Recent Posts

626

General Software Discussion / Re: What the hell is OpenCandy?

« Last post by tranglos on September 13, 2009, 09:04 PM »

The only extra thing i want to comment on is how bizarre a situation we are in where every web site on the planet tracks every click we make, how long we stay on every given page, etc., and no one raises an eyebrow -- but yet if a "program" does it, most of us go crazy.

-mouser (May 13, 2009, 03:25 PM)

I have yet to read through this thread (fascinating discussion!), but I think I have what may be a good reason for making the distinction - or two. One: with websites you don't really have a choice. It's not even as if you could avoid sites that gather such data and reward those that don't, because it's a safe bet they all do. With desktop apps though, you still have a choice. Also, you can't tell if someone's Apache server is hooked to a big honking advertising database, but you can usually tell if your desktop apps try to phone home. So not only do you still have a choice, but you have the technology to help you make it.

Two, probably more important. As long as we trust the browsers we're using (and I am aware of JavaScript exploits et al), the information a browser can leak really pales in comparison to what a local app can potentially disclose. Anything on your system that's not encrypted is game, so I'd say the stakes are higher.

The distinction does blur the more people switch to web apps like Gmail or Google Docs, but you can still use your best judgement about what to use Google Docs for, and when to stick with Word. But when you have spyware on your desktop, then the choice between what's sensitive and what isn't is no longer yours.

So I think there is a difference, and of course I still wish Odin's wrath upon all the data collectors everywhere. Bottom line for websites: if tracking me is making you money, I want a piece of it, because it's my stuff. You would not give that data to me for free, would you?

Bottom line for spyware: die.

627

General Software Discussion / Re: Godin: the end of dumb software

« Last post by tranglos on September 13, 2009, 08:22 PM »

I think historical data is often immensely useful to have. I kick myself all the time for not adding creation date to every item in every app I've ever written.

-tranglos (September 13, 2009, 07:59 PM)

Example. I put a friend's cell number in my address book. Two years later they change the number, so I update the entry, but I keep the old number in the Notes field, just in case. Another two years later they change the number again. Later I look up the number and no longer know which is the current one. Or have you ever named files like "file.txt", then "file-new.txt" (o maybe renamed something to "file-old"), and what did you do when yet another version arrived? Timestamps to the rescue, everything should have one.

628

General Software Discussion / Re: Godin: the end of dumb software

« Last post by tranglos on September 13, 2009, 07:59 PM »

Isn't Godin also mixing two very distinct issues here? The am/pm example, with all its faults, is indeed an example of "smart" behavior, inference from historical data or heuristics based on common scenarios. The example is imperfect, but even from my limited coding experience, I think historical data is often immensely useful to have. I kick myself all the time for not adding creation date to every item in every app I've ever written. I think every record in every database should have a creation and last modification timestamp at least, also a read count and maybe the time spent displaying/editing the record; and if at all possible, every database should store every version of every recdord that ever existed. Often impractical, yes, but how helpful when you need it! I'd use it all the time. And Godin is right: a feature to filter out the most often and least often accessed data is very handy.

On the other hand, I don't quite see connectivity (link this item to that one, link my items with all my coworkers' items) as being in the same category of design concepts.

Linking and sharing seem to be all the rage now, but - color me cynical - I suspect the goal here isn't to make applications smarter, but rather to enhance data-gathering capabilities for our dear friends, the advertisers. Even my beloved Google Reader has sprouted all the nuisance "share this, rate that" options; what are they good for? Am I always supposed to be reading only what everybody else has already read? Or why would anyone be interested in what I'm into today? The information I get from "sharing" this or that with "friends" isn't really useful to me. It's data, but I don't think I am the intended recipient. If I were the CTO at Doubleclick, ah, then it might just be a goldmine.

Spoiler

(And what's the deal with Twitter anyway? Is this guy a typical Twitterer? My train is here! Yay! - really?)

And anyway, doesn't the Outlook/Exchange combo already do much of the linkin' and sharin' he describes? Maybe it doesn't mark deceased people with color codes, but that wouldn't really be tasteful, would it? I'm really wondering about this specific example Godin's using.

