Modify text in Date column as its size changes

[Quinn Taylor]

The "Last Modified Date" column is handy on occasion, but its utility is diminished by a lack of flexibility in date representation. Specifically, it always shows the same date string regardless of the width of the column, and truncates with ... when the column is small enough. It would be much cooler if changing the width caused the text to change, as Mail.app does.

For example, I have a directory for which the last modified date is always shown as "Dec 8, 2008 at 10:10 AM". As it gets smaller, it could switch to "Dec 8, 2008" (since I'm less likely to care about the time granularity) and when smaller still, just to "2008". Similarly, something modified in January of February would shorten to "Mmm DD, YYYY" and then just to "Mmm" (eg, "Jan" of "Feb"). Coupled with this, the date column should be allowed to get narrower. I'm aware that this is likely quite tricky to do, but it would be incredibly slick! It would also be nice if the column header contained a small grayscale calendar-like icon (like Author has) rather than "Date". Perhaps something similar in spirit to the menu item icon used by MenuCalendarClock (http://www.objectpark.net/mcc.html) but without the date.

- Quinn

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