[Thunar-dev] Feature request optional dual pane view modeand other requests

[Benedikt Meurer]

Kevin Olemoh wrote:
> While evaluating thunar as a replacement for Nautilus I took note of
> some things that both Nautilus and Thunar and quite frankly most other
> File managers I have tried lack.
> 
> 1. While the ability to open folders in tabs is nice sometimes it is
> nessecary to view more than one folder at the same time.  It would be
> nice if Thunar had the option to split the window and create something
> akin to what one gets with Krusader or Konqueror. [But for the love of
> all that is good if you decide to implement this feature request please
> make sure one is always able to tell what directory is being viewed
> without having to select the panel.]

There's a good reason why most file managers lack this feature: Its the
first step from an easy to use file manager to an unusable file manager,
IMHO. Konqueror has this feature and only very few people (I've never
meet anyone of those people) are able to make productive use of this
feature. The remaining 99% are just confused by the menu items and the
additional widgets. Thunar targets those 99%, and hence this will not be
available in the first release (as discussed several times now).

> 2. It would also be nice to have a terminal emulater popup again not
> unlike Krusader or Konqueror.  While it is nice to have a true terminal
> popup its a bit more effective to have a window popup inside the file
> manager window instead of having to move over to a whole other window.

Check the ML archive, this was discussed a few days ago.

> 3. The ability to show files and folders in groups like Internet
> Explorer for a visual representation of what I mean here is a
> screeenshot of Internet explorer utilizing this feature:
> http://putfile.com/pic.php?pic=1/2123292594.png&s=x4
> <http://putfile.com/pic.php?pic=1/2123292594.png&s=x4>
> Take note of how the PDF files in the screenshot are grouped under the
> heading Adobre Acrobat and the executeables are grouped under the
> heading Application.
> 
> The show in gorups mode also allows one to show images grouped by the
> dimensions of the image [NOT the file size] with headings like
> 1600x1280, 1280x1024 etc.

Yep, maybe for a 2.0 release.

> 4. For the single click selection mode hovering over an item should
> select it instead of the current behavior which forces one to ctrl+click
> in order to select files without actually opening them.  In Internet
> Explorer for example when one sets the mouse click to single hovering
> over an item selects it and holding down ctrl or shift and dragging
> selects multiple files.

Yep, this somewhat broke the detailed list view, that's why I disabled
it for the alpha2. File a bugreport, I'll see if I can get this working
for the beta.

> 5. It would also be nice to be able to set the left or right click mouse
> button to select items not unlike Midnight Commander can do where the
> right click allows one to select multiple files without having to
> depress ctrl or shift to do so.  Handling the right click context menu
> could be handled by a setting that determines how long one must hold the
> left or right mouse button down before the context menu would appear as
> opposed to the file being selected.

Hm, this way, there would be 3 functions for the right mouse button:
context menu, start drag and select. That'll be confusing.

> That is all I can think of for now, I hope you all will be receptive to
> at least some of the things I have brought up in this email.  I am
> looking forward to the eventual stable release of this nice program.

greets,
Benedikt