Edited to add: Google tries to be smart in unobtrusive ways, and often it works. GMail has some algorithms built in for detecting dates in email, and when they trigger, it puts up a link to add an appointment in the Google calendar. That would be cool if I were using Google Calendar. But it, too, guesses wrong sometimes, and at least once I've seen it suggest creating an appointment with a date well in the past. And that's just dumb.

There's also a GMail lab thingie that detects the word "attachment" (and variants) in your messages and prompts you if it thinks you forgot to attach a file. It's happened to me a few times. Nothing beats finishing your work on time, then forgetting to attach it and going to sleep for 8 hours, while people in a timezone half the globe away are going frantic. But I wonder if it's smart enough to know the word attachment in languages other than English. And of course if you often discuss attaching things in your emails, the helper would become a nuisance again, and you'd turn it off.

629

General Software Discussion / Re: Godin: the end of dumb software

« Last post by tranglos on September 13, 2009, 07:42 PM »

but i do believe i've lost 2 years of my expected life span screaming at the program when it insisted on breaking up pages and applying new formatting craziness behind the scenes that i did not want.

-mouser (September 13, 2009, 06:14 PM)

That's been exactly my experience too. I know when I want my quote marks curly and when I want them straight. You, Mr. Word, have NO idea.

Let's look at Godin's AM/PM example.

• The old way help file "Choose the time of your appointment and indicate if it is AM/PM using the drop down combo box."
• Here's the new way help file "The program will try to guess whether your appointment is AM/PM based on your past habits.  Check to make sure the guess is correct.  If not, re-select the proper am/pm setting using the drop down combo box.  If the program is consistently wrong for you, you can disable this automatic guessing by going to View->Preferences->Heuristics and changing the Guess mode to disabled."

-mouser (September 13, 2009, 06:14 PM)

LOL, that's exactly it. And I suppose this is a very useful test for an app designer when trying to choose between being "dumb" or "smart". If you are 100% sure you won't need a checkbox that says "Disable Guess mode", and if after extensive usability tests no-one complained, then (maybe) go ahead. But if you want to put the feature in but feel you'd better add this checkbox, too, then it's a bad idea right there and you should stop.

630

General Software Discussion / Re: Dying technologies: do you still use a printer much?

« Last post by tranglos on September 13, 2009, 07:05 PM »

are you still buying and using as much printer ink and paper as you were a few years ago?

-zridling (August 26, 2009, 03:58 PM)

Hardly ever. Ten years ago or so, when my main job was translating movies for video, I printed out every transcript I translated, in carbon copy, on a dot-matrix Star LC-20. I used to print a lot of handouts for my students, too. Now I have a HP L6 laser, really old now, and I don't think I print more than a 100 pages a year. Mostly invoices, for the companies that still insist on a hard copy, and an occasional ViaMichelin route before a long car ride. Can't remember when I last bought toner.

However, if HP isn't getting much business from me, it's partly through their own fault. Like Mouser and others who have replied above, I would happily print manuals, help files etc. and read them more comfortably. The thing is, the first thing that broke in every printer I'm aware of (mine, my friends', anywhere I've worked) is the paper feeder. In my HP the feeder broke right on schedule - a few weeks after the warranty expired. And I'm not going to bother with manually feeding fifty pages or a hundred one at a time. Yes, I used to have to do it on the dot-matrix, but those were dark times

If I could rely on the paper feeder not breaking, I would be printing much more and who knows, I might replace my old HP with a fancier new model. But these things *will* break, it's a foregone conclusion. I don't expect they've gotten any better, now that hardware is made so cheaply.

631

General Software Discussion / Re: Will Win7 last as long as XP?

« Last post by tranglos on September 13, 2009, 01:17 PM »

UAC? We'll just have to agree to disagree, then!

It's the best thing that has happened for Windows security for a long while, and it really isn't that annoying when you're done with the initial program installs and setup after a fresh Windows install.

-f0dder (September 13, 2009, 12:57 PM)

I only know what I've read about other people's experiences, and from the interminable confirmation messages I've had to translate. But as a philosophy, I think it's flawed. First of all, users don't read stuff. If you put up a dialog box, you have a lot of people who will hit Enter (rarely Esc) without reading. And often for a good reason too, since the system is asking them a question they don't know how to answer. The other group of users, those who do read messages and do know the good answer - I don't think they need UAC in the first place. These are the same people who install their AVs and their firewalls and basically know what they are doing.

