Are you happy with Xplorer2 Address Bar?

Valery_Kondakoff · Post by **Valery_Kondakoff** » 2005 Mar 01, 21:45

Does anybody use the Xplorer2 Address Bar to enter Dos/Windows command at the daily basis? Are you happy with it?

There is one thing that drives me crazy after using Address Bar for a week. There are three modes of using this Address Bar:

1) Shows the folder currently open in active folder pane
2) Starts the DOS command ($)
3) Starts Windows command (>)

The annying part is that you can not change the current folder while composing a $- or >-command in Address bar. But the user need to change the folder: for example to construct the command line

d:\tools\shmools\xxx\yyy\favorite.exe c:\data\legato\zzz\data.txt

I point to the executable file (d:\tools\shmools\xxx\yyy\favorite.exe), press Ctrl+Alt+Enter then I go to the argument (c:\data\legato\zzz\data.txt) and press Ctrl+Enter. Currently this is impossible without copying the file paths to the clipboard or collecting both files in a scrap container.

But (as far as I understand), there is a more userfriendly way to combine all of the three Address Bar modes into one: just allow users to append the $- and >-commands to the name of the folder currently open in active pane. And when the user changes the current folder, the name of the folder will change, but the command will stay.

Here is an example. Let's imagine I have open 'c:\data' in active folder pane and 'd:\backup' in non-active pane. After pressing Shift+Tab the 'c:\data' is not selected. The cursor stays just after 'c:\data' thus allowing me to enter the command, say '$test.exe' or '>test.exe'. After this the Address Bar looks like this:

c:\data$test.exe

If I'll press the Tab key to go to another pane the Address Bar will look like this:

d:\backup$test.exe

etc: the folder changes, the command stays. Pressing 'Esc' clears the command ('$test.exe') from the current folder path...

Maybe I'm wrong, but I think this is intuitive and user friendly. Your opinions?

jgutierrez · Post by **jgutierrez** » 2005 Mar 01, 21:56

I will be very pleased if the combo will be also populated with the default ShellDriveCombo items, in addition with the last used ones.
________
BUY HERBALAIRE

longfellow · Post by **longfellow** » 2005 Mar 01, 23:45

The annying part is that you can not change the current folder while composing a $- or >-command in Address bar. But the user need to change the folder: for example to construct the command line
Quote:
d:\tools\shmools\xxx\yyy\favorite.exe c:\data\legato\zzz\data.txt
I point to the executable file (d:\tools\shmools\xxx\yyy\favorite.exe), press Ctrl+Alt+Enter then I go to the argument (c:\data\legato\zzz\data.txt) and press Ctrl+Enter. Currently this is impossible without copying the file paths to the clipboard or collecting both files in a scrap container.

Why not just set this up as a User Command? Something like:

> "d:\tools\shmools\xxx\yyy\favorite.exe" "$N"

Then whatever file has focus (in your example 'c:\data\legato\zzz\data.txt') will be opened by 'favorite.exe' when you invoke the User Command. (Let x2 do the work for you. :) )

Valery_Kondakoff · Post by **Valery_Kondakoff** » 2005 Mar 02, 06:28

longfellow wrote:Why not just set this up as a User Command?

This was just an example. I'm using many command line tools, so I prefer to have an easy way to construct the command line 'by hands'. BTW, some of the command line tools requires to change the command line arguments depending of the situation - so it is no always easy to preset them as a User Command.

Post by **nikos** » 2005 Mar 02, 08:08

then do it how the seasoned dos person would have done it: add all executables in the PATH environmental variable so that you can find them by plain name regardless which folder you are browsing

BRX · Post by **BRX** » 2005 Mar 02, 11:58

Or copy all command line tools you have need of in one directory which is in the system path. I for instance have copied my needed ones to the system32 dir of Windows.

Post by **nikos** » 2005 Mar 02, 12:02

or hard link them to a single folder! A scrap pane will be a great help there

Valery_Kondakoff · Post by **Valery_Kondakoff** » 2005 Mar 02, 12:19

2nikos and BRX:

Thank you for your suggestions. I know about PATH variable and the system path. Some of my most often used command line tools are already added to the PATH.

But this still does not solves the problem, just because some of the command line tools requires two ore more file arguments from the different folders - thus I'm still forced to copy their paths to clipboard or collect them to Scrap before constructing the command line.

I still think such an advanced file manager as Xplorer2 should allow loading a new folder in a folder tab and switching tabs without destroying the command line...