Deal with feature & configuration hell

Features wanted...
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Robbson
Posts: 16
Joined: 28 Feb 2013 10:20
Location: Munich

Deal with feature & configuration hell

Post by Robbson »

Hello,

after being a XYplorer Pro license owner for 15 months I have to admit that I only use it rarely (and home and at work) even though I have nearly all features I want at my finger tips.

I guess one of the reasons is just the overwhelming number of features and configuration parameters. You discover something cool in the online docs (which are much more enjoyable than the image-free offline help pages) and wonder how greatly this could affect your workflow but then you read about another nice feature and then you find another gimmick and oops... you already have forgotten what the first feature was all about. :shock:

In such cases the online docs are not so great because if you don't know exactly the name of the feature, the long feature list in alphabetical order isn't useful at all.
And even if you have an idea where to look for, you still need to click up to 10 links to "what's new" documents of version 7 to 14 to find the right part of the description.

Why not just having an additional task oriented feature list rather than alphabetical order?
For example:
You want to rename a bunch of files? Here are the functions to choose from:
  • Batch Rename with Preview
    Edit Item Names by List
    Exclude Extension on Rename
    Serial Rename by Up/Down Key

Or are you looking for specific files? Have a look on this list:
  • Click and Search™
    Search Folders by Size
    Search Results Caching
    Search Templates
    Find Files
    Find by Content
    Find by Type
    Duplicate File Finder
    Type Ahead Find (Find As You Type)
    Paste and Find
Or you are a Windows freak and want to know about the os integration features:
  • Shell Integration
    Icon Overlays Support
    Support of NTFS junctions
    Support of NTFS symbolic links (Vista and later)
    User Account Control (UAC)
    Unicode-Compliant
    Overlong Filenames Supported
Of course, there are plenty of other tasks you could think of, e.g. picture management, organizing your files, useful features and scripts for developers etc.

I already started to make my own task oriented feature lists next to a small description as a quick reference. But those things could also be part of a public wiki with easy to find user generated content which we unfortunately don't have.

Beside those documentation issues (or rather its organization because the information is there) the software could make features & configuration parameters more accessible, too. I quite often spend a lot of time looking for an option that's hidden somewhere (even when I know it's there). But some of those are only accessible in the configuration window while others are only available in the application menu or are even hidden in a context menu of a button. And it gets really frustrating when one of those buttons is not part of your current toolbar setup...

I often wish to have a global "function/feature/config parameter/environment" search function like e.g. JetBrains IntelliJ IDE offers. You just press a shortcut and typing in part of the name of anything you want and the program makes some suggests already when you are typing. Then after pressing enter the software leads to the place where the option can be set. Right now this is only available in the configuration window (and its own options only) but not elsewhere.

By the way, one of the things which are really annoying is that action log / undo buffers are only triggered by file operations.
The whole program configuration is not undo-able so I often wonder what went wrong all of a sudden, especially when you accidentally enable something using a shortcut. And there is more: Even changes to scripts, custom functions, some filters, etc. are not logged anywhere. So if something went wrong I can't get back to the original.
Alternatively there could be separate lists of the last 10 options that I changed and the last 20 script changes (when leaving a script editor window).


Oh my gosh... how could this post get that long? :mrgreen:

Robbson

j_c_hallgren
XY Blog Master
Posts: 5824
Joined: 02 Jan 2006 19:34
Location: So. Chatham MA/Clearwater FL
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Re: Deal with feature & configuration hell

Post by j_c_hallgren »

Robbson wrote:I already started to make my own task oriented feature lists next to a small description as a quick reference. But those things could also be part of a public wiki with easy to find user generated content which we unfortunately don't have.
You may not know it but we had a wiki for a year or two some time back --but-- it was only updated by a handful of us and got obsoleted SO quickly by updates/changes to XY that we (mainly Don but we agreed) decided to abandon it, ok?

There are likely a lot of features that were created based on input from certain users and those users love their "pet" feature(s) but others may never need them so they go unnoticed...or undiscovered!

I doubt that any two XY users have similar needs/workflows (unless they are in same company) so that makes it even harder to create documentation and the time it takes to create it is often greater than the actual coding time.

Now -- I do like your idea of task oriented suggestions and maybe this thread could provide enough of input to Don to add some pages to official docs using it though I'd not count on it...
Still spending WAY TOO much time here! But it's such a pleasure helping XY be a treasure!
(XP on laptop with touchpad and thus NO mouse!) Using latest beta vers when possible.

bdeshi
Posts: 4249
Joined: 12 Mar 2014 17:27
Location: Asteroid B-612 / Dhaka
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Re: Deal with feature & configuration hell

Post by bdeshi »

My two coins, the help file of XY is very detailed compared to many other apps.
Also I'd be much obliged if Don got around to actually fully documenting all the available features first, not to mention the hidden ones :whistle: I keep discovering hidden (script) options almost everyday!
Icon Names | Onyx | Undocumented Commands | xypcre
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Stef123

Re: Deal with feature & configuration hell

Post by Stef123 »

j_c_hallgren wrote:I doubt that any two XY users have similar needs/workflows (unless they are in same company) so that makes it even harder to create documentation and the time it takes to create it is often greater than the actual coding time.
:appl: I'd rather see programmers do what they do best: programming instead of keeping help files painstakingly shipshape.

Besides, I find XY exceptionally well documented. Way better than other software (comparable in size and complexity). But when all is said and explained, not even the most thought-through guides will spare the user to keep his own notes, to devise a reference system that suits his personal needs, that he can update easily and effortless.

My approach relies on the Wiki-style, the screenshot shows the auto-generated TOC, the whole enchilada continually restructures of course, as I learn and grow.
Attachments
XY_TOC.jpg
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bdeshi
Posts: 4249
Joined: 12 Mar 2014 17:27
Location: Asteroid B-612 / Dhaka
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Re: Deal with feature & configuration hell

Post by bdeshi »

For a simple but mindblowing wiki tool: http://tiddlywiki.com/
It's just a single html file, open it normally in a browser, edit it, save it.
Icon Names | Onyx | Undocumented Commands | xypcre
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Stef123

Re: Deal with feature & configuration hell

Post by Stef123 »

Thanks SammaySarkar,
I've delevoped a Java aversion over the years, bordering on paranoia :x

You're right on track, however, when it comes to Wikis in general. I own a bunch of commercial licenses, but the free ones are catching up quickly, I run into them everywhere.
http://code.google.com/p/wikichucks/
http://zim-wiki.org/
https://www.dokuwiki.org/dokuwiki

Overview and feature comparison: http://www.wikimatrix.org/

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