That is a theory (though advanced by long-time practitioners like Joel Spolsky, linked above), and in practice you may be right I just don't like the idea, without having been personally subjected to it yet.

Aero looks good on screenshots, but I'm not convinced it wouldn't be too much lucre and visual distraction for me. And I would probably disable it anyway, since I want my CPU to be there when I need it

The cute thing about Aero is that it runs on the GPU, not CPU - and that it allows for live previews on alt+tab (without being hacky and resorting to the cpu-sucking "take constant screenshots" approach that some fancy switchers use).

-f0dder (September 13, 2009, 12:57 PM)

Thanks for the correction. I've found though that I can't use the "snapshot" task switchers of any kind. I've tried TaskSwitchXP, for example, and there's a Firefox extension that does a similar thing with tabs. It's weird, but I just can't use those, because I'm lost. I can't instantly recognize a window by its downsized graphical snapshot - they look all the same to me. When I switch, I recognize apps by their icons, and tabs by their titles. Every time I tried a snapshot-based UI like that, I end up randomly switching to things in panic, can't tell which window is which. Don't know whay that is, but it just doesn't work for me at all.

632

General Software Discussion / Re: Will Win7 last as long as XP?

« Last post by tranglos on September 13, 2009, 12:48 PM »

Who knows. I'm happy to see Vista didn't last long. It's a pimple on the face of computing. But how is 7 any better?

-tranglos (September 13, 2009, 11:28 AM)

I wouldn't exactly call SuperFetch, UAC and usermode graphics drivers pimples on the face of computing... Aero is also pretty sweet, especially in Win7 with WDDM 1.1

-f0dder (September 13, 2009, 12:05 PM)

UAC? We'll just have to agree to disagree, then!

Aero looks good on screenshots, but I'm not convinced it wouldn't be too much lucre and visual distraction for me. And I would probably disable it anyway, since I want my CPU to be there when I need it

Now, as a translator I'm bound by all sorts of non-disclosure agrements, so I can't be specific here - but I've seen a little bit of internals (system messages, not code) in my work. I would never want to run an OS that can display the kinds of error messages Vista is capable of displaying, related for example to network connectivity and missing updates or some validation procedures. If "code is law", as said by Larry Lessig (the lawyer who instituted Creative Commons), then Vista is a prison.

I suppose Windows 7 is going to be even more so, and I will nevertheless upgrade when faced with the choice of upgrading or changing jobs. But I'll be kicking and screaming when I do.

633

General Software Discussion / Re: Will Win7 last as long as XP?

« Last post by tranglos on September 13, 2009, 11:51 AM »

I really like the new interface. So much so that I installed a similar taskbar in linux.

-jgpaiva (September 13, 2009, 05:44 AM)

Looking at the screenshots, the taskbar seems way oversized now (just like the Office 2007 ribbon), but no longer displays any text - just the icons. This seems like it's going to be inconvenient: with two instances of the same app, how can I tell which is which? Can the taskbar be configrued to look like XP, with regular text labels?

And is it really all black, as some screenshots imply? (I'd hate that.)

634

General Software Discussion / Re: Will Win7 last as long as XP?

« Last post by tranglos on September 13, 2009, 11:28 AM »

(a) Are you planning on upgrading to Win7 before year's end?

-zridling (September 12, 2009, 04:59 PM)

Not in the least. I upgraded to Win95 in 1997 or so; to XP only after SP2 was released; never intended to upgrade to Vista. And in XP, I enabled the default (themed) interface only a year ago

Vista never had a compelling reason to upgrade, and I have yet to see one for 7. But most of all, I cannot risk any instability, since it might easily cost me my monthly income, or a loss of a client.

When I upgraded to XP, it was for two reasons: certain drivers for Win2000 were becoming flaky or non-existent, and a number of applications I must use for work were becoming XP-only. Interestingly, none of these apps (including some in-house apps made by Microsoft and heavily reliant on .Net) ever became Vista-only. I'd say it's a good rule of the thumb to do what Microsoft does, not what they say.

(b) Will it last as long as XP, or will Microsoft kill it in time for another upgrade in two years?

