DonationCoder.com Software > Find And Run Robot

Feature Request V2 — Task Control

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mouser:
i am more than happy to add functions for switchingto, closing, minimizing, changing priority of, etc. running processes.

i'm just thinking aloud about the kind of user interface that would be most efficient for the user to tell the program what they are wanting.

it seems to me that that this idea and some other related ideas we have discussed both sort of are asking for a way to first identify a file or command and THEN identify a subsequent operation or file.

for example:
first typing CLOSE to choose the close command from a  list and then typing THEBAT to choose thebat program from a list of running processes.

the problem is.. how could we implement such a system?  it's an interesting user interface challenge..

jdmarch:
Oops, finger slipped and I posted last msg accidentally; will clean up that previous post. But to continue, with reference also to mouser's latest:

How about this?: The user types the partial name of a running process, same as with application names. Presses Enter to open/switch/restore. Or presses Ctrl+Enter to see a menu of relevant actions for that process. User could also reach this menu via the right-click context menu on the desired process's listing in the FARR window.

With regard to tray icons:
If FARR was able to gain access to the commands in a tray-icon's popup menus (both left and right), then the FARR process menu (just proposed) could incorporate those app-specific commands. Or, if that's not feasible, FARR's Ctrl+Enter popup menu could include the following choices
 Open
 Left click
 Double click
 Right click
and FARR would send the corresponding message to the process.

I'm not at all opposed to your idea of using commands as well, especially for the most common operations (open, kill, minimize), but I think that menus could be easier for seldom-used or application-specific commands. Also I'm a little uneasy about intruding on the namespace of the first token in the FARR command line. Also, I would prefer the consistency of always beginning with the application name, as now. So rather than "kill TheBat", I would incline toward "TheBat kill".

Amadawn:
Have you seen quicksilver? the way it does it is as follows. You select the item on the search results and you click the right arrow. Then it shows you a list of things that you can do (like close, copy, and others). You select the option, type enter and the action is performed.

I've only seen this once in a friend of miens mac mini, but it seemed really easy to use.

Cheers,

Angel

mouser:
yes we could require pressing an arrow button or something..  like when you right click on an item now.
i was just wondering if there wasnt a more keyboard centric way to do it..

jdmarch:
I'm not sure what this "arrow button" would be, but if it's a mouse-click button, then it's not keyboard-oriented enough for my workstyle. My proposal, while not command-centric, was totally keyboard centric. Press Ctrl+Enter and you're in a menu which you can navigate with arrow keys or by pressing a menu-specific accelerator key. Press Enter and the command is executed. Your hands never leave the keyboard.

OTOH, if we're talking about the right arrow key on the keyboard, then that sounds good to me.

Of course it should also have mouse support, just should not require a mouse.

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