Productivity Suggestion!

[RealRaven]

I am using ExamDiff Pro for years now, mainly to sync my home PC and work laptop and I find I prefer to use it in a single window mode. While this is all fine I often find I want to traverse the folder tree up and down quickly so I am not interested in a directory comparison and want to open the next folder by double clicking it.

Unfortunately ExamDiff Pro does not deal with the "Cancel Comparison" Message / [OK] click event gracefully as it then only displays the compared items. So I can not double click the next folder to go to another... It would be nice if it behaved more like an ftp program (which caches the server contents first) => see cuteftp

What I would like instead:

ExamDiff should stop comparing, but display the contents of both folders (or at least just the sub folders), maybe with a special color / background that indicates these items have not been compared. A resume comparison in this case would also be handy (if the folder contained a lot of big items) so I would not have to click the "two cherries" and start comparing EVERYTHINg again.

What do you guys think?

regards
Axel

[psguru]

It's an interesting idea but it's not likely to be implemented anytime soon. The existing architecture of ExamDiff Pro cannot not be easily adapted to such change. On the other hand, using the "Do not compare subdirectories" mode (along with "For faster comparison" options) is very fast even for large folder structures, so canceling of such operation is rarely needed.

[RealRaven]

Okay thanks for your quick reply (obviously I knew this is hard to implement especially if you were to run comparison in a separate thread so you wouldn't even need the progress Message Box anymore - I am a SW developer myself) . As alternative, might it be possible to spawn a new window when opening a subfolder by pressing an Accelerator key (e.g. CTRL), that would help as I would simply "fork" into a sub folder if I knew I needed to traverse up in the folder tree again. It would be second best but would avoid a lot of Shell integration action. (Usually I would go back to my 2 Explorer Windows and open a new ExamDiff session)

Another thing that might be interesting connected to this (and not too difficult) is a Multi document interface (with tabs?) to avoid the clutter..

[psguru]

As alternative, might it be possible to spawn a new window when opening a subfolder by pressing an Accelerator key (e.g. CTRL), that would help as I would simply "fork" into a sub folder if I knew I needed to traverse up in the folder tree again. It would be second best but would avoid a lot of Shell integration action. (Usually I would go back to my 2 Explorer Windows and open a new ExamDiff session)

This is already possible: see Options | Dir Comparison | Other | "Run new instance when comparing SUBDIRECTORIES".

Another thing that might be interesting connected to this (and not too difficult) is a Multi document interface (with tabs?) to avoid the clutter..

This suggestion is on the wish list, we just didn't get to it yet.

[RealRaven]

As alternative, might it be possible to spawn a new window when opening a subfolder by pressing an Accelerator key (e.g. CTRL), that would help as I would simply "fork" into a sub folder if I knew I needed to traverse up in the folder tree again. It would be second best but would avoid a lot of Shell integration action. (Usually I would go back to my 2 Explorer Windows and open a new ExamDiff session)

This is already possible: see Options | Dir Comparison | Other | "Run new instance when comparing SUBDIRECTORIES".

Hi psguru, I knew that option already (it is enabled by default) but this spawns a new window every time on double clicks a folder, so its obviously leading to even bigger clutter... What I meant was a quick way of controlling (on a dblclick) whether to spawn a new window, CTRL key would be an obvious solution. I usually find I am spawning from an existing session when traversing the folders (up and down) takes to long.

You could also just display the folders first and then compare the other files, would that be a huge change? Multithreading is definitely the savior for this kind of software.

Another thing that might be interesting connected to this (and not too difficult) is a Multi document interface (with tabs?) to avoid the clutter..

This suggestion is on the wish list, we just didn't get to it yet.

All right, that one is a lower priority to me anyway...

Here is another suggestion for the compare to... dialog: could you have a little database that holds "sister folders" compared before (should be on a per folder basis). An LRU is not all that handy if you are using ExamDiff loads (like me), but if I could browse my Windows explorer folders and then right click - compare to... and (in the File2 auto-suggest dropdown) it would suggest the last 3 or 4 folders that I compared this specific one against - this would just be awesome

This history should be gathered as I am traversing folders up and down. It is usually a set of folders that I am comparing against another one, .e.g I am developing a Thunderbird plugin called QuickFolders, which I would have in my mail profile folder, in a test profile folder, a SVN code repository folder, a babelzilla and a Mozdev folder. All of the folder structures underneath would be the same containing chrome, content, locale and then some...

I would usually test in my default TB user or the test folder, and compare these against the source controlled code base folder. If there were new translations from my babelzilla team I would compare the language folders against the one on my mail profile. Likewise with my paid work I would have a DEV folder under the project and then some test copies and VSS controlled folders all with the same folder structures. etc.

I think you guys could seriously learn some pretty nifty enhancements in a usability lab with some ExamDiff power users, there are some very small changes that would bring huge productivity boosts.