-zridling (September 12, 2009, 04:59 PM)

Who knows. I'm happy to see Vista didn't last long. It's a pimple on the face of computing. But how is 7 any better?

(c) Are you planning to buy an upgrade version, full version, or just buy it with a new computer?

-zridling (September 12, 2009, 04:59 PM)

Probably a new version, since there seems to be no upgrade path from XP. But I'll be sticking with XP until some technology critical for my work requires a switch.

635

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review

« Last post by tranglos on September 10, 2009, 10:48 AM »

Minor wishes, maybe. Here's a great concept that TC might steal from DOpus: as-you -type selection with the colon key: The : key opens the Lister Search field in selection mode. In this mode, all files and folders that contain the entered search string are selected. For example, to quickly select all text files, press :.txt and then return. To cancel the selection press escape.

-tranglos (September 10, 2009, 09:32 AM)

I did not know that!  Way cool!

-superboyac (September 10, 2009, 10:26 AM)

It is. DOpus has a few other keys that initiate these special modes, some of them to assist in executing commands, but TC already does those other things, and in general I prefer TC's command-line to the DOpus implementation. (See "Navigation by Keys" on page 71 in DOpus Reference Manual PDF).

As for file selection, TC has Alt+Num Plus, which selects all files with the same extension. This is often good enough, but using the DOPus way you can select files matching any string you type.

636

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review

« Last post by tranglos on September 10, 2009, 09:32 AM »

Now the official forum can move on to pestering poor Christian about what should be in v8.

-Innuendo (September 10, 2009, 09:01 AM)

Except for "file collections" (a la DOpus), I can't imagine what I would want to add! Especially now that TC has directory breadcrumbs and the optional as-you-type filtering of the file list.

So I'm a hopeless fanboy, but TC is that rare kind of program whose author seems to always be a step ahead from me in his designs. Usually you wish for a feature, request it and maybe see it implemented in a later version. With TC it's been the opposite: when I thought it needed a particular feature, I looked and most of the time it was already there.

Minor wishes, maybe. Here's a great concept that TC might steal from DOpus: as-you -type selection with the colon key: The : key opens the Lister Search field in selection mode. In this mode, all files and folders that contain the entered search string are selected. For example, to quickly select all text files, press :.txt and then return. To cancel the selection press escape.

637

General Software Discussion / Re: alternative to filehamster?

« Last post by tranglos on September 10, 2009, 07:20 AM »

The new basic is the same as the old +Plus (paid version) but without any of the plugins - no zipping of backup would be what I would mainly miss - to me it's asking a lot to pay (anything) for any backup programme that doesnt zip your backups... but maybe I've been spoiled?

-tomos (September 10, 2009, 06:37 AM)

This is what it looks like so far. Here's a thread I started on the FH support forum.

The thread has also produced another real-time backup alternative, which has not been mentioned here yet, I think: http://www.beanland.net.au/AutoVer/ (not tested)

638

General Software Discussion / Re: alternative to filehamster?

« Last post by tranglos on September 10, 2009, 07:19 AM »

It's stable, no crash so far after some 40+ hours on my Windows 7 x64 machine. Time will tell.

-mwang (September 10, 2009, 04:45 AM)

If you really want to stress-test FileHamster, and if this is anywhere close to how you would be using FH, try copying a large number of (small) files to a folder that FH is monitoring. Try a thousand files at a time. (This is what I sometimes have to do when receiving projects from a particular client). If FH is configured to make initial revisions of new files, it will start copying frantically. Watch CPU and memory use when that happens.

I don't have a link ready, but I remember reading a post by one of FH authors (on their support forum) stating that FH creates a new thread for every file it copies. If this is true, it's a really poor design. Starting a thread is "expensive" in CPU terms, and starting hundreds of threads at the same time is an awful idea. This is what "thread pools" were invented for. If you also have the "bubbles" (notifications) enabled, you can see FH memory use reach a gigabyte or so, as it creates hundreds and hundreds of windows. This might still (barely) work if if were written in C++, but a .Net app doing that sort of thing can really bring down the system.

I bought the Plus version and used have it for almost two years, but have recently switched to AJC, which is less powerful but orders of magnitude leaner.

639

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review

« Last post by tranglos on September 09, 2009, 05:18 PM »

Total Commander 7.5 final has been released!

