A rather radical idea

[ShALLaX]

[Jules]

That's not a radical idea at all. Every other third-party file explorer from Resco, Xircuit, Aidem, and Vieka's PE explorer, etc all use the two window format (directory tree on top/filelist on bottom). Practically all the freeware explorers use the same approach as well.

The fact that Dan's Dexplor doesn't use that two-window format is what makes it unique.

If you prefer the two-window method of file access you probably should've went with the Resco file explorer instead.

If Dan started using that format, his file explorer would look just like everyone elses.

[rix]

If you want to consider other approaches, here's another approach to file management for your consideration.

http://www.winbrowser.com/winbrowser.htm

The web page is for a win9/2k/xp version. Might be interesting on a PPC.

It's my favorite way to navigate file systems & move things around.

This file manager came (originally) from the NeXTStep world.

Rich

[T¹]

IMHO, both of those suggestions are going exactly against the very idea of Dexplor. Good interface design on PPCs is very different that of desktop PCs, due to their lack of screen real estate. Therefore, while multi-paned selection windows may well be very intuitive and useful on a PC, it can become cumbersome and counter-productive on the tiny PPC screen. Dan set out to create a file explorer that used screen space efficiently, while providing all access to relevant details. Most of the time, you're either navigating folder OR files, so the other is redundant. So once you've located the folder you're looking for, you start navigating the files contained within. If you were using half the screen for each window, it'd involve a lot more scrolling just to find what you were looking for, while the other half of the screen would just be wasted in the meantime.

That Winbrowser file explorer does look pretty good, though. Although it'd majorly suck on a PPC due to it's use of even more windows!

[Dan East]

I have considered implementing a split view, but it is very low on my priority list. The only reason would be to remove any last logical reason to actually pay more for another file explorer instead of DEXplor (because some people may still prefer the split-window approach regardless).

However, I have a really unique Drag Drop enhancement I will be introducing, although it won't make it into the 1.30 release. I think once you try the new drag drop system you won't see much advantage in other systems.

Finally, there are other simpler solutions that are still far more optimal than the split view. For example, when you begin dragging, I could turn the DEXplor Tree-List into a folder-only view, so no files are displayed. You get the exact same drag / drop scenerio with a split screen, except you still are using the entire display at once.

Dan East

[ShALLaX]

heheh Dan does it again D:... The folder only while dragging system sounds more than acceptable, so long as u dont get lost when all the icons disappear... and your new drag drop system interests me If its as good as you say it is, then it should be better than split view.

I dont see why everyone says it goes against what dexplor is... why cant dexplor have 2 views, i thought the idea of dexplor was functionality and customization/personalization. I just felt it would be good to give everyone a choice is all D:

[rix]

To reply to T1's comments, I agree that the multi-paned view of winbrowser would be unworkable on a ppc (at least in portrait view), but if you had 1 or 2 pane on the screen at a time (plus the "shelf" at the top to place things on), & the panes would "slide over/slide back" as you navigated, it would be workable (from a usability standpoint at least. I have no idea about any difficulties actually implementing it.)

Not saying Dan should or shouldn't change dex-plor this way or that. I love to tweak my computers to be as usable as possible (Microsoft gives me lots to work with!) Just kicking out some ideas to see what might come of it. (An interesting discussion at the least!)

Cheers,

Rich

[Jules]

[superman]

[randall]

[superman]

[randall]

you still have to scroll each pane individually, unless you happen to be lucky and have both panes open to the directories/files you need. Once again, where is this efficiency? It sounds more like you are used to a certain method and can't get over it.

I'm not trying to argue. But I do know that a dev can't listen to every single idea that comes along, no matter how good it sounds in theory. Snails would certainly be a huge mess if we tried to listen to everyones input. Those people had LOADS of good ideas and i wish we could feasibly pull them off.

Maybe Dan could pull this off and only increase the filesize by 10K. But that is a judgement only he can make.