blog: color coding filetypes

fgagnon · Post by **fgagnon** » 2008 Jan 14, 16:16

Yes, nikos, and I can reproduce it too -- given setting BG colors to be the same. [on XP/sp2]
I suspect it is related to the same squirrel in the background color anomaly I mentioned above.

Post by **nikos** » 2008 Jan 14, 16:20

can you describe your steps?

fgagnon · Post by **fgagnon** » 2008 Jan 14, 17:06

with rgbActiveBgcol set same as rgbInactiveBgcol
and a colorcoding active in toptab in both panes
* then tab between panes to note that color coding 'sticks' to the inactive pane.
* now click to another app
* click back to x2 (but NOT on the inactive pane vertical slider)
* tab to the inactive pane & note color coding is NOT present in the newly activated pane until refreshed.

Post by **nikos** » 2008 Jan 14, 17:11

right, so it only occurs when rgbActiveBgcol==rgbInactiveBgcol?
let me try that...

Post by **nikos** » 2008 Jan 14, 17:49

fixed!

jayfischer · Post by **jayfischer** » 2008 Jan 14, 21:04

@Nikos and fgagnon - Thanks!!

jayfischer · Post by **jayfischer** » 2008 Jan 20, 15:40

I'm sorry to be a pain on this but I use the bolding of "newer" files a lot.

I am using the new beta 10.

The active pane now works as it should but when I click over to the inactive pane the color coding does not refresh automatically.

I don't understand why both can't get refreshed on x2 activation. I know you said it was by design. It would seem to be more "honest" in representing the files if both panes were color coded. Now when I look at the inactive pane I don't see any color coding

How to reproduce.

- both panes have same background color
- have colored coded files in both panes
- switch to another program window
- switch back to x2
- the active pane will have the color coding as it should
- activate the inactive pane - the color coding does NOT return
- manually refresh and the color coding comes back

Thanks,
Jay

fgagnon · Post by **fgagnon** » 2008 Jan 20, 18:33

I'm not seeing what (I think) you are describing Jay.

For me, running x2 1.7.0.10 on XP/sp2 and with same BGcol in active & inactive panes ...
the color coding does not linger on the inactive pane, the active pane color coding is applied without needing a manual refresh when switching back to x2 from other apps, but when the inactive pane is then activated, it displays the color coding immediately without needing a manual refresh.

Although this is likely "fixed" to nikos' original design intent, it does not address your request to apply the color coding to the inactive pane. I am in favor of the request, myself; even though, I generally use different BG colors for active and inactive panes. Therefore, my (modified) request is to apply the non-background elements of color coding to the inactive pane.

FrizzleFry · Post by **FrizzleFry** » 2008 Jan 20, 19:10

The problem is that when using bold in the color coding the length (in pixels) of the filenames increases so when you switch from pane to pane some filenames can be truncated and you have to refresh.

I would like an option for the color coding to remain in the inactive pane whether the same background color is used or not.

I guess another solution would be that the bold pixel length of the longest filename would be remembered so that the truncating does not kick in.

And yet another solution is an option to do an automatic refresh when switching panes/tabs.

fgagnon · Post by **fgagnon** » 2008 Jan 20, 19:21

I cannot reproduce the need to manually refresh even with truncated bold itemnames and switching out of and back to x2 and then activating the inactive pane as described.

... but that's rather a nit, I think, given that the real request is to maintain color coding (or at least its non-BG elements) in the inactive pane. :twisted:

FrizzleFry · Post by **FrizzleFry** » 2008 Jan 20, 19:59

My complaint is that long bold filenames get truncated when switching between panes and tabs and require a refresh to show full filenames again. This might also affected by the "Max list column width" setting which I have set to 0. I have played around with setting this to large values but it has not helped. Is there a max value for this setting?

This is not affected by switching to another app.

I agree it is a cosmetic "nit" but it is annoying.

jayfischer · Post by **jayfischer** » 2008 Jan 20, 23:34

Attached are before and after snapshots. As you can see in the "after" snap that the "test" file has not been refreshed as it should.

[/img]

Can I vote again on having the option of having color coding in the inactive pane.

Thanks,
Jay

jayfischer · Post by **jayfischer** » 2008 Jan 23, 19:09

fgagnon,

What color coding rules are you using? I am using "if modified date within 1 day" then bold text.

This is simply not working as it should (as shown on previous screenshots). I have a "downloads" dir that today had 7 files bolded that were 2 or more days old. I tried exiting and returning to the dir, I tried moving back and forth between panes and the ONLY way I could get the proper coding (release the bolding of old files) was to do a manual refresh.

Thanks,
Jay

Post by **nikos** » 2008 Jan 23, 19:46

this refresh for date rules works better for the latest beta, but <ctrl+R> refresh will be required from time to time

fgagnon · Post by **fgagnon** » 2008 Jan 23, 20:04

Normally, I have active & inactive panes set to different BG colors. (Otherwise I all-too-often find myself trying to work from the wrong pane.)
Secondly I avoid using Bold customization because itemnames get too wide in many cases. What I do use are different text FG colors and occasionally BG colors.
I have my view panes always set to horizontally tiled (one above the other) and use details view almost exclusively except when in digital photo folders where I use a thumbnail view in conjunction with details view.
As far as the filter rules go, I have a mélange of predefined filters; but generally only use a few at any time .. and I am as likely to have color coding turned off as to have it on.

Today I am using ...

Encrypted item: [Attributes contains "E"] (files & folders)
Text color = red; BG color = mauve

old items: [Modified date within the last 1 year(s)] (files & folders)
Text color = medium gray; BG color = Automatic

recent files: [Modified date within the last 7 day(s)] (files only)
Text color = blue; BG color = straw

FWIW, my pane BG colors are
rgbActiveBgcol = [0x00e0ffe0]
rgbInactiveBgcol = [0x00d3c4e1]

Further, I have customized my XP display theme to have Classic look
with Window BG color set to R=253, B=253, G=232 -- an off-white ivory/cream color.

BUT, when checking out behavior that others have posted on the subject issue, I explicitly set
my rgbInactivecol to match rgbActiveBgcol = [0x00e0ffe0], and
at least one of my CCoding definitions to show the items in bold, and
I adjusted my column widths such that the bold names were truncated in the details view.