-fenixproductions (September 09, 2009, 04:37 PM)

Yay! Thanks for the heads-up!

640

General Software Discussion / Re: alternative to filehamster?

« Last post by tranglos on September 08, 2009, 04:36 AM »

Do you have pointer to the AJC forum?  It doesn't appear to have a link from their website.

-mwb1100 (September 07, 2009, 09:58 PM)

You're right, there is no forum! Sorry about he confusion. I remembered reading that comment on a board - that board was Bits du Jour comment section:
http://www.bitsdujou...ive-backup/#comments

The author's response is Aug 21 2009 5:47am

641

General Software Discussion / Re: alternative to filehamster?

« Last post by tranglos on September 07, 2009, 07:42 PM »

did you see this thread ?
AJC Active Backup ---- at Bits du Jour

-tomos (September 07, 2009, 02:53 PM)

AJC Active Backup is certainly not as memory hungry as FileHamster (and snappier too), but if you read the AJC forum, a new beta version is about to be released, and it's written in .Net now, just like FH. I fear the worst!

The good thing about FH is that it stores each backup file as a physical file, with a timestamp, so restoring is a breeze. AJC uses a proprietary file format, so you need the (free, separate) viewer app to extract files from the compressed backup files. That said, I took the BdJ offer and have switched to AJC, since the memory footprint of FileHamster is quite obscene, and it has a few other quirks I wasn't happy about. I don't expect to be upgrading when AJC switches to .Net though 

642

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: ClipMate at $19.95 on BitsduJour today - Sept. 4

« Last post by tranglos on September 07, 2009, 11:58 AM »

tranglos, as I said, some programs like ArsClip and CHS allow you to ignore clips coming from certain programs.  That way you could ignore your "industry standard" program.  Does Ditto allow ignoring?

-rjbull (September 07, 2009, 11:38 AM)

Well, it's a long story, but it's not as as simple as that. The program interfaces with Word (through a huge honking encrypted template), and when you work, you work inside Word, while the program displays information in its own window on the side. So I would have to be ignoring Word in Ditto - and that would be rather self-defeating

To answer your question - no, I'm surprised to see Ditto does not provide a way to ignore certain apps. That's bad, I know!

643

General Software Discussion / Re: doing a web app is easier than a desktop app. Days are counted for Desktop apps?

« Last post by tranglos on September 07, 2009, 08:42 AM »

"Easier" is relative - it's all black magic to me: Ajax, all kinds of databases, and you have to think about security at every line of code.

However, to the extent that it may be easier for professional programmers, I'd say it's because web apps suck. All of them. Their functionality, speed and ease of use don't hold a candle to the current state of desktop apps. Most web apps I've seen belong in the User Interface Hall of Shame, with few exceptions - but even those exceptions can't compete with what's available on the desktop today.

The only saving grace of a web app is that it remains accessible from just about anywhere. That gain though comes at a price of potential security breaches and having to trust your data to a for-profit (or amateur-run) business. To my mind this is a poor trade-off, but that may be because I don't have to leave home to do my work.

In recent years I've seen a number of software developers (and developers of Delphi components) move their support system from nntp to the web. The results are always disappointing. It takes much longer to find anything, the search is not nearly as powerful or flexible, copying is a drag, and often you have to log in manually. By contrast, in Forte Agent I have years of experience and knowledge stored and accessible within a few clicks, and Archivarius keeps it all indexed, too.

Also in my line of work, localization vendors have been moving things like terminology databases to the web. It seems to make sense, since they can update those databases and translators always see the latest version without having to re-download or re-install anything. Yes, but then each database is located at a different website (instead of within a single desktop app), requires a different login (which they make you change every two months), and the web interfaces tend to log you out after 30 or 60 minutes of inactivity. That's like five or more repeated log-ins during a single work session. It's more than mere annoyance: it takes me longer to accomplish a task, so in effect it's like a taking pay downgrade just because web apps have become trendy.

For those who travel a lot, web apps may have improved their lives. To me though, they are but nuisance and aggravation. Yes, they are probably easy to write. It's because they're all crappy!  

Edited to add: one reason web apps are loved by developers is that they can shove more adverts down my throat, too. GMail shows me ads; TheBat! does not. The choice is really simple.

