Why remove Percent Free?

[TheQwerty]

Code: Select all

v14.80.0005 - 2015-01-07 20:53
    * List | Drives: Changed column "Free %" to "Percent Full", i.e. to the 
      inverse value. Listing Percent Full is more intuitive and more standard 
      and also fits better to the used disk space color bars shown in Tiles 
      views.

http://www.xyplorer.com/xyfc/viewtopic. ... 31#p116431

Why change the column instead of just adding a new column for 'Full %' or adding a new column and renaming the old to use 'Precent Free/Full'?

Removing the column entirely also breaks any scripts that were using it in report since they now return '{Free %}' literally.

More curious than anything else.

[admin]

Well, I gave the explanation in the change log.

[TheQwerty]

You gave an explanation of why you added Percent Full.
That doesn't explain why you also removed Percent Free.

Why deny the user the ability to choose which column they want shown?

[admin]

Hmm, not a bad point...

[Enternal]

Yeah I think it's a valid point. On my computer, hard drive is abundant so usually I like to know how full it is rather than how much space I have left. On the other hand, flash drives have little space so how much space left is more important. Funny how these things can be so important even though they're just the inverse value of each other and it's not hard to calculate yourself.

[Stef123]

Also

Funny how these things can be so important even though they're just the inverse value of each other and it's not hard to calculate yourself.

Same here. My drives are choke full and the free-value served as a warning indicator no not let it slip underneath certain cut-off benchmarks.

Sure, I can look out for high values instead of low ones, and either do the math every time (83 = 17, 87 = 13, etc) or condition myself to high numbers instead of low ones. But to my way of thinking, it's more reassuring to see whether I still got plenty of free space or whether I am close to running out of space.

Like the fuel gauge in a car: Still good to cover my intended mileage?
XY's new handling reverses the meaning of high values - now they're a bad indicator instead of a good one. Granted, it's a matter of habit, but I prefer the old way: Free % sounds better than Used.

[TheQwerty]

Funny how these things can be so important even though they're just the inverse value of each other and it's not hard to calculate yourself.

...
XY's new handling reverses the meaning of high values - now they're a bad indicator instead of a good one.

This difference is part of what prompted the question.

Many users won't read the change log or notice column name changed so they may never realize that the column values have new meaning. Which could be slightly disruptive. That was flag 1.

Flag 2: The '{Free %}' template no longer works within report. If any scripts are using that they may be broken now.

Flag 3: I see no technical reason that 'Percent Full' couldn't be added as a separate new column instead.


Thus, I felt the disruptions to the user could have been limited almost entirely to cosmetic changes:
1) The name, and name only, changing from 'Free %' to 'Percent Free'.
2) The report SC having '{Percent Free}'/'{Percent Full}' added and '{Free %}' made an alternative for backwards compatibility/deprecated.
3) A new column option in the column menu/dialog.
4) The default configuration using 'Percent Full' instead of 'Percent Free'.
Which led me to post the question.


But now shouldn't status bar three be using percent full instead?

Further why is the info panel so blah for drives? Meta is the only tab with anything and it's so sparse!
Wouldn't a pretty pie chart be nice? Or maybe some details about the hardware - like temperature or SMART data?
Just the makecoffee image would be better than that sea of grey.

Good news for Don is we have no shortage of ideas around here.

[j_c_hallgren]

You gave an explanation of why you added Percent Full.
That doesn't explain why you also removed Percent Free.

Why deny the user the ability to choose which column they want shown?

Fully agree! I've been looking at FREE for many many years (actually decades as on mainfames back then, we also looked for free space) and that's the only thing I care about -- is there enough room left to add more files?

[admin]

It's back. Now you have both columns.

[Filehero]

A successful DOS attack.

Great to have a boss with such a mindset.

[admin]

A successful DOS attack.

Well, I decided to add it right after http://www.xyplorer.com/xyfc/viewtopic. ... 44#p116444, so it took only TheQwerty this time...

[PeterH]

A successful DOS attack.

Well, I decided to add it right after http://www.xyplorer.com/xyfc/viewtopic. ... 44#p116444, so it took only TheQwerty this time...

No (at least) 2 fools rule?
Or did you include yourself in the count this time?

(No wine here )

[TheQwerty]

No (at least) 2 fools rule?
Or did you include yourself in the count this time?

Maybe I'm just a big enough fool to count as two?

[j_c_hallgren]

No (at least) 2 fools rule?
Or did you include yourself in the count this time?

Maybe I'm just a big enough fool to count as two?

Well, I'm almost TALL enough to count as two! I'm 6'-9" or almost 206cm...

[PeterH]

OK: for my next wish, wenn Don doesn't like it, I'll ask you both to help me