Altap Salamander Support Forums

Ether wrote:If I were to change attributes of various files often, I'd hate this. An IMHO probable scenario:

OK, so let's remove the R from all these files - it was in the third state, OK - click once - unchecked - yes! - but wait! - I didn't mean to remove the R attribute, I was thinking of A - so, R is checked and let's revert it - click - not enough, let's click again - OK, that's it - now, A is checked - I can double click it to uncheck it - what? checked again? - oh, wait, this one works differently, I have to click only once...

But in your scenario - after you change some state, you have no chance to find out which attribute is mixed on selected files, because there is always third state. I like the Explorer way, because even when you switch some attribute back and forth, you can always see third state=mixed attribute.

I do understand that both approaches have some advantages. But when we are not sure which way to do it, I think it is better to do it the same way as Windows Explorer.

I think Ether's use case is very rare. You need to have:

• multiple files
• with an attribute with mixed states
• and an other attribute having uniform state
• clicked on the wrong attribute
• remembered how many time you clicked
• applied that number of clicks

A much more common use case is having:

• a single file (or multiple files with uniform attributes)
• clicked the right attribute
• watched the effect of every click

For example if you need to clear a single file's R attribute, you have to click twice now (and understand what the don't change state means).

And MartinS has another great argument: being able to see whether an attribute had multiple states.

Perhaps an (Attributes) "Absolute" checkbox.

When checked, only two states, set or unset, & all attributes are set/unset per the checkbox toggles.
Unchecked, things operate as they are now.

In my case, virtually all the time, I only want to set or unset an attribute absolutely.
I rarely run into, have a need for, a "don't change" switch.

therube wrote:In my case, virtually all the time, I only want to set or unset an attribute absolutely.
I rarely run into, have a need for, a "don't change" switch.

Of course you do.
Seriously: if you take ten files, some of them read-only, and you want to set their Compressed attribute (for instance), you don't want the Read-only attribute to change: you leave it in the don't change state.
But I agree with you that having multiple files with differing attributes is rare. That's why I suggested to remove the don't change state for all attributes having uniform state.

therube wrote:WinXP Pro SP3 or Win7 x86 | SS 2.53beta2

Aside: why not 2.54?

WinXP Pro SP3 or Win7 x86 | SS 2.53beta2

Just an old tag that I've never gotten around to updating.