And to add some more: Stack Overflow seems like an example of a really good (and very successful) web app. Information-wise, it's brilliant. But try to enter a few words in the search box and search for posts containing all of them (rather than posts with any of the words). Quick tip: you can't. I'm ever grateful to Mouser for building DC around SMF rather than phpBB, because again, the search facility in phpBB is next to useless. And it's the most popular forum engine on the planet!

They say bad money drives out the good, and the rise of web apps is a prime example.

644

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: ClipMate at $19.95 on BitsduJour today - Sept. 4

« Last post by tranglos on September 06, 2009, 06:44 PM »

Thanks, rjbull. What I really want is one more hotkey, for copying. So if I press the normal set of hotkeys, Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V, it will make a normal Copy&Paste&Forget, but if I copy by pressing the other hotkey, it will Copy&RememberForEver. Maybe they all can do this already, but as I implied, I don't tend to figure out what is not obviously.

-Curt (September 06, 2009, 04:02 PM)

This may not be possible to do reliably. When you press Ctrl+C, it is not the clipboard extender that does the copying - it's always the app you are working with. Windows then notifies the extender that something new has been put on the clipboard, so the extender can grab it. But at that point the extender cannot know what keys you pressed.

In order to achieve what you want, the extender would intercept your "special" keypress, but how would it tell the app you're working with to do a copy now? There are several ways, from posting a WM_COPY message to faking a Ctrl+C keypress, but they aren't 100% reliable. It would work some of the time, maybe most of the time, but sometimes it would fail and cause frustration.

Let me reverse the question: why would you want to bother yourself with having to decide whether you'll need a clip later or not? Why would you want to stop and think about it (even if for a split second) every time you are about to press Ctrl+C? Let the computer worry about that, I say!

The solution for me was to pick a clipboard extender where there is no penalty for storing lots of useless clips. One brain-dead program I absolutely must use for my work (since it's an "industry standard", no less) uses the clipboard for its internal operation. As a result, every sentence I translate ends up on the clipboard and in Ditto's database. Useless, yes, but it's not a problem at all, since Ditto is really fast, the db is not kept in RAM, and it has an instant incremental search which narrows down the selection to the letters I type. So I can bring back the clip I need by typing faster than I would through scrolling and eyeing the list. I just stopped worrying about the crud in the database, since it doesn't cause any problems really.

645

General Software Discussion / Re: Recommend portable macro recorder/player?

« Last post by tranglos on September 04, 2009, 04:43 PM »

I just posted a request for Hot Keyboard Pro on Bits du Jour, but don't hold your breath...

-rjbull (September 04, 2009, 04:05 PM)

The one request I've ever posted to BdJ was granted eventually, though it took 3-4 months. I was pleasantly surprised, since I was asking for a rather specialist programming-related tool (SQLite Maestro).

You never know if the developer will talk back to Bits du Jour when they contact them, but it seems BdJ do follow up on requests.

646

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: ClipMate at $19.95 on BitsduJour today - Sept. 4

« Last post by tranglos on September 04, 2009, 04:25 PM »

Does Ditto use the JET database engine? 

-rjbull (September 04, 2009, 04:03 PM)

No, it uses SQLite, lightweight and fast. I've never encountered a problem with the db. There are free and commercial apps to browse SQLite databases in case it's ever necessary, for example SQLiteSpy.

647

General Software Discussion / Re: Program Whose Time Has Come: virtual folders, collections, file baskets...

« Last post by tranglos on September 04, 2009, 01:43 PM »

Question: how does your product

-40hz (September 04, 2009, 01:22 PM)

Whoa, wait, what product? What I am describing exists only within the confines of this thread, alas! I am too scared to start coding it, because I know I will screw it up the first time

handle changes to the collection after the fact? Does all file manipulation (add, delete, move, rename, set file permissions, etc.) have to be done within your app if you want to preserve the collection; or can you use any tool (including Windows built-in tools) and still have the collection reflect the changes?

-40hz (September 04, 2009, 01:22 PM)

I don't have good answers to some of these questions yet. If you go back to my OP, I mentioned two possible implementations. The better solution is to implement it as an Explorer shell extension. (This is quite hard, and beyond my skill level at the moment.) This means, among other things, that the app could be notified about any changes in the filesystem and would be able to update the database accordingly. So if you renamed a file in your preferred file manager, the renamed file would remain in the collection. Another thing it means is that you would be able to access the collections, though right-click menus, wherever Explorer is available - e.g. file managers.