[psguru]

Hi psguru, I knew that option already (it is enabled by default) but this spawns a new window every time on double clicks a folder, so its obviously leading to even bigger clutter... What I meant was a quick way of controlling (on a dblclick) whether to spawn a new window, CTRL key would be an obvious solution. I usually find I am spawning from an existing session when traversing the folders (up and down) takes to long.

OK, so how about using the CTRL key to switch to the opposite way: if the options says "New instance", launch in the same one, and vice versa?

Here is another suggestion for the compare to... dialog: could you have a little database that holds "sister folders" compared before (should be on a per folder basis). An LRU is not all that handy if you are using ExamDiff loads (like me), but if I could browse my Windows explorer folders and then right click - compare to... and (in the File2 auto-suggest dropdown) it would suggest the last 3 or 4 folders that I compared this specific one against - this would just be awesome

Let me see if understand: you are talking about the Explorer context menu (ExamDiff Pro Shell extension), right? If so, you appear to suggest that the "Compare To..." command be expanded to have "Compare To" sub-menu with several of items previously compared to the selected item. Is this correct?

[RealRaven]

Hi psguru, I knew that option already (it is enabled by default) but this spawns a new window every time on double clicks a folder, so its obviously leading to even bigger clutter... What I meant was a quick way of controlling (on a dblclick) whether to spawn a new window, CTRL key would be an obvious solution. I usually find I am spawning from an existing session when traversing the folders (up and down) takes to long.

OK, so how about using the CTRL key to switch to the opposite way: if the options says "New instance", launch in the same one, and vice versa?

[/quote]

yes why not? My main usage is to avoid clutter so an extra key asks for the clutter

Here is another suggestion for the compare to... dialog: could you have a little database that holds "sister folders" compared before (should be on a per folder basis). An LRU is not all that handy if you are using ExamDiff loads (like me), but if I could browse my Windows explorer folders and then right click - compare to... and (in the File2 auto-suggest dropdown) it would suggest the last 3 or 4 folders that I compared this specific one against - this would just be awesome

Let me see if understand: you are talking about the Explorer context menu (ExamDiff Pro Shell extension), right? If so, you appear to suggest that the "Compare To..." command be expanded to have "Compare To" sub-menu with several of items previously compared to the selected item. Is this correct?

Nope... that would be adding too much clutter (and more latency for the shell menu), again I am just saying the actual "compare to" dialog that is displayed after you selected the shell menu item (Compare to...). It is also shown when you click on the "Compare new pair..." (apple and peach) button. At the moment this has MRU lists (not LRU, I used the wrong term there) under the File1 and Fil2 text boxes. Which is of limited use to a power user as it just has too many irrelevant items. However if this list was a per file history (remembering I have compared Folder A1 to Folder B1, Folder C1 and Folder D1 - but I have compared Folder A2 to Folder B2 and Folder D2) this would be a great help - traversing the folders is especially difficult if you have to via a UNC path to connect to another machine.

thanks for your detailed analysis
Axel

[psguru]

yes why not? My main usage is to avoid clutter so an extra key asks for the clutter

Unfortunately I spoke too soon. Having a key (Ctrl or Shift or any other for that matter) pressed while clicking on a toolbar button or double-clicking on an item in a comparison pane causes the input focus to stay with the initial instance. This means that when a new instance is launched, it doesn't have the focus and remains behind the launching instance.

At the moment this has MRU lists (not LRU, I used the wrong term there) under the File1 and Fil2 text boxes. Which is of limited use to a power user as it just has too many irrelevant items. However if this list was a per file history (remembering I have compared Folder A1 to Folder B1, Folder C1 and Folder D1 - but I have compared Folder A2 to Folder B2 and Folder D2) this would be a great help - traversing the folders is especially difficult if you have to via a UNC path to connect to another machine.

So you are suggesting that for the second file/directory, instead of showing all items that where compared as "second", EDP would show only the ones that the first item was compared to? I don't know. This is a drastic change, and many users may prefer to see all items they compared there. Perhaps this could be an option added to the Options | Global | "Autopick" section, and be enabled when Autopick is enabled.

[RealRaven]

yes why not? My main usage is to avoid clutter so an extra key asks for the clutter

Unfortunately I spoke too soon. Having a key (Ctrl or Shift or any other for that matter) pressed while clicking on a toolbar button or double-clicking on an item in a comparison pane causes the input focus to stay with the initial instance. This means that when a new instance is launched, it doesn't have the focus and remains behind the launching instance.

Looks like that has to be put on hold until you have the MDI interface / Tabs then it should be no problem to switch to the new compare set.

