Size Bars visual should be improved

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admin
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Re: Size Bars visual should be improved

Post by admin »

It's a logarithmic map. If you have a better idea let me know. :)

eil
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Re: Size Bars visual should be improved

Post by eil »

Just out of curiosity wanna ask: why not simply make a ribbon that represents "0bytes > Largest item in location" or "Smallest item > Largest item", and make this ribbon filled with colour appropriately. Then items with few Mb and those with dozens of Gb surely have visible filled difference. I doubt such idea was not considered, so just would like to hear what was the reason to reject?
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admin
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Re: Size Bars visual should be improved

Post by admin »

Got a mockup?

eil
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Re: Size Bars visual should be improved

Post by eil »

While thinking how to make a mockup, i understood that while formula is easy:
X = size of largest item, has whole ribbon-bar filled
Y = size of some particular item
as ribbon-bar represents 100%, to properly fill the ribbon for any item, its (Y*100)/X (percents of full ribbon)

..but there is no way to have fixed size one colour ribbon-bar, representing visual difference between say 6Gb item and 124Kb one, 'cause the latter will be be basically invisible on bar.

Funny thing: later i imagined an idea how this can be solved, by making multi-layered ribbon which involved colour ranges, so i decided to check prior pages of topic, and suddenly found similar ideas were already proposed(by me included, 4 years ago) - but you said you don't like non-single-colour ideas.
If you changed your mind i can describe further .
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eil
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Re: Size Bars visual should be improved

Post by eil »

Since i any ways spend time for thinking this idea through, i'll leave it here.
So main form is ribbon-bar 10x50px (each 2% of size take 1px) with overlapping size-coloured ribbons. Without thinking a lot i took rainbow as colour palette for size ranges.
rainbow2.png
rainbow2.png (21.23 KiB) Viewed 774 times
While unsorted may look too colourful, the sorted one looks quite clear, depicting increase of size:
2022-12-07_16415122.png
2022-12-07_16415122.png (31.93 KiB) Viewed 774 times
And here is a comparison with use of current single-colour in gradient:
2022-12-07_224749.png
2022-12-07_224749.png (1.84 KiB) Viewed 774 times
2022-12-07_16415123.png
2022-12-07_16415123.png (29.24 KiB) Viewed 774 times
From my point of view, single-colour is less obvious, BUT if Don decides to implement this visual ribbon-bar at all, it can be single-coloured by default, and be tweakable for users.
Folders can same have single-colour version with tweak, OR just have some 1px border for folder's ribbon to stand out compared to files.
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admin
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Re: Size Bars visual should be improved

Post by admin »

I prefer my solution. :)

eil
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Re: Size Bars visual should be improved

Post by eil »

Well, the problem is that current implementation don't really serve its purpose - to let visually, just by glance, see which item is greater in size.
As i understand 4 blocks represent Small KB, Large KB, MB, GB - inside this groups difference is too tiny while differences in size are real big, so it's just misleading to use this representation.
Attachments
2022-12-08_104827.png
2022-12-08_104827.png (14.52 KiB) Viewed 753 times
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admin
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Re: Size Bars visual should be improved

Post by admin »

But that doesn't go any better with your way.

eil
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Re: Size Bars visual should be improved

Post by eil »

Can't agree, my representation solves 2 problems:
- ribbon resembles super-common "loading line", that makes it easier to understand the difference between same range items(like 1,8GB and 13GB) = visually it's easier to "read by glance" a "progress bar", than count how many blocks are filled and guess what's the difference of 2 items by tiny pips in 3rd block(as example shows the real big differences quite not represented);
- colours allow just by mere momentum look understand if item in question is big or small(depending of colour temperature), plus this allows to separate a huge range of possible size values into smaller but distinct groups, while 4 blocks or circles are restricted by their quantity and size, already making visual representation poor(while feature ought to serve exactly visual glance help).

I remember you said even before, you don't like adding another coloured feature, but XY is all about colour differentiation = starting from colouring tree groups and list background dedpending of location, ending with huge power of colour sorting by Visual Filters, which is one of the most powerful XY features!
BTW, XY has just few examples of such filters, but as i'm sure you know, lots of users implement big lists of VF size colour-coding for themselves = not cause XY forced this as a feature, but because it allows that. So if visual size bar would allow some colour customizability, you'd see how people would definitely use that.
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noembryo
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Re: Size Bars visual should be improved

Post by noembryo »

Just a small question about this subject.
I use a custom column to show more color distinct bars, but I like the idea of the different background colors.

