I request provision in the “View > Sort By” menu for optionally having separate sort orders for directories and files.
One way this could be done with clarity is to change the order of one item in the menu (putting “Folders First” at the top), and adding some sub-items under that. So the menu would begin:
O Folders First
O Different Sort
O Name
O Size
O Modified
O Created
O Accessed
File Sorting
O Name
O Size
…
The great advantage of allowing separate sorting methods is that normally having directories sorted alphabetically is natural for easy navigation, since directories are often static (more so that files) and sorting by them by size or date usually is not relevant. The above suggested menu structure allows the sort order for directories to quickly made to be the same as for files, or to be customized.
If this menu structure would result in a menu length that is inconveniently long, perhaps the menu could be made wider, with the directory settings on the left and file settings on the right.
I often sort folders by date to manage projects. Recently updated folders contain recently updated files. This is a typical “my behavior” situation while you don’t know how many other people using the functionality with their own needs.
I am not arguing against your idea, but want to tell you to be careful with “general truths” if it is highly user depended. A functionality you barely need is something that others may rely on in daily usage.
Directory Opus (a Windows file manager) has this feature as an option. On moving to Linux now, after using Opus for years, I find that the lack of this feature in any Linux file managers (I think I have tried them all) makes them really clumsy. It is a great feature that Dolphin could adopt and would greatly improve its utility for many users, I’m sure.
In Opus, I made a toolbar button to quickly change from directories having their own sort to being sorted with the same sort I’m using for files at the moment. As I indicated above, this could also be done through Dolphin’s settings menu (which is fine for those who don’t need to change it often).
I understand. With this feature you would be able to have your directories sorted by date and your files sorted any other way that you need. It greatly increases the flexibility of a file manager for whatever sorting needs a user has.
As indicated in another reply I made, in the Windows file manager I am leaving behind in my move to Linux, I have a toolbar button for switching between my normal directory sort (for me by name, for you by date) to whatever sort I am using at the moment for files (for me, usually by date with newest at the top). It is a wonderful feature I’m really having trouble living without, in my new Linux world.
Directories and files are, functionally for the user, entirely different animals. So it makes sense to be able to sort them differently. This feature would take the already wonderful “directories first” option on big step further, and would help distinguish Dolphin from other Linux FMs.
I use this method too sometimes, but only when the number of directories is relatively small and the main directory is of high importance to me. It works well for that.
I have thousands of directories in my large archival file collection, so the ability to sort directories separately from files is nonetheless highly important.