[Xfce-bugs] [Bug 4660] New: Filer reverses the behavior of the forward and back buttons

[bugzilla-daemon at xfce.org]

http://bugzilla.xfce.org/show_bug.cgi?id=4660

           Summary: Filer reverses the behavior of the forward and back
                    buttons
           Product: Xfce
           Version: 4.4.2
          Platform: Other
        OS/Version: Linux
            Status: NEW
          Severity: normal
          Priority: Medium
         Component: general
        AssignedTo: xfce-bugs at xfce.org
        ReportedBy: il567p902 at sneakemail.com


After navigating into a subfolder, and then to the parent folder, Thunar swaps
the meaning of the forward and back commands. Keying in the "back" command does
nothing, while keying in the "forward" command takes me back to the previously
visited folder.

To reproduce:
- Open the XFCE Filer to a folder that has some subfolders.
- Enter a subfolder.
- Press the "up" button (or type its keyboard equivalent).
- Try pressing the "back" button (or its keyboard equivalent) to navigate back
to the subfolder.
- Notice that it doesn't work.

I think Thunar is attempting to be smart here, by recognizing the parent folder
as the previously visited folder, and effectively replacing my "up" command
with a "back" command. Sadly, this well-intended misfeature only ends up
breaking UI consistency and throwing a wrench in my mental stack of visited
folders.

When I press alt+left (or the back button) I expect it to "go to the previous
visited folder", always, just like the help text says it will. In practice, it
might go to the previously visited folder, or it might not, depending on what
the previously visited folder happened to be.

One situation where this comes up a lot:

I navigate to a subfolder in Thunar, do some file management, and leave the
window open while doing something else for a while. When I return to the Thunar
window, perhaps minutes or hours later, I see what folder it's displaying and
decide to take a look in its parent folder. When I'm done there, and want to go
back where I just was, I press the back button, only to find that it does
nothing.  Adding to the confusion, I see that the back button is disabled,
while the forward button is now (surprisingly) enabled. I press the forward
button, and it takes me back to my previously visited folder! This
inconsistency is even more mystifying when the toolbar is hidden, as is often
the case for people who prefer keyboard shortcuts to reaching for the mouse.

Alternatively, if I remembered which folder I had come from, I could get there
by aiming with the mouse or fiddling with the arrow and enter keys. What a
hassle.

Every time this happens, I spend a few seconds wondering why Thunar failed to
follow my command, and when I remember this special case behavior, I feel like
Thunar has tricked me.

Lessons that I'm still re-learning after over a year of using Thunar:

1. The back button doesn't always go back in history.
2. The forward button sometimes goes back in history.
3. The back and forward buttons do not behave like those in my web browser or
any other app I use.
4. The only way to predict when the back & forward buttons will work as
expected is to memorize the commands I happened to use to reach the current
folder. Even if that was hours ago.

system details:
xubuntu hardy
xfdesktop 4.4.2-5ubuntu1
thunar 0.9.0-4ubuntu2

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