Selected item decoration on inactive panel

[Andrew Gaydenko]

Hi!

I'm (more or less) following Krusader's trunk branch, and the last one I have built hour or two ago. I have noticed selected item on inactive panel now also has decoration. I guess old approach is more natural - only active panel's selected item is decorated. 

Is the change intended or occasional?

[A. Bikadorov]

Intended. See commit f16cc416 which was made for fixing bug
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=375639.

Is it really a problem? It is still clearly indicated which panel is active. Fixing the
bug wihout it would be a real pain. And e.g. for the "Compare by content" action it is
even better now that you see which are the current files in each panel.

Cheers
Alex

[Andrew Gaydenko]

Agree, comparing items is the case making new way valid.

It isn't a problem, it is just resistance of multi-year habit :)

[SanskritFritz L]

Well, in my case this new feature simply drives me nuts. This not only breaks habits, but it goes against (my) common sense. Especially when I filter the files and the keyboard focus is on the entry field, but the file cursor is still visible making me believe that I have focus on the file. I downgraded krusader to 2.5 in the hope that this fill be fixed in the future, but now reading this thread makes me fear I'll have to get used to this new way. Are you sure this can't be fixed?

[Martin Kotelnik]

I'd like to add my 2 cents. Showing decoration is (for me) much more useful since it provides more information about the state of inactive panel. Which is good for comparing files like Alex said. When I was comparing files before, I had to switch to another panel to make sure, which item is actually focused. But I agree it can be confusing in the beginning.

My opinion is we could make the decoration more transparent for the inactive panel (assuming that's possible and not too complicated), but I wouldn't get rid of it.

[SanskritFritz L]

I understand the benefits. If there was a difference between decorations clearly marking the cursor where I have keyboard focus, that would be great. I would gladly use that.

[Andrew Gaydenko]

I must admit even after three months I still can not get habits to work with new decoration seamlessly.

[SanskritFritz L]

I downgraded to 2.5.0 after a week of cursing and crying.

[A. Bikadorov]

On 10.05.2017 09:47, SanskritFritz L wrote:
> If there was a difference between decorations clearly marking the cursor where I have
> keyboard focus, that would be great.

I still don't understand this. You clearly see which panel is focused by the top and
bottom panel decoration (see the screenshots on krusader.org)?!

Anyway, we can simply add a user setting: "always show border for for current item in
panel"; default is selected; unselectable.
However, this would make the "Search" feature in quick search bar unusable (the reason why
I changed this). But I don't see any other solution

Cheers
Alex

[Andrew Gaydenko]

Alex, I guess, it isn't a matter of understanding, but the matter of fact. Yes, logically speaking, new way is perfect. I'm not sure there is obvious explanation why our feeling, our perception contradict with logic. Probably, because we are not only computers, but animals also :)

[A. Bikadorov]

I just wanted to point out that not being able to tell which panel is focused, can't be
your reasoning. But if you just say: "I don't like it"/"can't get used to it" that's
totally valid.

I was actually asking this: Would you be ok with the user option I proposed? I want to
help you guys but you have to tell what you want:)

Cheers

[SanskritFritz L]

On Wednesday, May 10, 2017 at 6:46:35 PM UTC+2, A. Bikadorov wrote:

Anyway, we can simply add a user setting: "always show border for for current item in
panel"; default is selected; unselectable.
However, this would make the "Search" feature in quick search bar unusable (the reason why
I changed this). But I don't see any other solution

That would be awesome, thanks. For me the search bar always worked well, so for me the old behaviour is perfectly good.

[Andrew Gaydenko]

If it would an option, to be precise, "always show selected item on inactive panel", that would be great!

[A. Bikadorov]

Done. Settings->Panel->View->"Always Show Current Item"

https://commits.kde.org/krusader/f8f3fd7d8ec49667131abb76ef3384ea95a26d72

Cheers
Alex

[Andrew Gaydenko]

Great, got it, thanks!

[SanskritFritz L]

On Monday, May 22, 2017 at 8:20:54 PM UTC+2, A. Bikadorov wrote:

Done. Settings->Panel->View->"Always Show Current Item"

https://commits.kde.org/krusader/f8f3fd7d8ec49667131abb76ef3384ea95a26d72

Good news thanks! Well, I tested it and I still have one problem with this: when I filter the panel, the keyboard focus is on the filter entry field but the decoration on the file is still present. Can you revert this also? I mean the decoration should return to the file only when I press up or down hence transferring the keyboard focus from the filter entry field to the panel.

[Andrew Gaydenko]

Hi! Can you, please, show a use case when just selecting the first item (when the first filer char is entered) a matching to the selection is unhandy? Why do we need additional navigation at the case the first selected item is that item we are interested in?

[SanskritFritz L]

There is no need for an additional navigation, but the keyboard focus must be transferred somehow to the panel in order to be able to handle the files. That could be a mouse click or pressing the up button (which I prefer).
Use case (strictly without using the mouse):
I start to type a part of a filename, this automatically shows the filter panel with the keyboard focus (I expect the decoration immediately taken away from the current file in the panel, since it has no keyboard focus now: the filter has it). Now the panel is filtered and I want to navigate in the panel. So I press <up> to transfer the keyboard focus back to the panel (and now I expect the decoration to reappear, showing which file is selected, hence has the focus). Now I can press right to enter a directory or an archive, or space to select it, etc.

[Andrew Gaydenko]

Aha, I see, it's just a matter of taste. At my experience the most used case is just typing one or two chars and hitting Enter (and it is very handy for blind typing to avoid arrow keys :) ).

[SanskritFritz L]

So you filter the list until the desired file remains visible only. In that case it's ok to press enter to start an action on the file. That is not what I do mostly.

[Andrew Gaydenko]

Ah, it seems I misunderstood you - I say about "search as you type" which is activating in active panel on hitting letter or digit (or Ctrl-F). At this case nothing is filtered out, but only matching files can be selected by up/down.

[SanskritFritz L]

I see. Yes, the search behaves differently, it leaves the focus on the panel, so it's ok there to have decoration. I have set Filter as default.