The other possible solution is to implement it as a stand-alone application. Much easier when you're the one writing it, but the above benefits no longer apply. If you add a file to a collection, then rename it or move it using your file manager, the collection would now point to a missing file. This can be rectified partially, e.g. by monitoring folders for changes, but isn't as clean as the first way.

In general, you would be able to do the basic file manipulation tasks in "my" application, but since the app I'm proposing is not a fully-fledged file manager, the range of operations might be limited, or the UI may not be as convenient as TC or Directory Opus, say.

If you limited yourself to doing all rename/move/copy operations within "my" app, then the problem with missing files would not arise. However, I would not want to require users to only use my app for file manipulation, since it's often inconvenient. In other words, why would you want to give up your favorite file manager? This is one reason I'm not using any of the popular version control systems (svn, tortoise etc.) - once a file is under version control, all operations on it must be done *through* the version control interface, otherwise it will lose track of the file. And it's very hard to remember that I now have to right-click a file and pick some special new command to rename it, instead of renaming files the way I've done for years. I wouldn't dare put "my" users through that!

648

General Software Discussion / Re: Program Whose Time Has Come: virtual folders, collections, file baskets...

« Last post by tranglos on September 04, 2009, 12:28 PM »

Maybe I'm dense, but how is a collection or virtual folder really any different than using a tag to group a disparate collection of items?

If you did a search for all items tagged something like "Collection-01", wouldn't all the program features be available for use on the results of the search?

-40hz (September 04, 2009, 10:19 AM)

Yes, quite. The terms tags, keywords, sections, categories etc. do have a lot in common. But let me quickly suggest a scenario where "tags" (in the most common sense of loose words or phrases associated with items) may not be as good as "collections" in the sense of "folders".

You've added a number of items (files, bookmarks, what-not) to your database and want to group them together. In a typical UI, you would select these items, click a field for entering tags, and type a tag like "travel". Then you hit Enter.

Then you recall that a few weeks ago you already used this tag for another bunch of items. If your intention was to create a completely new grouping, distinct from all groupings that already exist in your db, you have a problem. If you search for the "travel" tag now, you'll get both today's files and the old ones. You can still tell them apart by the date added, but only if the software maintains. At any rate, you now have to undo what you just did, select the files again and pick a new tag, being mindful not to use any tag that already exists.

Compare that to folders on disk: the system won't let you create a folder that already exists, so a mistake like the above is much harder to make (though still not impossible).

The name we use to denote this functionality doesn't really matter; what matters is the implementation. When you think in terms of folders, categories or what I've been calling "collections", the UI scenario is slightly different to using tags. In a typical UI, you would create the collection (category) first, then add stuff to it. This way the software can warn you that a collection by that name already exists, and you can decide whether you want to add to it or come up with a different name.

649

General Software Discussion / Re: What is your preferred font?

« Last post by tranglos on September 04, 2009, 09:33 AM »

Verdana and some Tahoma for the UI.

Verdana for reading text in the Firefox.

Courier New 12pt for email and for any text I'm typing myself. I've tried a number of monospaced replacements of Courier, but none feels as good. The free Courier substitutes are often a little narrower (denser), hence less legible. If I can't type in Courier New for whatever reason, I settle for Arial.

Courier New for printouts as well, but I only fire up the printer a dozen times a year or so.

(Not too original, I suppose, except perhaps for my fondness for monospaced text)

650

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: ClipMate at $19.95 on BitsduJour today - Sept. 4

« Last post by tranglos on September 04, 2009, 09:25 AM »

Having tried all of the above and some others, I've become partial to Ditto myself. For largely formulaic technical translation I find it best, especially due to (a) snappy and clear interface, and (b) the blazing-fast incremental lookup. I also love how it automatically positions itself next to where the caret is, doing its best not to obscure the insertion point in text.

I wish someone would recompile Ditto (C++, open source) to remove the superfluous networking feature and to use a bigger font for the incremental search string display, but besides those, it's perfect.

For anyone still looking at clipboard extenders, ClipMate at BdJ today is a really great deal, of course.