Missleading file size for small files

pankov · Post by *pankov » 2012-12-01, 12:08 UTC

I'm a new user of Total Commander and I'm coming from the standard Windows Explorer and I was trying to make this transition not so hard so I've created a custom columns view and I want to display the size in KB.
I've found the appropriate option but there are two problems with it (one major and one minor):
1. if the file size is less than 500B it will be displayed as 0KB and this is very dangerous because often users can delete such files thinking that they are empty. In Windows Explorer if file is not empty (zero (0) bytes) it's shown as 1KB and the "rounding" starts from there. This issue can be considered a feature request but I thought that it's severe enough to pass as a bug.
(the same is valid for the standard folder view if it's configured to not show the size in bytes - Configuration->Options->Tabstops->Size display)
2. there is no way to show the " KB" symbols after the actual size. I've tried adding it as a text after the "[=tc.size.kbytes]" variable and it works great for files but sadly all folders now have "<DIR> KB" for size which looks ugly. I think that TC should only add the "KB" if there is an actual size displayed in this column

MVV · Post by *MVV » 2012-12-01, 13:27 UTC

Have you tried dynamic size fields? They show bytes for small files, KBs for medium-size ones, MBs for relatively large files etc.

pankov · Post by *pankov » 2012-12-01, 15:18 UTC

No, I haven't tried them because I want a fixed dimension size - so I can spot huge files with a single glimpse instead of having to read each size carefully to see if it's K/M/G bytes

Balderstrom · Post by *Balderstrom » 2012-12-03, 00:55 UTC

It would be nice for something like that to show the Disk sector size
so if you are using the 'normal' KB size display, then it would show up as:

Example.txt | < 4k | 2012-10-22

MVV · Post by *MVV » 2012-12-03, 05:43 UTC

It may be easilly done with WDX plugins:) but I don't using such one, maybe there are some.

Hm, unfortunately I don't know how to show folder sizes with such field... TC even doesn't calc dir sizes on Space if Size column is not shown.

pankov · Post by *pankov » 2012-12-12, 12:28 UTC

Guys, is there any other way to get the attention of the developers?
What are the best practices in such cases?

Post by *ghisler(Author) » 2012-12-13, 15:26 UTC

I'm reading all posts here, but this doesn't mean that I agree with all reports. TC is doing correct rounding in this case.

Balderstrom · Post by *Balderstrom » 2012-12-13, 18:32 UTC

It still would be nice if when calculating DIR sizes if there are files or folders within a given Directory that it displays at least 0 instead of remaining at <DIR>

I have a folder that has 100 0byte files, and when calculating DIR sizes, <DIR> doesn't change at all.

When I add folders - again <DIR> doesn't change.

Which implies that the folder is empty.

Whereas if it was changed to at least 0, we would know there are either
1) Empty Folders in the Directory, 2) 1 or more 0 byte files.

And if it remained as <DIR> :
--> Folder is completely empty.

pankov · Post by *pankov » 2012-12-13, 22:51 UTC

ghisler(Author) wrote:I'm reading all posts here, but this doesn't mean that I agree with all reports. TC is doing correct rounding in this case.

Thanks for you answer.
I do agree that the "rounding" is correct but I think it's very misleading and it will be great if there is an option to show non zero size for very small files.
This way it'll be up to the user to decide what is correct.
Is this something you'll consider adding in future builds?

As an alternative how about showing "<1" or "~0" instead of just "0"?

And what about my second request/question? (the one about the "KB" symbols)