Review Request: Add global option to turn off "natural sorting" of user visible strings.

[Matthew Woehlke]

Peter Penz wrote:
> On Tuesday, 18. August 2009 01:48:27 Matthew Woehlke wrote:
>> Peter Penz wrote:
>>> I'm really against a per-directory option, as this hexadezimal-example is
>>> a corner case for a small group of users which does not justify a user
>>> visible UI option "[x] Natural Compare" inside a top-level-menu IMO.
>> I'd be fine with a hidden option... from your argument, the people that
>> would need it are most likely to be comfortable dealing with such an
>> option.
> 
> But in your case "hidden option" would mean that you want adjust your 
> ".directory" file manually.

Correct.

> This would not work with the file dialog, as it ignores the
> .directory files...

Hmm... well I guess that would need to change :-).

> If I don't miss a thing, the problem in the file-dialog can only be solved by:
> - a global option (= my suggestion in the reviewboard)

...but a global option means I lose natural sorting where it makes sense 
:-(.

> I'd be interested into more details of your usecase:
> 
> - How often do you need to select a file in Dolphin or the file-dialog that is 
> named in hexadezimal way?

When I am working on a project that deals with the base-36 dirnames, it 
can be pretty common... though I don't often work on such projects.

> - Is the number of named hexadecimal files really so large that you lose a lot 
> of time in your daily workflow?

Probably not a lot of time, it's just that it's a rough edge.

> Taking the file dialog as example: If you'd 
> have a user visible configuration "[x] Natural Sorting" you'd need to disable 
> this setting each time you enter such a directory and would need to enable it 
> again each time before you leave it :-(

Right, which is why it needs to be per-directory.

I've been trying to think of a better heuristic, but I don't know that 
it is possible to know how "12" and "1a" should be ordered without user 
input. (Also a "good" heuristic needs to consider the list as a whole, 
which I suspect is expensive.)

> - Wouldn't it be faster anyhow that you use the filter functionality (Strg+I) 
> from Dolphin or the filename-combo in the file-dialog?

Right now the most practical solution is to remember to type everything. 
In my experience, that's still disruptive though, as my inclination is 
to use the list first. (IOW the disruption is having to remember to do 
something different, so filtering wouldn't help, the cost has already 
been incurred by the time I would think to use filtering.)

-- 
Matthew
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