thunar swaps behavior of forward / back (next / previous) buttons
Affects | Status | Importance | Assigned to | Milestone | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Thunar File Manager |
Fix Released
|
Unknown
|
|||
thunar (Ubuntu) |
Fix Released
|
Medium
|
Unassigned |
Bug Description
Binary package hint: thunar
After navigating into a subfolder, and then to the parent folder, Thunar swaps the meaning of the forward and back commands. Keying in the "back" command does nothing, while keying in the "forward" command takes me back to the previously visited folder.
I think Thunar is attempting to be smart here, by recognizing the parent folder as the previously visited folder, and effectively replacing my "up" command with a "back" command. Sadly, this well-intended misfeature only ends up breaking UI consistency and throwing a wrench in my mental stack of visited folders.
When I press alt+left (or the back button) I expect it to "go to the previous visited folder", just like the help text says it will, always. In practice, it might go to the previously visited folder, or it might not, depending on what the previously visited folder happened to be.
One situation where this comes up a lot:
I navigate to a subfolder in Thunar, do some file management, and leave the window open while doing something else for a while. When I return to the Thunar window, perhaps minutes or hours later, I see what folder it's displaying and decide to take a look in its parent folder. When I'm done there, and want to go back where I just was, I press the back button, only to find that it does nothing.
Adding to the confusion, I see that the back button is disabled, while the forward button is now (surprisingly) enabled. I press the forward button, and it takes me back to my previously visited folder! This inconsistency is even more mystifying when the toolbar is hidden, as it often is for those of us who prefer keyboard shortcuts to reaching for the mouse.
Alternatively, if I remembered which folder I had come from, I could get there by aiming with the mouse or fiddling with the arrow and enter keys. What a hassle.
Every time this happens, I spend a few seconds wondering why Thunar failed to follow my command, and when I remember this special case behavior, I feel like Thunar has tricked me.
Lessons that I'm still re-learning after six months of using Thunar:
1. The back button doesn't always go back in history.
2. The forward button sometimes goes back in history.
3. The back and forward buttons do not behave like those in my web browser or
any other app I use.
4. The only way to predict when the back & forward buttons will work as expected is to memorize the commands I happened to use to reach current folder. Even if that was hours ago.
system details:
xubuntu hardy
thunar-
Related branches
Changed in thunar: | |
status: | Unknown → Fix Released |
Did you do file operations in the folder opened in thunar befor going back to use it? Like removing the folder to recreate it, or similar actions?