At the moment this has MRU lists (not LRU, I used the wrong term there) under the File1 and Fil2 text boxes. Which is of limited use to a power user as it just has too many irrelevant items. However if this list was a per file history (remembering I have compared Folder A1 to Folder B1, Folder C1 and Folder D1 - but I have compared Folder A2 to Folder B2 and Folder D2) this would be a great help - traversing the folders is especially difficult if you have to via a UNC path to connect to another machine.

So you are suggesting that for the second file/directory, instead of showing all items that where compared as "second", EDP would show only the ones that the first item was compared to? I don't know. This is a drastic change, and many users may prefer to see all items they compared there. Perhaps this could be an option added to the Options | Global | "Autopick" section, and be enabled when Autopick is enabled.

Yep, that sounds feasible - how does the Autopick algorithm currently work?

When you say "all items", you mean the MRU under File2, but (on my system) that only contains 10 items - can I increase the number of MRU items to, let's say 50? I am afraid that 10 by far not enough for a power user I regularly compare 20 to 30 sets of folders in a given session; it partly helps to discover bugs when I am checking out code from VSS that my colleagues have checked in - but it works the other way as well Folder comparison is also quite cool for comparing database scripts - I am sure you know that yourself... so there is lots of uses for ExamDiff and MRUs seem to be a little under-equipped to deal with my (admittedly greedy) needs.

Especially some development Folders on my system might have 3 to 4 "siblings" that I regularly compare against - and that over weeks, even months.

On another note, I actually think the productivity increase with remembered Folders would be much bigger than with Files. Individual File comparisons (when executed from the SHell menus) are usually done on an ad-hoc basis, so they are usually not repeated over weeks - here the MRU makes more sense as you would probably compare the same set of files only within a session.

Could it also be that UNC paths are not displayed under File2? I could send you a screen shot if you like.

[psguru]

So you are suggesting that for the second file/directory, instead of showing all items that where compared as "second", EDP would show only the ones that the first item was compared to? I don't know. This is a drastic change, and many users may prefer to see all items they compared there. Perhaps this could be an option added to the Options | Global | "Autopick" section, and be enabled when Autopick is enabled.

Yep, that sounds feasible - how does the Autopick algorithm currently work?

Autopick remembers (in the Registry) second items that match first items. It's basically a map (first-second) serialized to the Registry.

When you say "all items", you mean the MRU under File2, but (on my system) that only contains 10 items - can I increase the number of MRU items to, let's say 50? I am afraid that 10 by far not enough for a power user I regularly compare 20 to 30 sets of folders in a given session; it partly helps to discover bugs when I am checking out code from VSS that my colleagues have checked in - but it works the other way as well Folder comparison is also quite cool for comparing database scripts - I am sure you know that yourself... so there is lots of uses for ExamDiff and MRUs seem to be a little under-equipped to deal with my (admittedly greedy) needs.

You can go as high as 1000 items in the MRU.

On another note, I actually think the productivity increase with remembered Folders would be much bigger than with Files. Individual File comparisons (when executed from the SHell menus) are usually done on an ad-hoc basis, so they are usually not repeated over weeks - here the MRU makes more sense as you would probably compare the same set of files only within a session.

If the feature you proposed is implemented, it will apply to both file and directory comparison.

Could it also be that UNC paths are not displayed under File2? I could send you a screen shot if you like.

I regularly compare UNC and I haven't seen such problem (or bug reports describing it).

[RealRaven]

Autopick remembers (in the Registry) second items that match first items. It's basically a map (first-second) serialized to the Registry.

well that sounds suspiciously like the list I was looking for in the dropdown What does the "match" algorithm mean? It has been compared before from the shell command or is it based on file names?

Since the match list is basically a sub set of the MRU I think the option could be labelled as a Filter: [x] "only show items that were compared already in File dropdowns." or, shorted "only display autopick items in File dropdowns." I think such a filter would indeed make a lot of sense.

You can go as high as 1000 items in the MRU.

Where can I configure that? I will try to work with that as a workaround...

I regularly compare UNC and I haven't seen such problem (or bug reports describing it).

This might be just an effect of my shortened MRU - could well be that I have a habit of picking UNC paths in the File1 list and then local ones in the FIle2 (Which means I am pulling newer files from another location to my target machine.)

regards and thanks for your feedback!!
Axel

[psguru]

Autopick remembers (in the Registry) second items that match first items. It's basically a map (first-second) serialized to the Registry.

well that sounds suspiciously like the list I was looking for in the dropdown What does the "match" algorithm mean? It has been compared before from the shell command or is it based on file names?

Not just from the Shell, and it's based on paths.

Since the match list is basically a sub set of the MRU I think the option could be labelled as a Filter: [x] "only show items that were compared already in File dropdowns." or, shorted "only display autopick items in File dropdowns." I think such a filter would indeed make a lot of sense.

I agree.

You can go as high as 1000 items in the MRU.

Where can I configure that? I will try to work with that as a workaround...

Options | Misc | "Number of recent files/directories"