A few days ago I have prepared a very tiny little PR to disable auto-centering in the filmstrip:
I find auto-centering veeeeeeery annoying, as it moves photos from where they used to be and I lose all my reference points (and in general, scrolling a view without the user asking for it is not good UX, but I digress…).
The PR is very minimal, it only adds a hidden config option to darktablerc so that motivated people like myself can disable it.
@wpferguson is wondering how frequent it is for folks to want to disable auto-centering, and whether it would make sense to add a proper config option and maybe an action to toggle it on/off.
So, beloved community, here is your chance to make your voice heard. Please, cast your vote and let us know where you stand on this dividing topic.
Would you like to be able to disable auto-centering in the filmstrip?
Auto-what?
I didn’t care before, but now that you mention it, I realize that auto-centering is the main cause of my grumpiness
I always knew that auto-centering is evil, finally someone comes to the rescue!
Auto-centering is the best thing in the world and you are a donkey for not appreciating its magnificent beauty
I couldn’t care less one way or another
I don’t have time to answer your silly questions
Please, not another configuration option! My 56-inch curved monitor cannot accommodate more
Configuration options are never enough, they make the world a better place, and monitors keep getting bigger anyways
This poll has too many options, I didn’t want to read them
*4 of those options are variations on “I dont know/care”
*2 of those options involve tertiary issues not directly relevant to your question.
*3 responses (maybe 4 if you condense the 4 other versions) actually relate to your poll question
–cough 2 of those 3 (4) responses indicate support for your preferences
I always disliked the auto-centering and it has caused me headaches on multiple occasions. But like all annoyances, you eventually get used to them and find ways to work around them, so now I’m in the position that I’m not sure what I want. Maybe disabling it will confuse me even more!
Couldn’t agree more! I thought his stylization was quite entertaining! I also thought his choice architecture was interesting. As in: Why did he choose that presentation?
To clear things up for everyone, my use of the word “cutesy” was not in relation to his poll but his response. Sorry for the misunderstanding!
Can you provide a video or something demonstrating the problem and your solution? I think I know what you’re talking about and I think I want this change, but I’m not 100% clear on it.
I wish i could have 2 opinions, because configuration options are never enough and auto-centering is evil. Currently you need as many clicks on the film strip to actually open the right picture as you need tries to plug in a USB A connector the right way: 3.
It’s simply that the filmstrip always centers to the active image, so there’s no way to keep it stationary if you, for example, want to take a quick look at another image in the filmstrip.
This can be particularly annoying when the two images are far apart because you lose where the original image was as soon as the filmstrip centers.
I really dislike the current auto-centering of the filmstrip. It is in my opinion, counterintuitive. It is especially annoying when editing groups of similar photos, because I lose track of which photo I clicked, or if I successfully clicked on the next one, etc.
I believe I agree. There’s always been something funny about this behavior. The question is what disabling auto-centering should do. I think helps to be specific here.
In my view:
Say I select the the image in the middle of the strip using the mouse… When I press space the next image (to the right) in the strip gets selected without this being the centered image. Pressing the space bar again will move yet another image until we reach last visible one in the viewport. When I’m at the last image (again, in the viewport) of the filmstrip (and there’s, say, 200 left to the right of it), pressing space again will select the next one outside the viewport but the selection is still the last one (on the right side) in the strip.
Would it be possible to make the module list also not scroll upon undo? And lighttable shouldn’t scroll when you set a rating on a thumbnail that’s not fully on screen.
Yeah, I know that’s too much for one change, but this is the right direction! (I say that without having tried the commit, so grain of salt.)
Edit: I agree with what deekay wrote below:
Maybe in lighttable it could auto center when the image is changed with the keyboard but not the mouse. If using a mouse, the expectation is to drag or scroll the filmstrip.
For me, it depends on what I am doing. In the darkroom, when working on an image, I got confused. like others already mentioned. However, in the lighttable view, I often use the full preview or culling mode, and there it is nice to see other images surrounding the active one in the filmstrip. I wonder, like @mikae1, how this is supposed to work then.
So, maybe even a switch on the UI would suit me more than a preference.
I also enjoy using the culling features in lighttable, but I think that as long as the selected/current image stays in view in the filmstrip when working in the main view area it should still be usable even for culling in lighttable.
To explain what I mean:
Let’s say I select some images for culling using the selection culling mode, those images will get highlighted in the filmstrip and should be made visible (scrolled to view). However, if I then scroll through the filmstrip, like to see if there are some other images that I should add to the selection for culling, then the filmstrip should let the current selection leave the filmstrip view (just like it does currently). Once I go back to the main view in lighttable, and click on an image or adjust a clipping preview toggle, etc., it should then automatically scroll my current selection back into view in the filmstrip(which I don’t think it currently does).
Whenever you open an image, the filmstrip recenters on that image:
Auto-center off
Whenever you open an image, the filmstrip stays where it was:
I prefer the latter because I can jump between images and use spatial memory to go back and forth. When the view recenters automatically, I lose track of which image is which.
Oh, so this is what you meant. Yeah, I don’t use this feature, so I’ve never really had problems with it - I used it so little that I didn’t mind the centering
