persistent selections

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mazy
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persistent selections

Post by mazy »

this is one of the two productivity features i would use *a lot*.

what:

persistent selections. the idea is to add 'keep selection' switch to the selection commands (either under edit or edit -> advanced).

when selected/checked (which could also be indicated by icon in the directory line as is the case with filter), all the selections would be kept when changing directories.

how it works:

on a directory change, active selection would be stored to selection memory together with complete path and then salamander would look if there's selection list for the new path and restore that selection.

advantage:

this would be huge time saver. consider you're selecting directories and suddenly want to look what's inside one of them. just enter, have a look, return back and have your selection as it was. of course one could use selection memory or 'restore selection' manually (edit: or browse it in the other panel, which is what i do at the moment), but that'd be a bit cumbersome for this purpose.

other plus is that you won't lose your selection by accident.

things to consider:

- should this be panel-specific? (probably yes to avoid some accidents)

- for multiple paths or just one (the one that was active when you switched 'keep selection' on)?

i would love either one; one path version would be easier to implement and also avoid some confusion, however multiple-path version could have some extra use (and get more use in the future).

like when you want to create list of files / directories not in the same parent directory. just activate 'keep selection' and go through your file system, selecting files and directories as you wish. then hit ctrl+m and have all your selections exported.

another commands could be extended to support full paths for selection too (mostly 'load selection' from clipboard).

not really what i would need, just a thought:

in the future, it could be even handy for file operations like copy / move / delete, however this could be a little bit dangerous on the user side (so user should be presented with list of directories and files before the operation). one would have to also consider cases when there are files / directories selected under another selected directory (possible solution: either use only top-level or bottom-level ones, or when entering selected directory, all its contents should be selected - so user could refine the selection and 'exclude' some items from it; if that would be the case, you could show overlay icons or tint icons on folders under which there's any selection).

thinking about it, you could possibly use this framework when adding treeview in the future, which is on the road map already.

implementation:

i think it would be best to have heap / list of selection groups in the selection memory.

one without any path = current selection memory, which is not bound to any concrete directory. and then multiple ones for all the paths with any selection on theirs children in the file system.

there could be some hash look-up on the paths; paths sorted lexicographically; linked paths (i.e. selection on items under c:\somepath1\somepath2\ would be linked to c:\somepath2\ and that to c:\) for faster and/or easier processing.

if using above-mentioned selection expansion when entering selected directory, there could be some additional logic to save memory space when not changing this selection (i.e. imagine that in the selection memory for c:\somepath1\ is its subdirectory somepath2. when you enter somepath2, you see all its contains selected so you could make changes to it. however consider that you won't and that you leave this directory without unselecting anything. then selection memory end-up being the same - c:\somepath1\ with selection somepath2, and not c:\somepath1\somepath2\ with selection on all its children).

----

sorry for the detailed and technical post; just ideas i had; all i need to be happy would be that single path version. i'm interested in others' opinions on subject ...
Jan Rysavy
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Re: persistent selections

Post by Jan Rysavy »

mazy wrote:you're selecting directories and suddenly want to look what's inside one of them. just enter, have a look, return back and have your selection as it was
Note: the tabbed browsing could be an alternative approach (for "one path version").
-Open focused directory in a new tab
-Explore it
-Close the tab
-You are back with your selection, scroll bar position, and focus preserved

In this case the the new tab should be opened for current panel only.
In the second scenerio ("workspaces") both panels should be affected.
More about workspaces:
http://forum.altap.cz/viewtopic.php?t=280
http://forum.altap.cz/viewtopic.php?t=346
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mazy
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Joined: 27 Jan 2006, 22:48
Location: Brno, Czech Republic

Post by mazy »

yes, you're indeed right, Jan. tabbed browsing (+ workspaces) would help in quite a few situations.

still i consider persistent selections nice thing to have. not just for preventing accidents. "multiple path version" could be very useful when creating list of files and directories to be copied etc.
Jan Rysavy
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Post by Jan Rysavy »

mazy wrote:still i consider persistent selections nice thing to have. not just for preventing accidents. "multiple path version" could be very useful when creating list of files and directories to be copied etc.
I understand. We want to focus on functions that will be widely accepted and used by Servant Salamander users. I am afraid that "multiple path version" is not such case.
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mazy
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Location: Brno, Czech Republic

Post by mazy »

i see. i would be happy with anything extending the current state of things regarding selections. even just for the "one path version" ;).
Guest

persistent selections

Post by Guest »

>other plus is that you won't lose your selection by accident.

that happens every now and then :-( I got quite used to CTRL+SHIFT+F5 and F6. But Salamander just remembering the selection would be way more efficient :-) as CTRL+D is quicker (less keys, no dialog, only once needed) in case I want no selection any more.

>We want to focus on functions that will be widely accepted and used by Servant Salamander users.

I guess pure remembering will be widely accepted -- especially when it can be disabled (I imagine having a question the first time the situation arises and a checkbox "remember my decision").

IMHO it shall be relatively easy to implement when done as implicit CTRL+SHIFT+F5 to a second selection memory (so not overwriting expliciitly saved selection), and, when returning to the dir, CTRL+SHIFT+F6. I guess the memory shall not be lost on next selection (may be to calculate size, cut files or the like) but heap heigth may be around 5 saved selections -- 20 or the like would probably be too old and confuse as user does not remember that any more. Or: Heap heigth of 15 but no restoring of selections that were "abandoned" more then 10 mins of work ago.
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Georgd
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Post by Georgd »

The last days I was evaluating "Directory Opus" as I got it recommended in several places. Well, IMHO it's not nearly as efficiant as Salamander, but I liked the feature "restore last selection". Very handy when you wanna do more than only one operation with the same selection (yea, you can save a selection, but sometimes you just do the 1st operation and then see "fu**, selection's gone :(" )
/Georg
Using Salamander since v 1.52
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SvA
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Post by SvA »

Georgd wrote:I liked the feature "restore last selection"
Salamander has such a feature (menu Edit; Hotkey Ctrl-W) (I don't know Directory Opus, so I don't know how alike the feature is). Unfortunately Salamander's function is somewhat limited in that it's disabled much more often than desirable.

Altap: could you please remember the last seletcion until there is reason to remember a new one?

Furthermore, I would like to have some internal permanent (i.e saved with Salamanders configuration data) memory slots to save selections to by way of Ctrl-Shift-F5 in addition to volatile Memory and Clipboard.
Georg

Post by Georg »

sorry, too lazy to log in :oops:
SvA wrote:Salamander has such a feature (menu Edit; Hotkey Ctrl-W)
...
Altap: could you please remember the last seletcion until there is reason to remember a new one?
SvA, thanks a lot, just discovered another nice feature in Salamander :-) And yes, it's what I was talking about, and yes, I support your suggestion to remember it better. I mean, selecting dirs, going into one to check something, going back and unable to restore the selection?? That's not making it such a helpful function :-| and moreover I have to learn by heart what I am allowed to do and what not. Please improve this. Thanks :)
/Georg
Jan Rysavy
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Post by Jan Rysavy »

SvA & Georg, could you please create a new topic in Feature Requests regarding the Restore Selection (Ctrl+W) command? Please specify actions when selection memory is lost and should not be. Thank you for helping us improve Salamander!
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Georgd
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Post by Georgd »

Using Salamander since v 1.52
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