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diff --git a/content/13/index.md b/content/13/index.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1f920fa --- /dev/null +++ b/content/13/index.md @@ -0,0 +1,61 @@ ++++ +date = 2021-11-27T17:51:10+01:00 +title = "Filtering files in Thunar" + +[taxonomies] +tags = ["TIL"] ++++ + +[Thunar](https://docs.xfce.org/xfce/thunar/start), XFCE's file manager, was a +pretty late addition to my core set of tools that I rely on to accomplish +day-to-day tasks. I started using it heavily maybe 2 or 3 years ago. For the +longest time before that I had been using [ranger](https://ranger.github.io/), a +console file manager. + +The ability to move and copy files around between multiple directories using +drag-and-drop is basically Thunar's killer feature for me. I'm often faster +using the mouse to select a bunch of files and then quickly dragging them +someplace else. In comparison, ranger's select-then-yank-and-paste workflow +feels very cumbersome. + +However, there's always been a feature in ranger that Thunar did not have - the +very simple but powerful ability to filter the current directory listing by +showing only files matching a given pattern. There's a more or less hidden way +to have Thunar select files matching a wildcard with `CTRL-S`, but that relies +on popping up an extra dialogue, and doesn't play well with interactive use. + +Very early on I found +[a feature request](https://gitlab.xfce.org/xfce/thunar/-/issues/2) +for this, but it looked largely abandoned and I forgot about it until today +when, to my extreme surprise, I discovered that it was implemented just 3 months +ago. There does not seem to have been any large fanfare around it; the +changelog +[buries it](https://gitlab.xfce.org/xfce/thunar/-/blob/eb2b1b284d08d045cf393bcbf2045965f263d781/NEWS#L65) +in more miscellaneous changes. Not a big deal. + +Way more worrisome, however, is that the +[commit](https://gitlab.xfce.org/xfce/thunar/-/merge_requests/136/diffs?commit_id=d6f916eb2b478a49c5b3ba453e773f81154dbd74) +implementing the feature does not introduce any user-facing documentation. +Nowhere is explained how the new feature works and what its limitations are. I +had to go read +[the +code](https://gitlab.xfce.org/xfce/thunar/-/blob/d6f916eb2b478a49c5b3ba453e773f81154dbd74/thunar/thunar-list-model.c#L2113) +to find out why my search results were littered with seemingly random files in +other directories. Turns out that it consults files in `GtkRecent` too, merging +results in the current directory with matches of files you had recently opened, +regardless of their location. + +A terrible default in my opinion, so I immediately turned it off by disabling +the +[`gtk-recent-files-enabled`](https://gnome.pages.gitlab.gnome.org/gtk/gtk4/property.Settings.gtk-recent-files-enabled.html) +property in my GTK config. Thankfully you can still do that, albeit in a +system-wide fashion, but I don't care about recent files. + +Still, it's really sad I had to go out of my way to find that out. A less +tech-savvy user could not have done that so easily. It would lower the bar +tremendously here to **describe** what a new feature does and point out **how to +configure it**. + +A failure to do so makes software intransparent and hostile, furthers the notion +that the user experience is inherently bad, and very quickly leads to +resignation in the common user base. |