Hey codefags, I have a question. How extensible is Windows Explorer in Vista? I have seen addons to add tabs to it or add extra buttons, so I know it can be altered to some extent, but I don't know if it could be changed in ways necessary to overcome terminal case of alzheimers it has.
Vista constantly forgets the view settings for each folder. I set it to list, it comes up as tiles next time, or maybe big icons, or small icons, or whatever. Sometimes it decides to display a particular folder as a music folder, other times video or something else. I position things in the order I want them, it remembers for a few minutes, maybe a few hours, but it always changes to some other display style or sort order on its own. No logic at all, completely random. This is apparently a common problem, and there is no fix as of yet. But could there be?
Would it be possible to write some sort of extension for explorer (or a totally separate program that just runs when you start Windows) that would record your settings for each folder and restore them the next time you open it, regardless of what windows itself wants to do? This seems like a trivial concept, but I have no idea how much control a user application could have over internal Explorer functions like sort order or icon size or display type, or the position and order of individual items in a folder.
If explorer exposes these functions so that third party software can modify them, then it seems that some sort of program could be written to keep track of the view configuration for each individual folder, and force Explorer to display it the way the user wishes.
Oh look, linuxfucks. I guess only one of you can have torvalds' dick in your mouth at once, so the others have nothing to do than go trolling. Pathetic.
>>5
Asking stupid questions and then acting butthurt when you get the best reply you could get (and a better one than you deserve) is no way to behave on our /prog/.
Besides, there are real OSes to use besides Linux. FreeBSD is one.
Windows Explorer is the Vietnam of file management. It may seem like conquest is simple but even an Expert Programmer will get Fucked by Asians in the Jungle if he attempts to bend it to his will.
And someone name a good file manager in Linux. mc is great, except it's hard to customize (autocompletion key that isn't used by the window manager, bitte), it doesn't do unicode, and there isn't a thumbnail view.
I've been through about a dozen graphical two-pane editors, and they all to some degree suck worse than mc. And it's a pain to test out file managers because they all seem to use their own custom file associations, so you need to waste time configuring them before they're even usable.
I'd ask /tech/, but they're idiots, and the thread is already here...
>>15
File managers are for faggots. ls, cd, grep and find are more than enough, if not less verbose and more expressive than their slow-as-fuck GUI counterparts.
>>16
Any good file manager (Midnight commander) will let you ls, cd, grep and find to your hear's content, but will additionally show you the contents of a directory as soon as you enter it instead of having to ls for it, and let you change the sorting order iwth max. a couple of key presses.
Name:
Anonymous2008-09-28 4:53
>>17
This is an accurate description of every Windows programmer's mindset.
Name:
Anonymous2008-09-28 7:03
>>1
Yes, ditch it and use FAR Manager. FAR Manager combines the power of the command line (which, on Windows, until you install GNUWin32 or Cygwin is not much) with the power of an otrhodox file manager that will save keystrokes but waste little, as it's character-based. It has far more years of evolution than Explorer, Konqueror and similars, and once you learn how to use it (which is not hard to do) you won't want to quit.
On UNIX there's Midnight Commander, but unfortunately, it's not nearly as powerful as FAR Manager, nor it can offer a terminal buffer and the file panels at the same time (you can still type commands, but need to use Ctrl+O to see their results).
/r/ FAR Manager for UNIX, /r/ GUI fags learn to use a computer properly.
Name:
Anonymous2008-09-28 10:55
GNU/Linux is a pile of dung. Windows is a pile of dung made of gold but still dung. Solaris is piss out of fluid platinum. So get Solaris as an OS and Windows for games.
Name:
Anonymous2008-09-28 13:03
fluid platinum Did you mean: latinum
Name:
Anonymous2008-09-28 14:00
>>15 (autocompletion key that isn't used by the window manager, bitte)
Get a decent WM, kdnke.
Name:
Anonymous2008-09-28 14:28
Everybody who uses OS X knows that the Finder sucks bad, and it's one of the most hated parts of the operating system. And still Explorer manages to infuriate more.
OH HAI! I decided to throw away all icons and re-read them from disk, since it's been five minutes since the last time.
OH HAI! I decided to forget what file you had selected and reposition the view to the top of the list. I hope that it won't be too difficult to find your file again!
>>22
or just use (dragonfly|open|net|free)bsd. or minix 3. or plan 9. or inferno.
Name:
Anonymous2008-09-29 0:02
>>22
lets see you make a OS as functional as those 3
Name:
Anonymous2008-09-29 0:13
>>25
Pressing tab and then shift-tab is a good workaround for the second issue. Personally, my only major gripes with the Finder are:
1. Lack of a proper location bar
2. Back/forward buttons aren't bound to cmd-left/right (you can create the bindings yourself, but that will mess with how cmd-left/right work in text fields)