Two Requests: Browse History mod and toolbar icons

[jimlooney]

Hi Jason,

I figure these few are semi-painless and would help with usability and my sanity. 

1. Browse History dropdown. Can you change it to show the full path for each dir? With the way it shows right now, it is not intuitive as to which child dir belongs to which parent dir. For example, mine right now shows:

Users
nhd_sched_test
www
ud
php
nhd_states_php
www
php_files

However if those displayed like this, it would be much better from a usability standpoint:
/Users
/Users/nhd_sched_test
/Users/nhd_sched_test/www
/Users/nhd_sched_test/www/ud
/Users/nhd_sched_test/www/ud/php
/Users/nhd_states_php
/Users/nhd_states_php/www
/Users/nhd_states_php/www/php_files

2. I prefer the window to be as small as possible. However when I choose "Small Icons" for the Toolbar, the set of round silver buttons like Transfer, Stop, Pause, Refresh, Info - do not have a small version apparently so they stay large. (Note - if this is only an issue in the beta version, then disregard this one).

3. Would be nice if using "Small Icons" in the toolbar would also apply to the trash can icon so that i can make the lower part of the window smaller. This might also mean being able to resize the little status window at the bottom, but that'd be nice too.
thanks. really diggin it so far.
Jim

[jimlooney]

or even better for #3 - any way to just hide that entire piece of the window? the part with the status window and trash can?

[spacific]

I support your request number 1 about the history dropdown, it isn't that useful at present.

For the toolbar I suggest you use "text only" (+small text) which is what I use. Not only do you get a much smaller toolbar but you don't have to remember what all those icons mean.  I have never been a fan of icons: I believe that in some software they are a programmer's excuse for multi-language support: "if we just put up some icon (users will eventually learn what our little picture means) then we don't have to have different versions for different countries" -- you see the same thing on consumer products.  Anyway I wander ... Yummy does have multi-language support of course.

In fact I often hide the toolbar altogether as all options have keyboard equivalents.

[jimlooney]

yeah good point. Text is what I am using now since the one set of icons did not have a smaller version. Usually smaller icons take up less horizontal space than text. But in this case, I'm with you.

As for Browse History - Woohoo! Glad I got another supporter.   

What do you say Jason? Reasonable request?

[JD]

hey, sorry I didn't pick this up quicker...

I have another request for the small version of those icons, but as spacific said, if you're really after saving as much space as possible then the text only option is the way to go.

I also have a few requests already to provide a small version of the bottom status area. I'll get to this as soon as I can.

For the history menu, I'm not convinced - if you have really long paths then the menu will look awful. One thing you can do right now is to leave your mouse pointer over one of the menu entries for up to a second, then you'll see a help tag appear - this shows the full path. Once a help tag is displayed, you can move your mouse over the other menu items and get the full path help tag for each one immediately. Isn't that good enough?

[spacific]

History menu: I hadn't realised that!  The first view of the list put me off.  That does help I think, I'll give it a go for a while.  See what jimlooney thinks....

[jimlooney]

Ok, that's cool. I didn't realize it would do that. I'd say it's an either/or for me. I used to really like having the full path showing when I used MacSFTP (I tend to jump around all over my server, currently with 109 Users dirs on it). But I reckon it'll give me a second to rest my hands. 

consider my requests resolved. 

[jimlooney]

Here is what I was thinking as far as making the window even more minimalist.

Here's what it currently looks like:



It would be nice if in Preferences, the user could turn off enough stuff to make it look like:



or even better:

[JD]

Crikey, that IS minimalist 

How would you navigate to the parent of the Users folder without the directory popup menu? I know there is a keyboard shortcut, but most people want to use the mouse.

The problem with having no status area at all is you have no indication that the connection is doing anything... for example if I were transferring a file, or even just refreshing a directory listing, I wouldn't know it.

Thoughts?

[justG]

Well, since you asked... =)

I agree that a status bar is necessary, but it doesn't make sense to me to have a trash there. From a usability perspective, it makes more sense to not differentiate it from other file operations, i.e. File > Edit, File > Edit with..., File > Delete. Using this logic, it makes more sense for me to have the trash icon up by my textmate icon in the toolbar. (Ya, I know I can already do that, but no point having two.) And then, once that bottom trash is removed, that status area can more closely resemble the status bar of many other applications: a single line of information.

Note: I'm not suggesting changing its look. I like the inner bevel and the different colour, it's pretty. It shouldn't resemble other apps in that sense. I'd just make it narrower.

[spacific]

There seems to be some confusion (mine?) here between status bar (which is at the top, and can be hidden) and the "status area" at the bottom where various messages flash up briefly. The trash icon is not in the status bar. I'm all for the minimalist approach, the smaller things can be made the better as I tend to have Yummy open all the time at left of screen and then want to work with various graphic or text software before uploading or whatever. In fact I wish the windows could be made narrower than they are at present; the minimum width seems to be about 225 pixels. In particular I wish the bookmarks window could be tiny, just showing the list of server names and not including the wasted area to the left of the icons; I move the window partly offscreen to try and reduce its real estate.

I never look at the status bar or status area. I know when files are being transferred: either they arrive, or the dock icon changes. And often when refreshing a directory the message is so fleetingly displayed that I often miss it anyway.

[JD]

Okay, now we're cookin!

So who else wants to trash the Trash?
Anyone think we would be mad to remove it?

spacific - the debate is about the status area at the bottom which shows the transfer information, etc. The status bar at the top of the window is only available in the Mac OS X 10.3.9 version and not available in 10.4 and later because that information is integrated into the file listings themselves.

[jimlooney]

Haha this is excellent. I opened a can o' worms.

Yes, I would vote for the trash can icon to be gone from the status area. In fact, as you can see, I don't even have use for the status area. I use the transfer completion sounds to notify me when something is done or it has errored. I typically drop files on the window and go do other things like hit iChat or Mail while the files are being transferred. I hear the "BING" and I know I can go back to what I was doing.

So I think it would be great if in Preferences one could just choose to hide the Status Area. Or (as justG mentioned), remove the trash icon and make the status area much smaller than it is now. Or do both of these things and make lots of people happy at the same time.

As for navigating (in my super minimalist window), I have my bookmarks set to initially login into the root dir of the machine, so that way I use Browse History for navigation (as well as Go To Directory..). I wouldnt be opposed to leaving those buttons/dropdown at the top - it doesn't bother me as bad as the large status area at bottom.

there's my 2 cents.
Jim

[justG]

There seems to be some confusion (mine?) here between status bar (which is at the top, and can be hidden) and the "status area" at the bottom where various messages flash up briefly. The trash icon is not in the status bar.

My fault. The status area at the bottom of the window is the area to which I was referring. Mail, web browers, every other application I've used that displays information there calls that space the status bar. I was incorrectly using the terms interchangeably for Yummy, calling the status space on top of the window precisely... nothing. =)

[Edit] Well, I've just read Jason's response and realised that I'm calling the top space nothing because I'm not seeing it. I'm not completely daft, then. =)

[paulc]

IMO, the "trash can" icon/function seems to belong in the top of the window toolbar. As such, it can be added or removed at the choice of the user.