TC11.00beta7 issue with SyncDirs

[Dalai]

2petermad
Oops, you're right. Thanks for spotting this! That's what happens when multi-tasking or rather trying to...

[georgeb]

Why do you think there's no corresponding information in the list above the status bar? It's just that there is no 1:1 relation as I explained several times now. Maybe it's best if you ignore the information in the status bar altogether unless you really need it. Usually I don't look at these numbers because what matters is what TC is going to do with the files, i.e. which direction they're going to be copied or deleted. And for that the buttons above the list are much more important and useful.

Because only recently I've done precisely such a SyncDirs-process on a clean-install-TC-instance for testing purposes - as already mentioned in my introductory post within this thread. Because of the "virgin" 'wincmd.ini' used in there my otherwise pre-set-by-default options "by content" and "ignore date" were gone and probably I had only re-ticked the "by content"-box manually then.

Being unfamiliar to the scenario about to unfold now I suddenly got a result of 5 "unique" as well as 32 "different" files, all 37 of them lumped together in only one single pseudo-"category" and unanimously represented by green font-color-font. I can guarantee that as a reproducible result no red font was present at all in this scenario and the top-red-button for supposedly de-/selecting the 32 different files found did absolutely nothing! Instead the top-green-button de-/selected all 37 files together in spite of the fact that only 5 truly unique files were present and the critical information needed that 32 files thereof did in fact belong to the category "different" had been lacking altogether. I was (wrongly) convinced then this had to be a bug!

If you need to see unique files, deselect "doubles" and TC will show only files that exist on both sides, i.e. are different by your definition - simple as that.

Actually it usually is the other way around. There is no urgent need to see the "unique"-files but rather the "different" files so that I can visually re-inspect/compare them as to finally decide if the pre-selected copying-direction by TC should remain or if it rather should be overridden manually.

So users would have to look for small green or blue indicators in a sea of red text. Doesn't sound easy or a smart design to me.

Doesn't bother me at all as long as I have all the critical information needed. Also I'd have no objections against making those arrow-symbols more prominent and increasing their visibility if desired.

[ghisler(Author)]

Is there actually any bug report in this thread, or is it all just a misunderstanding of the functions?

[Dalai]

Being unfamiliar to the scenario about to unfold now I suddenly got a result of 5 "unique" as well as 32 "different" files, all 37 of them lumped together in only one single pseudo-"category" and unanimously represented by green font-color-font.

Well, as you now know, the colors don't represent the categories. And I suggest to take a look at the terms used on the buttons and in the status bar. The red button says "Unequal", the status bar says "Different". Sure, both terms can be used synonymously, but that's not the case here. And the green/blue buttons don't say "Unique" or anything remotely related - both clearly say "Files to copy from left to right" and "right to left" respectively.

Doesn't bother me at all as long as I have all the critical information needed.

The critical information is already visible at first glance: the direction in which files are going to be copied, marked by font/text color, and arrow color if the user changes the direction preselected by TC.

Also I'd have no objections against making those arrow-symbols more prominent and increasing their visibility if desired.

Well, if those are made larger, the line height is probably increased with it. Which means fewer lines on the screen.

One final note. I believe I now know where your thinking comes from: If "ignore date" and "by contents" are both selected, the green and blue colors are identical to "unique left" and "unique right" respectively because TC preselects the sync direction only for unique files in this case. As can be concluded from the discussion, this doesn't apply if files are not compared by content.

Is there actually any bug report in this thread, or is it all just a misunderstanding of the functions?

There is no bug, just a discussion on different design concepts, and in the beginning probably a misunderstanding of said concepts.

Regards
Dalai

[georgeb]

Is there actually any bug report in this thread, or is it all just a misunderstanding of the functions?

Unfortunately I've stumbled upon some unfamiliar behavior of SyncDirs which I initially thought could only be due to a bug.

I have to apologize. It has turned out that it has been my misunderstanding of the functionality as currently implemented. Although I have to admit that I still deem the current representation of different files in green-font-color (when "ignore date" is NOT selected and the left different file has a newer date) to be unfortunate and in fact quite misleading. But it is intentional (mis-)behavior and not a bug.

As I've tried to explain here multiple times the pre-selected direction for copying could be sufficiently represented by the colored-arrow-symbols alone whereas the font-color should better correspond to the 4 basic categories (unique left/right, equal or different, as given by the summary in the bottom status-bar) in a manner that each top-selection-button would always de-/re-select the files belonging to the respective category.

In other words different files (with older/newer or binary different counterparts on the other side) should never appear in green-font-color but always in "red" (corresponding to the category "different"), even if the file-date isn't ignored and they might be newer and therefore SyncDirs would pre-select them for copying from left to right (again sufficiently expressed by the green arrow-symbol alone).

[georgeb]

Well, as you now know, the colors don't represent the categories. And I suggest to take a look at the terms used on the buttons and in the status bar. The red button says "Unequal", the status bar says "Different". Sure, both terms can be used synonymously, but that's not the case here. And the green/blue buttons don't say "Unique" or anything remotely related - both clearly say "Files to copy from left to right" and "right to left" respectively.

Understood

The critical information is already visible at first glance: the direction in which files are going to be copied, marked by font/text color, and arrow color if the user changes the direction preselected by TC.

Well, not for me! As already mentioned for me the true nature of files is more important and critical to know than the mere pre-selected direction for copying. As with only seeing the latter I'd still be in the dark about which files I'd want to visually re-inspect because a different (in this case hidden) version thereof does exist on the other side.

One final note. I believe I now know where your thinking comes from: If "ignore date" and "by contents" are both selected, the green and blue colors are identical to "unique left" and "unique right" respectively because TC preselects the sync direction only for unique files in this case. As can be concluded from the discussion, this doesn't apply if files are not compared by content.

Well observed. This is indeed the case! But as I've tried to explain with my modified concept it could always apply and both kinds of information could be expressed at the same time.

[Hacker]

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Moved to the English forum.