I create the bars with this
$size = "<cc_size>";
$min = 3;
switch (true){
case $size == 0: return ''; // draw nothing
case $size < 1024: return '>draw.bar ' . 100 * $size \ 1024 + $min . ', 004400'; //smaller 1KB
case $size < 1048576: return '>draw.bar ' . 100 * $size \ 1048576 + $min . ', 227711'; //smaller 1MB
case $size < 1073741824: return '>draw.bar ' . 100 * $size \ 1073741824 + $min . ', 556600'; //smaller 1GB
case $size < 10737418240: return '>draw.bar ' . 100 * $size \ 10737418240 + $min . ', AA4400'; //smaller 10GB
case $size < 107374182400: return '>draw.bar ' . 100 * $size \ 107374182400 + $min . ', 881111'; //smaller 100GB
default: return '>draw.bar ' . 100 * $size \ 1099511627776 + $min . ', FF0000'; //from 100GB to 1TB
}


and the output is like this
bars.png
bars.png (4.53 KiB) Viewed 725 times
which is difficult to differentiate in very small bars.

Is it possible to change the script in a way that I could paint the background of each size group with a different color?
If it is, then @eil suggestion is done :party:
Check my free programs here..

admin
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Re: Size Bars visual should be improved

Post by admin »

eil wrote: 08 Dec 2022 08:38 Well, the problem is that current implementation don't really serve its purpose - to let visually, just by glance, see which item is greater in size.
As i understand 4 blocks represent Small KB, Large KB, MB, GB - inside this groups difference is too tiny while differences in size are real big, so it's just misleading to use this representation.
That screenshot gave me an idea: It will feel more natural if it's done flipped, in the direction we know from Arabic numbers:
Attachments
2022-12-08_104827 copy.png
2022-12-08_104827 copy.png (24.78 KiB) Viewed 716 times

MindReader
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Re: Size Bars visual should be improved

Post by MindReader »

Hello everyone,

I am not using this feature.
But I still wanted to talk about my opinion on this subject.
Also, I've been pretty busy lately, so I haven't been able to read through the whole thread, I just skimmed the charts.
Sorry if I repeated the same idea.

I think that the graph to be added should not be complicated since the numeric quantities can already be displayed.

I think using too many colors in the same bar also creates confusion.
However, if we use only one color, the graph cannot give us enough information instantly.
So, I think using colors for units such as KB, MB and GB rather than using them for numerical sizes will help us to have an immediate knowledge of the size.

The pictures I added will best explain the use of colors.
Because as I mentioned before, I use "Google Translate" because my English is not good.

There is something I would like to explain regarding the pictures I sent.
In the pictures, I showed the sticks as 10 pieces, but that was just for clarification.

In summary;
Display of sticks as one piece.
Transfer of the size measure to the graphic in linear proportion.
As in the pictures; Using different colors for KB, MB and GB units.
This way we don't need to represent the file size logarithmically.
So, the comparison of two sizes in the same unit with each other can also be perceived visually.

I created 2 separate templates.
One is very simple.
The other is a little more detailed.
Size Bars (Detailed).jpg
Size Bars (Detailed).jpg (556.73 KiB) Viewed 695 times
Size Bars [Simple].jpg
Size Bars [Simple].jpg (142.01 KiB) Viewed 695 times
I hope you like one of them and find it worthy to apply.

Thank you for your interest.

eil
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Joined: 13 Jan 2011 19:44

Re: Size Bars visual should be improved

Post by eil »

noembryo wrote: 08 Dec 2022 13:33 I use a custom column to show more color distinct bars, but I like the idea of the different background colors.
Thank you for sharing the code, pretty interesting.! What's the impact on speed in say root of drive with this custom column active?

Indeed a way to draw background would be useful, hope Don considers some way.
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noembryo
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Re: Size Bars visual should be improved

Post by noembryo »

eil wrote: 08 Dec 2022 23:45 Thank you for sharing the code, pretty interesting.! What's the impact on speed in say root of drive with this custom column active?
Nothing that I can notice..
Check my free programs here..

jupe
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Re: Size Bars visual should be improved

Post by jupe »

noembryo wrote: 08 Dec 2022 13:33 Is it possible to change the script in a way that I could paint the background of each size group with a different color?
You seem to be using the modified version of the script from the bottom of this page:

viewtopic.php?p=155469#p155469

If instead you look at the version I posted, you'd see it has 2 hex colors listed, per size group, ie. foreground background, which would look as such:

2022-12-09_104348.png
2022-12-09_104348.png (1000 Bytes) Viewed 665 times

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