Filer is a well designed and great approach to become maybe the standard File-Manager for AmigaOS4.1.x with all the missing features waiting so long (the long awaited directoy-up-button and opening only one window for directoy-browsing for example!)
Questions:
1. Is it possible to create something like a softlink to let open filer my DH0:, DH1:..etc content, something like a Amiga File-Window replacement by clicking on the Harddrive-Desktop-Icons? 2. Can Filer make use of the Drawer-Configuration, how which Drawer will be shown as icons only and others just as a list?
Suggestions:
1. If it´s not present, see Point Nr.1 and Nr.2 from Questions. 2. I figured out that a big drawer content take very much time to load. It´s a bit annoying. Isn´t it better to show how each file is loaded and display it directly instead of waiting until the complete content is loaded? This is the way the Workbench did it so far. 3. Add a Display feature for Photo-Directorys which have already a Thumbnail preview icon showing it in several columns and rows with the filename below it.
@fingus You can't turn a volume icon into a project icon because volume icons are saved as Disk.info so Filer would open a directory named Disk instead of your Volume:.
But do it this way. Duplicate Filer executable and icon and rename it to something else. Then change the PATH tooltype to point to any dir you want. Then "Leave out" the Filer icon. Make more copies of Filer and rename them, if you need. Just remember to copy images dir (of Filer) to the same place where you have your copies of Filer otherwise Filer can't find its own imaginery and won't work.
Or don't copy Filer but use Project icons and Filer as the default tool.
You are right it's possible to hide all hard drive icons using that hiding feature in Workbench prefs. Just rename all these copies of Filer as your hard drive volumes/partitions.
Simple.
Rock lobster bit me - so I'm here forever X1000 + AmigaOS 4.1 FE "Anyone can build a fast CPU. The trick is to build a fast system." - Seymour Cray
2. Can Filer make use of the Drawer-Configuration, how which Drawer will be shown as icons only and others just as a list?
Filer uses a Listbrowser gadget so it's not possible to have icons view with it currently. I've been toying with Virtual gadget if it could be used but the result wasn't perfect. People have made a feature request to add "cell mode" into the List browser gadget. I don't know if that could make icon view possible or practical and if it will happen or when.
Maybe if we ask polite and nicely and many people will do it maybe AmigaOS dev team will add those back buttons and other features into Workbench itself.
Rock lobster bit me - so I'm here forever X1000 + AmigaOS 4.1 FE "Anyone can build a fast CPU. The trick is to build a fast system." - Seymour Cray
Maybe if we ask polite and nicely and many people will do it maybe AmigaOS dev team will add those back buttons and other features into Workbench itself.
For me it looks like recreating of wheel and wasting of time. Orgin already do all what need, just (for the begining) will be enough to replace 1-2 function and run Filer binary instead.
@TSK I know about openamiga.org and i read 2 years ago for what all of this done :)
I mean wasting of time if hyperion will add to WB something, which already done in Filer , but without including of Filer's code (that will be waste of time and recriating of wheel).
But if you mean to ask os4dev team to get Filer code to only add buttons to main window, so why then just not add the whole Filer's code at this point (and in end we will have the same stuff about "please add filer to OS" and answers that its not priority for now).
1) some kind of interface to Filer, maybe via Arexx?
The purpose would be that some other program provides a list of paths to files and Filer just shows this list and allows its usual functionality on each item in the list. That means, copying, moving, open-by-double click, etc.
The "special" thing here is then, that the files displayed in Filer are not necessary from the same directory.
2) In addition, it would be even more cool, when for each file shown by Filer some kind of meta information could be shown, too (within the same line, so copying and multi-selection would still work as usual).
For example, for a mp3 file "my_song_file.mp3" some additional information could be provided via the lists of paths for Filer's interface, like tags for artist, title, etc. Even a picture could be displayed for certain file types, e.g. embedded pictures in mp3 files.
I don't know if 2) is even possible with the used GUI for Filer, but 1) shouldn't be that hard, should it?
It would be really handy for my clucene application (if ever that c-plusplus compiler bug will be resolved). -- especially, as I really don like programming GUIs myself :)
I checked that todo list on OpenAmiga.org and there's tab file name completion on the list. That feature is integrated into every string gadget. Use it with CTRL+TAB (or RAMIGA+TAB). (TAB alone is used to jump between multiple gadgets.) You don't have to implement it yourself.
@AmigaOS devs There's a bug in tab completion of string gadget. If there's spaces in the path name like RAM Disk: then it doesn't work. But if I use ram: then it works. F.ex. ram:Clip -> ram:Clipboards. string.gadget 53.15 (10.12.09)
Btw. That space in RAM Disk name causes some trouble here and there. Could you rename it RAM-disk by default for example, even if it's not proper English ? Or RAMdisk ? I think it would work for the most of the people around the world.
Rock lobster bit me - so I'm here forever X1000 + AmigaOS 4.1 FE "Anyone can build a fast CPU. The trick is to build a fast system." - Seymour Cray
I love using Filer. There is only one issue that I would really like to see fixed: When attempting to drag and drop something that has already been selected, the item's selection is lost as soon as the mouse button is pressed down. Maybe this behavior can be changed to de-select the item when the mouse button is released (as long as the item is still included in a drag and drop operation).