Split view separator position not reliable

Depending on the window width, it appears that toggling the split view does not split 50%/50%, very often the new view occupy something like 20%.

Sometimes it is the opposite.

I still did not understand what is the logic or if there is a pattern.

Why not just always split in half?

changed the description

Yea, I can reproduce the problem. The position of the split is not always constant.

Check the xfconf prop /last-splitview-separator-position. Afaik that's a pixel value, which might be the problem.

Note that setting it to -1 will force a 50/50 cut.

Why not just always split in half?

Afaik that is by purpose ... some people might want to enlarge one of the plit panes.

I suppose it would make sense to store the value rather as view-percentage than as "number of pixels" to make it more reliable.

changed title from Toggling split view does not split 50/50% to Split view separator position not reliable

added 5. Split View label

Updated the title accordingly

Found it: and it works (-1). Thanks!

The previous value was 680, I really don't know where it come from. But my home profile is very old, used several forks of Arch.

I think that provided -1 is the default value it is no more an issue.

To me 50/50 is ok, so I'll close the issue.

Thanks again.

Edit: The -1 value is not kept, it is overwriten. so still open ^_^
Suggestion: can we add a simple statement "if value is -1, don't touch it"?

closed

reopened

Hi, I did not understand: thunar actually writes it.

So even if you update this, after a while, same problem.

When you drag the split-view to somewhere by hand (possibly by accident), then that value will be written. Possibly that is, what happened for you.

Suggestion: can we add a simple statement "if value is -1, don't touch it"

Would be fine for me like that. Could you please open a merge request for it ?

I think I don't have the proper gitlab profile to do so. I can't push a branch / can't create MR

You have fork permission. Fork the thunar repo into your userspace and push your new branch there. Best follow this tutorial: https://docs.xfce.org/contribute/dev/git/start#gitlab_forks_and_merge_requests

Here's the thing about this bug. Some code somewhere in Thunar obviously knows how to set the view separator in the center, splitting the existing view width by 50/50 proportions. Because that's exactly what happens when you turn the split view on in the first place. This seems to work whether a sidebar is visible or not (unless the image preview pane is involved, see further down).

But when you close the window and run Thunar again, the split view separator is way off to the right, leaving the right-hand pane about 10% of the width of the entire files view. And if you change the location of the separator, it is either not being saved or not being loaded correctly at startup.

If the tab bar is visible when you quit, the right-hand pane will be a bit wider, maybe 20%. But still, there is no retention of the position of the separator if you move it, nor does it revert to being 50/50.

I was trying out Thunar on Fedora GNOME after seeing a Linux YouTuber talking about some of the new features, like restoring tabs at startup, and the split view. But this bug means every time I open Thunar I'd have to fix the split view pane, so I haven't switched from Nautilus yet.

I'm not qualified to be poking around in C code, I only have a bit of experience with shell scripting and Python. But I am looking forward to someone fixing this.

And here is probably a very closely related bug: If the image preview pane/column is visible, it expands and squishes the file pane(s). It expands itself beyond 50% of the entire window width.

OK, that's interesting, I've basically had the Thunar window maximized the whole time, then I decided to un-maximize it and quit, to see what happens. That seems to stop the image preview pane from expanding itself on the next startup. But turning on split view now doesn't split the files pane exactly in the center of its width before split view was enabled. The right hand pane ends up a bit wider than the left. Maybe by about the width of the minimal-width image preview pane (on a 1080p screen resolution).

Then, quitting and restarting Thunar results in the two panes shifting to being about 50/50. But not precisely.

And, I had to shrink the window quite a bit before Thunar would stop starting maximized each time. Then it was seemingly difficult to get it to start up the maximized the next time if I quit while the window was maximized. There's a lot of inconsistency there.

One thing that would help a lot, which is a pretty common feature in apps with a sliding separator, is having a double-click on the separator reset it to the default position (in this case, centered in the file view so both panes are the same width).

One thing that would help a lot, which is a pretty common feature in apps with a sliding separator, is having a double-click on the separator reset it to the default position (in this case, centered in the file view so both panes are the same width).

I implemented that functionality in !478 (closed), but since there is a known limitation with tab creation, we have to manually calculate the 50/50 split on reset. Further adjusting the window or sidebars might move the separator away from its centered position.

Greetings !

Unfortunately I can see the merge has been rejected ;-(

The MR is marked as "Draft" and it will not be merged until marked as "ready".

added 2. Enhancement label

mentioned in merge request !478 (closed)

mentioned in merge request !484 (merged)

changed milestone to %4.19.3

closed with commit 4dbf2df4