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Backup Progress Dialog looking Good! But...
Posted: 31 May 2011 12:21
by phatmankerr
Really liking the new backup progress dialog (it looks extremely professional - as does XY Generally by the way), but it does look slightly strange on my system as the dialog box is relatively wide but the progress bar is relatively small?
I may be going old school here, but generally in most programs the progress bar extends to fit the width of the dialog (which looks correct to me - but maybe just what I am used to?)
May just be me who thinks it looks a little strange as it is
Assume this is the precursor to XYCopy 2?
Cheers
Andy
Re: Backup Progress Dialog looking Good! But...
Posted: 31 May 2011 12:25
by admin
phatmankerr wrote:Really liking the new backup progress dialog (it looks extremely professional - as does XY Generally by the way), but it does look slightly strange on my system as the dialog box is relatively wide but the progress bar is relatively small?
I may be going old school here, but generally in most programs the progress bar extends to fit the width of the dialog (which looks correct to me - but maybe just what I am used to?)
May just be me who thinks it looks a little strange as it is
Assume this is the precursor to XYCopy 2?
Yes, it's not that far anymore till XYCopy 2. Backup is my test- and playground.
Conc. the progress bar, I followed these recommendations (zer0 finally got me

):
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa511486.aspx
I think it makes sense to have it smaller. No information is won by making it bigger, and bigger draws (a tiny bit) slower, of course.

Re: Backup Progress Dialog looking Good! But...
Posted: 31 May 2011 12:58
by phatmankerr
You live and learn - I never knew MS had public documents explaining in detail how Windows Progress Bars should work
Happy to accept that a smaller bar will run quicker (prefer speed over aesthetics 95% of the time).
But I note that ALL the examples on the MSDN Site extend to the full length of the dialog box (unless they have a button at the end of the bar - but that also looks normal to me)
You are the boss so will happily accept the mini progress bars (you never know I may actually grow to like it?).
Re: Backup Progress Dialog looking Good! But...
Posted: 31 May 2011 15:26
by admin
phatmankerr wrote:You live and learn - I never knew MS had public documents explaining in detail how Windows Progress Bars should work
Happy to accept that a smaller bar will run quicker (prefer speed over aesthetics 95% of the time).
But I note that ALL the examples on the MSDN Site extend to the full length of the dialog box (unless they have a button at the end of the bar - but that also looks normal to me)
You are the boss so will happily accept the mini progress bars (you never know I may actually grow to like it?).
I found it funny first but actually have grown to like it (I'm looking at it since 4 days now). Now I find it cool and understated, while the wide bulky bars of other apps appear clumsy to me.
Re: Backup Progress Dialog looking Good! But...
Posted: 31 May 2011 20:26
by eil
new backup dialog is really a good thing

same as
phatmankerr wondering how xycopy2 will look like.
i'm quite fine with such progress bar, but maybe than dialog window should be a bit reduced in width?..(few experiments below to express idea)
Re: Backup Progress Dialog looking Good! But...
Posted: 31 May 2011 20:33
by admin
Well, target paths wider than "G:\Chaos Head\" are imaginable...
phatmankerr wrote:But I note that ALL the examples on the MSDN Site extend to the full length of the dialog box...
Yes, true. I'll play with a longer bar and see how it comes out...
Re: Backup Progress Dialog looking Good! But...
Posted: 31 May 2011 20:38
by eil
admin wrote:Well, target paths wider than "G:\Chaos Head\" are imaginable...
oh, right.. forgot that and kinda overplayed with second

Re: Backup Progress Dialog looking Good! But...
Posted: 01 Jun 2011 13:09
by phatmankerr
Don,
Looking MUCH better in the latest beta - thanks for that
Just one final aesthetic consideration - as per eil - the dialog seems to take up more space than it needs to - I realize the width is probably to allow for long file names but the vertical spacing between the elements seems a little generous as well?
I will shut up at this point before you ban me from the forums...
Cheers
Andy
Re: Backup Progress Dialog looking Good! But...
Posted: 03 Jun 2011 20:01
by grindax
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Re: Backup Progress Dialog looking Good! But...
Posted: 04 Jun 2011 09:25
by admin
grindax wrote:Also, shouldn't the Reports button have a little drop-down arrow on it?
Yes, but support for this would make XYcopy.exe larger. I want to keep it small.
Re: Backup Progress Dialog looking Good! But...
Posted: 06 Jun 2011 14:39
by graham
I also like the new Backup - now looks very refined.
Re: Backup Progress Dialog looking Good! But...
Posted: 16 Sep 2012 17:45
by raananb
I have stayed behind on XYPlorer (version

and just updated to 11.50.
Backup is one of the functions of XYPlorer I appreciate most. The new presentation has - for me - two drawbacks:
The window displays a lot of activity while actually XY only tests whether it should send anything. Actually some of the information is misleading: the program reports "copying...", (above the progression line) while at the end the report says : Files processed: 88 Total, 0 new, 0 over, 88 skip - which is correct, since I tried successive backups of the same folder without changes. Altogether, I think that the progression bar should represent actual sending of data, not the exploratory step, which would probably be better off with an hourglass.
I also much prefer the 3-line report of the old version (new, over, skip), which was easier to read.
Re: Backup Progress Dialog looking Good! But...
Posted: 17 Sep 2012 09:13
by admin
raananb wrote:I have stayed behind on XYPlorer (version

and just updated to 11.50.
Backup is one of the functions of XYPlorer I appreciate most. The new presentation has - for me - two drawbacks:
The window displays a lot of activity while actually XY only tests whether it should send anything. Actually some of the information is misleading: the program reports "copying...", (above the progression line) while at the end the report says : Files processed: 88 Total, 0 new, 0 over, 88 skip - which is correct, since I tried successive backups of the same folder without changes. Altogether, I think that the progression bar should represent actual sending of data, not the exploratory step, which would probably be better off with an hourglass.
I also much prefer the 3-line report of the old version (new, over, skip), which was easier to read.
Well, I think "copying" is okay, since the user opted for copying. I could say "processing" instead but this would raise more eyebrows I think.
Re: Backup Progress Dialog looking Good! But...
Posted: 17 Sep 2012 10:17
by raananb
Actually XY is checking each file, and copies if necessary, so 'Checking' & 'Copying' could be displayed depending on what is really done.
As I mentioned, the final report is not as clear as it was - the current one contains a lot of data and must be explicitly read, while with the older report it was enough to have a look at the results. Also, for non-technical use, the rate of transfer, the time it took and the number of bytes transferred are not really useful when recurring backups are executed, and where only the number of files backed up is important.
I would gladly use an option "Summary only" as opposed to full details, with one line per category: copied, overwritten, skipped, failed.
Re: Backup Progress Dialog looking Good! But...
Posted: 17 Sep 2012 10:43
by admin
raananb wrote:Actually XY is checking each file, and copies if necessary, so 'Checking' & 'Copying' could be displayed depending on what is really done.
As I mentioned, the final report is not as clear as it was - the current one contains a lot of data and must be explicitly read, while with the older report it was enough to have a look at the results. Also, for non-technical use, the rate of transfer, the time it took and the number of bytes transferred are not really useful when recurring backups are executed, and where only the number of files backed up is important.
I would gladly use an option "Summary only" as opposed to full details, with one line per category: copied, overwritten, skipped, failed.
You get that info in the status bar.