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Overview There have been various requests in the past to change the formatting or information displayed by the Alt-FileDisplay command. This proposal is an attempt to provide a flexible and easy to use way for the user to control how ZTree displays files in the File window. I propose that the Alt-FileDisplay command be changed from a toggle into a menu, just like the Alt-Kilo command was changed (I forget when) some time ago, on a side note Alt-Kilo is effectively an Alt-F for the directory window. With the ability to change the console width, the current file display mode can sometimes not match what the user wants to see, i.e. too few columns or not enough information. The menu will be a selection of toggles to select which predefined fields will be displayed, some option toggles, some options that will have secondary numeric inputs for widths etc, or toggles between predefined values so that secondary input will not be required, as they do not fit with how the rest of ZTree works, but having toggles instead of inputs reduces the fineness of control available to the user. Where there are multiple options for a toggle Shift-Letter could cycle backward through the list, just like the Archiver selection does for the Ctrl-F5 command.
Implementation
An example dialog in the menu area.
o. Justify Fixed: Fixed width name and extension fields truncating each part if necessary, like the name mode does at present, works in conjunction with the Extwidth toggle and/or the Shift-Left/Right commands. Join: Append the extension onto the name, like the long name mode does at present and using the same truncation rules when the joined name is too long to fit the available width. Justify: This is a new idea suggested by Jurgen. Left justify the name and right justify the extension, with the period tied to the extension, if truncation is required then do in a way that evenly truncates both parts of the name. Below is an example of the Justify mode in operation using the same file, but when the available width is gradually reduced.
A long file name .Extension
o. Size
With the 4 and 7 column width options, it will be easy to find files whose size could not be displayed only using the K and M multipliers, to support these files more of the ISO multipliers need to be supported, see below When 1024 is being used as a multiplier the names should follow the power of 2 standards (IEC 60027 or IEEE 1541), but as only the first character is used and the both the ISO and IEEE standards use the same first letter there is no problem as far as ZTree is concerned.
o. Date and Time ZTree at present only keeps the modified date and time stamps in memory, to display the Created and Last Accessed stamps the data would have to be held in memory, which would take at least 16 bytes per file.
These fields could be tri state, like this but it is probably better to allow the fitting code to select which format will fit into the available space.
o. Depth
No: Don't display
o. Length
No: Don't display This field is not stored in memory, but can be easily calculated at display time.
o. Attribs
No: Don't display
o. Type This is not stored is ZTree's memory at present, all that is needed is a dynamic lookup table/hashtable/dictionary that maps the extension to it's type, this way there is unlikely to be more than 500 entries in the table so the memory required should not be a problem, on a normal machine. The table only needs to be populated whenever the field is requested.
o. ShortName
No: Don't display Need to handle cases where the short name is not available for example when short name generation has been disabled on NTFS partitions. It’s probably best to display an empty column for those files affected. see http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;210638
o. Extwidth The Shift-Left/Right should continue to be shortcuts to this setting, and will support finer control of the setting, if the option is implemented as a toggle.
o. colMin
o. colmaX Using the values set in colMin, colmaX and the requested fields (name, size date, etc) ZTree will then fit a number of columns of files into the display; the exact number will depend on, number and width of the fields being displayed, the status of split, the width of the console. This calculation will have to be performed whenever any of these parameters are changed.
o. Headers
For example When the headers are displayed, clicking on the header could be a shortcut to changing the sort order to the field selected, even when the headers are not displayed clicking on the divide line above the file could be used to change the sort order. Shift clicking on a header could set the secondary sort.
o. Divlines This may be dropped as it can be controlled form the colour configuration program, Alt-F10->F4
o. By
Rows: Fill the rows in one column, before moving to the next column (Current ZTreeWin behaviour)
o. Ordinal
No: Don't display o. Set A history list of sets, items that are marked will be toggled through with the Alt-F command (Assuming that Shift-Alt-F is assigned to the menu). The standard modes will be on this list and will not be delete-able, but the user can choose to not highlight them. But I would like to be able to save preset configurations; to save having to fiddle with the toggles, once the mechanism for this is worked out it could be applied to the Alt-K command. I'm not quite sure exactly how this will work, parsing the text from the history list into the toggles, and also having a way for the user to define the set name, but to not allow them to edit the saved format of the toggles, some delimiter character maybe. This concept is foreign to ZTreeWin, and it maybe decided to drop it. If the concept is accepted then there are various places in ZTree that would benefit from the concept of a named set. If it is dropped then a F? key or macro mnemonic to reset to the factory or Configuration program defaults will be required to allow macros.
o. F4 Reset
Notes: o. There is no number of columns option, as it would make little sense if the file window width were changed using the F8, Alt-F8 or Alt-F7 commands. So the number of columns that will get displayed will depend on the options selected and on the file window width, which is dependant on the console width and the state of split. o. The Tag, Name and Ext fields will be mandatory o. The order in which the fields are displayed will be hard coded. o. If the requested fields will not fit due to a change of the display width or the state of the split, there will a fixed order of shrinking (reducing the width of) and dropping fields to get to a state were the maximum amount possible of the requested information is displayed given the available space.
Squeezing algorithm
Date
Time
Size
Name and Extension
Drop Fields in the following order Once the data will fit, if there is any slack space the remaining fields should be expanded to fill the slack space.
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Extensions to Alt-Sort Being able to control the secondary sort levels see would also be useful see http://www.ztw3.com/forum/forum_entry.php?id=51103
Directory sorting Sorting directories could be assigned to the Alt-D key as it is free, or Alt-S could be changed when the focus is in the directory window. Alt-S would be more initiative but would break a lot of old habits, by requiring the focus to be in the correct location. =========================================================================================
Extensions to Alt-Kilo
Currently the Alt-Kilo menu looks like this
Proposed new Alt-Kilo menu
F4 Reset
Show
Branch
Filter
Mode
shortName
Attribs
Date
Time
dEpth Ben | ||
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Messages in this Thread
- [ZEP] Alt-Filedisplay extenstions (8,092) - Ben Kent - Mar 10,2004 at 12:23 [ZEP]
- Saved for future reference - thanks (nomsg) (1,118) - Kim Henkel - Mar 11,2004 at 08:38
- [ZEP] Alt-Filedisplay extenstions (953) - Laurent Duchastel - Mar 11,2004 at 09:44
- [ZEP] Alt-Filedisplay extenstions (892) - Rudy Penteado - Mar 11,2004 at 13:57
- [ZEP] Alt-Filedisplay extenstions (881) - Liviu - Mar 13,2004 at 17:21