From: Martin Borus <martin_at_borus.de>
Date: Sun, 27 Oct 2002 22:07:20 +0100

Hi,

here's a suggestion that might make navigation a lot of easier
in long file lists of the same artist, album or audio book.
Currently it's not easy to find a file when all files have the same
beginning.

How about an #optional# directory file filter with an auto-shortening
function that would only display the parts of file names that differ
from the previous name.

With the filter activated, it will compare each line with the
previous line from the left to the right. It will only show the
part of the filename from the first letter on that is different.
The first line is always displayed in full.

Example:
Let's say this is the content of a folder:
Diana Gabaldon - Dragonfly in Amber-01 of 8.mp3
Diana Gabaldon - Dragonfly in Amber-02 of 8.mp3
Diana Gabaldon - Dragonfly in Amber-03 of 8.mp3
Diana Gabaldon - Dragonfly in Amber-04 of 8.mp3
Diana Gabaldon - Dragonfly in Amber-05 of 8.mp3
Diana Gabaldon - Dragonfly in Amber-06 of 8.mp3
Diana Gabaldon - Dragonfly in Amber-07 of 8.mp3
Diana Gabaldon - Dragonfly in Amber-08 of 8.mp3
Kirk Douglas - The Gift - part 01.mp3
Kirk Douglas - The Gift - part 02.mp3
Kirk Douglas - The Gift - part 03.mp3
Kirk Douglas - The Gift - part 04.mp3
Kirk Douglas - The Gift - part 05.mp3
Kirk Douglas - The Gift - part 06.mp3


On my jukebox the folder currently looks like this:

Diana Gabaldon - Dragonfl
Diana Gabaldon - Dragonfl
Diana Gabaldon - Dragonfl
Diana Gabaldon - Dragonfl
Diana Gabaldon - Dragonfl
Diana Gabaldon - Dragonfl
Diana Gabaldon - Dragonfl
Diana Gabaldon - Dragonfl
Kirk Douglas - The Gift -
Kirk Douglas - The Gift -
Kirk Douglas - The Gift -
Kirk Douglas - The Gift -
Kirk Douglas - The Gift -
Kirk Douglas - The Gift -

To find a certain part I have to go to each line and let it scroll.
With a filter that looks for differences the folder would look like
this:

Diana Gabaldon - Dragonfl
2 of 8.mp3
3 of 8.mp3
4 of 8.mp3
5 of 8.mp3
6 of 8.mp3
7 of 8.mp3
8 of 8.mp3
Kirk Douglas - The Gift -
2.mp3
3.mp3
4.mp3
5.mp3
6.mp3

This would make it really easy to find the right part. This trick
would also work great with album files when you have the name of the
artist in the filename.

What do you think, anybody like this idea?

Martin
Received on 2002-10-27