mouse button press, it would make sense if it was optional how the behaviour should be when scrolling through the search list, then one can set enter to be the focus, and not the file opener.

4. It is possible to customize the colours on Atap Salamander, old guys like me (yes it is hard to admit, ha ha) likes the NC colour scheme, and therefore I have chosen that. When viewing a file then the colours change from the "mild" blue colour scheme to the hard white colour scheme, it is very hard on the eyes changing contrasts like that. Just an observation, but believe me, it is hard on the eyes. I do realize that this also depends on the viewer which is being used, but the default txt viewer should be able to handle this I would say.

5. In the viewer configuration I have set "Hex" mode for "*.exe" files, this is not being respected, I do a lot of viewing and find this to be a bug from what I can see?!?

6. The icons next to the folders and file names, it would be nice for old guys like me to not have them presented there, as they do nothing good for me, it just makes it a mess looking at all those different symbols (icons) all I want to see is the file names and folders. I do realize that younger people might want to have this and therefore it should be optional to switch the icons off, and leave them on by default to cater for all people.

As you can read from above the point 1-3 are ergonomic points and they really would make sense to implement, I hope other people will agree with me on that as I think it would really be great improvements and not just nice to have features, they really do make a difference when you work with a NC clone all day long.

As you can understand from the above then I have been using some other NC clones over the years, I had to switch away from my previous NC clone as it does not support 64bit, and it is not supported any longer as the company went out of business.
I have evaluated many other NC clones and found Atap Salamander to be the best of the ones which are out there, so thumbs up to the Atap Salamander developers, great job, now I only hope that you will hear my suggestions as constructive suggestions as I and not trying to talk bad about the product trust me on that, I love it but just need those few little extra features who helps a dinosaur like me getting stuff done.

Regards,
Kris
Jan Rysavy
ALTAP Staff
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Re: Missing features

Post by Jan Rysavy »

Just some ideas:

1. Use Ctrl+Tab to switch to/from the Command Line. Use Escape to clear Command Line and switch to panel.
http://www.altap.cz/salamander/help/sal ... _keyboard/

3. Use Space for Focus shortcut.

Salamander could be used completely (and effectively) without mouse, just with keyboard shortcuts.
Did you try quick search? It is really crucial feature, see http://www.altap.cz/salamander/help/sal ... k_qsearch/
Also please look at http://forum.altap.cz/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=178 for some productivity tips.
Kris
Posts: 19
Joined: 11 Apr 2013, 10:09

Re: Missing features

Post by Kris »

Hi Jan,

Thank you for your prompt reply, it is appreciated!

1. I overlooked that one, that said I still find it strange that I have to activate the command line like that when [Ctrl] arrow up/down could do the focus on it's own, from what I can see then nothing happens to the panels when pressing [Ctrl]+ arrow up/down. Am I wrong in saying this?

3. That's fine, I like that feature so thank you for telling me that one!

Yes I did do a quick search and have already adapted as I of course realize that your product is different and have different short-cuts.

I hope you can see what I mean by my answer in point 1. as it actually removes the need to activate the command line as the [Ctrl] arrow up/down to gain control of the command line history.

Did you have a lookt at my point 5 for you?

Point 6, well you know about this one, I just live in the hope that you one day adds support for this feature request.

Regards,
Kris
Jan Rysavy
ALTAP Staff
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Location: Novy Bor, Czech Republic
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Re: Missing features

Post by Jan Rysavy »

Ctrl+Down - Scroll panel down one item (it does not change focus)
http://www.altap.cz/salamander/help/sal ... _keyboard/
Jan Rysavy
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Re: Missing features

Post by Jan Rysavy »

Regarding problem (5) - Look at Options > Configuration >Viewers. Find and remove *.exe association from Portable Executable Viewer.
Or use Ctrl+Shift+F3 or Alt+F3 to view any file with Internal Viewer.
Jan Rysavy
ALTAP Staff
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Joined: 08 Dec 2005, 06:34
Location: Novy Bor, Czech Republic
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Re: Missing features

Post by Jan Rysavy »

For more information please look at http://www.altap.cz/salamander/help/sal ... work_view/
Kris
Posts: 19
Joined: 11 Apr 2013, 10:09

Re: Missing features

Post by Kris »

Hi again Jan,

Well, I hope I am not a pain in the ass, but I think you are misunderstanding me.

