Rubber-band selection is missing from Compact/Detailed views

[agaida]

that is not part of the displayed row.

Reason: try to mark some files in detailed view with mouse only :)

[tsujan]

I don't get it. This is the detailed list view and it seems OK to me:

[agaida]

maybe a video helps https://youtu.be/Gfdv0rgrjrg

[tsujan]

Got it but it doesn't seem to me as a problem because although the selection can't be done in that way in the detailed view, SHIFT and CTRL can be used without problem. On the other hand, IMO, adding an empty space to the right or left (if possible at all) would give the detailed view a weird and unprofessional look.

[tsujan]

Anyhow, my opinion isn't important in this case because I never use the detailed list view ;)

[agaida]

Thinking about something like that

[agaida]

and i didn't see it as a bug and top priority - but when one has an idea to implement it and there is nothing important to do left - why not, a little bit polishing wouldn't hurt. To be honest, it was a bug in the debian tracker - and i closed because of the points you mentioned. a) it is possible b) the implementation is not so lucky (aka horrible) at this point. But there is no bug.
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=853201

[tsujan]

Dolphin does it with small spaces above and below each item but those spaces aren't easy to use at all -- SHIFT is easier.

I'll think about it but no promise, because there are lots of things more important than this.

BTW, this kind of selection can be called "selection with rubber-band" (rubber-band = that translucent, resizable rectangle).

[tsujan]

@agaida

With a simple change, it's quite possible to let the user do as in the following screenshot whenever he/she wants to select items (there's an optional space on the right, as you suggested):

But, unfortunately, the selection behavior will be erratic and, I think, that's because of a Qt bug. Theoretically, it should be possible to fix the problem in our subclass but how much work would be required, I still have no idea.

[agaida]

its a start :)

[tsujan]

Important note:

Actually, this is more than a simple feature request and reveals a deeper problem: We have no rubber-band selection (= the rectangle that's created by pressing the left mouse button and moving the cursor) in compact and detailed list views. Dolphin has them everywhere.

[tsujan]

Now that the problem of column customization is solved, back to this:

The compact view does it without needing a rubber-band (although a rubber-band would be nicer with the compact view). So, the problem is either in Qt's tree view or in ours -- other views are list views (QListView). This old bug report exists: https://bugreports.qt.io/browse/QTBUG-3042 (with the Out-of-scope "resolution" -- weird term) . But it doesn't mean that we couldn't have a rubber-band. It needs more investigation.

[tsujan]

Update:

It seems possible. This is with a very inefficient fast-food code:

When I'll find time to change this proof-of-concept to a usable code, I don't know.

[tsujan]

@agaida Because you opened this:

I succeeded in implementing an effective rubberband selection. But:

(1) The code is somehow complex but not big (actually, it's relatively small). It couldn't be made simpler. The reason was that Qt didn't support that kind of selection for this kind of view and so, I had to enforce it (an entertaining challenge; nothing more).

(2) Even if it goes into the official source, there will be a problem. Adding a right margin to the detailed list view would make it ugly and untidy. Still, with previous PR's, the user could choose custom column resizing and add a right margin easily. So, rubberband selection will be limited to the latter case.

Now, my question: Is it good to add it?

[tsujan]

Answering my own question:

The rubber-band selection can be added to the detailed list view because it's cool, its code is adapted from Qt itself, and it's limited to specific functions dealing with mouse events, so that it could be removed easily if it's implemented in Qt > 5.

[agaida]

Cool - but a bit nitpicking - what if we leave a right margin with auto-resize?

[tsujan]

It would be ugly. Contrary to appearances, the problem wasn't about that margin but the lack of rubber-band selection with tree-views (yes, contrary to appearances again, the detailed list is a tree-view). But I'll think about it later.

Now we have a nice rubber-band where others don't; one problem at a time ;)

[agaida]

as i said - nitpicking :P

[tsujan]

as i said - nitpicking :P

It's really a design problem to solve. A right margin or a configurable space between rows. It might not be easy to implement but should be investigated.