1. I think it would make sense if pressing [Ctrl]+down arrow key that it then got the focus of the command line at the same time, as it makes no sense to first make the command line active, do you disagree with that?

2. For internal viewer i used force hex view for files, and set "*.exe" as I want to view hex mode on "*.exe" files, I do realize that I can use [Alt]+F3, but setting the option should also work or am I wrong?

Regards,
Kris
Jan Rysavy
ALTAP Staff
ALTAP Staff
Posts: 5229
Joined: 08 Dec 2005, 06:34
Location: Novy Bor, Czech Republic
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Re: Missing features

Post by Jan Rysavy »

I think we cannot use Ctrl+Down - it is already assigned to another function. We really should not change these keyboard shortcuts.

Regarding viewers: you need to route file to Internal Viewer first. Default viewer association (F3) for *.exe is Portable Executable Viewer. See Options > Configuration >Viewers. If it doesn't work for you, please open a new thread in Bug Report section and show us some screenshot.
Kris
Posts: 19
Joined: 11 Apr 2013, 10:09

Re: Missing features

Post by Kris »

Hi Jan,

Thank you again for getting back to me!

1. It is not a change of shortcut, it is just an improvement to an existing shortcut, that will for sure not create any headache with anyone of your users as it is an inprovement to your software trust me even you will love it ;-)

2. Perfect!!!!!

Regards,
Kris
Jan Rysavy
ALTAP Staff
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Joined: 08 Dec 2005, 06:34
Location: Novy Bor, Czech Republic
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Re: Missing features

Post by Jan Rysavy »

Do you mean the panel should scroll down one line and also focus should change to Command Line on Ctrl+Down? It looks like function that does something wrong in both cases - you wanted focus Command Line and not scroll or you wanted scroll and not focus Command Line.
Kris
Posts: 19
Joined: 11 Apr 2013, 10:09

Re: Missing features

Post by Kris »

Hi again Jan,

I want the focus on the command line and then it should scroll through the history.
I guess since you have implemented this function for scrolling in panel it will be hard to take away this feature (who would use that kind of scrolling??) anyway, I now realized that it is scrolling in the panel, I did not see that before as I did not have enough files listed in the panel.

Regards,
Kris
Last edited by Kris on 11 Apr 2013, 16:41, edited 1 time in total.
Jan Rysavy
ALTAP Staff
ALTAP Staff
Posts: 5229
Joined: 08 Dec 2005, 06:34
Location: Novy Bor, Czech Republic
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Re: Missing features

Post by Jan Rysavy »

Ahh, now I get it :)
Kris
Posts: 19
Joined: 11 Apr 2013, 10:09

Re: Missing features

Post by Kris »

:D
Sorry for the confusion!
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ino
Posts: 440
Joined: 09 Dec 2005, 14:59
Location: Brno, Czech Republic

Re: Missing features

Post by ino »

Kris wrote: I want the focus on the command line and then it should scroll through the history.
just note: do you know that you can roll out any drop down list by using ALT+Down? It is default behaviour of the operating system gui.
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ino
Posts: 440
Joined: 09 Dec 2005, 14:59
Location: Brno, Czech Republic

Re: Missing features

Post by ino »

add 4.
even the default Color scheme does not apply on the viewers you can define your custom color scheme for Internal Viewer.
In Configuration navigate to Viewers and editors - Internal Viewer - Appearance - Normal text color OR/AND Selected text color - and set Custom color of text/background.
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