More Visual Feedback (or responsiveness) when loading a project with many file names

[AlbertEinstein]

I am working on a project right now with 74k+ files and 13k+ folders. When I load the project the CPU usage goes sky high and Windows 10 reports the application as not responding. I closed your application 2 or 3 times thinking it was crashed before I realized that if I waited long enough that it would eventually begin responding again. I'm guessing at least 60 seconds (I counted a second time at about 72 seconds) passed before your application responded again.

 

Can you release control of your application to Windows 10 on a more regular basis "or" provide visual feedback to the user that shows progress is being made and ask for patience? The waiting and not knowing if anything is happening combination is what makes the situation more frustrating than it needs to be, I think.

 

On top the fact that Windows 10 actually shows "Not Responding" in the title of your application also.

Edited March 8, 2018 by AlbertEinstein

[LIGHTNING UK!]

Wow, that's quite some project you're loading there!

 

I assume you're using Advanced input mode for that?

 

The trouble with Advanced input mode is that every single file gets recorded in the IBB file. So that's its original OS path+filename and its path+filename on the disc/image - and lot more processing has to be done, not to mention WINAPI calls to get the file size etc. They could mean the AV kicks in to check the file is ok.... sloooow!

 

If those 74k files and folders were in some sort of directory of their own, you could just add the parent folder in standard input mode and it would probably load that project in a few seconds.

 

Ok so that's just a workaround, but it's a much quicker fix than mine would be.

[AlbertEinstein]

Wow, that's quite some project you're loading there!

 

I assume you're using Advanced input mode for that?

 

The trouble with Advanced input mode is that every single file gets recorded in the IBB file. So that's its original OS path+filename and its path+filename on the disc/image - and lot more processing has to be done, not to mention WINAPI calls to get the file size etc. They could mean the AV kicks in to check the file is ok.... sloooow!

 

If those 74k files and folders were in some sort of directory of their own, you could just add the parent folder in standard input mode and it would probably load that project in a few seconds.

 

Ok so that's just a workaround, but it's a much quicker fix than mine would be.

 

Yep, it's amazing how much data you can collect over the years. I'm a bit of a digital hoarder. That's probably putting it a bit mildly. Lots of images, text files, programming projects from Visual Studio over several years, scanned documents, etc, etc.

 

Yes, I have almost always used the "Advanced" input mode. I switched it to "Standard" just now to see what that even looks like. My first impression was that I've gone blind and have to navigate everywhere now blindly. It just looked scary to me. But, I might play with it a bit and see if I can get used to it.  Okay, I played with it.

 

So, I tried "Standard" input. Not being able to see how much space I have left as I go? Yeah....ummm......no. Hehehehe. That mode looks so very primitive when compared to the "Advanced" input mode. Honestly, I think the modes are named backwards. The advanced mode, to me, seems 10x harder to use. I fill my discs up as full as possible and that requires a lot of adding/removing files to get things just right. If I'm not using at least 99% of the full capacity I'm not happy.

 

The issue with your software isn't such a big deal now that I understand it. But I honestly thought it would be easier than you make it sound. I thought as the programmer you could work on a large task in chunks and then tell Windows, "Okay, I'm done for a bit but I'm going to give control back to you just long enough for you to hand it back to me again".

 

I've also thought about zipping a lot of my smaller files, like images, and programming documents, into single files. The sound the optical drive makes when reading/copying lots of really small files off an optical disc is just horrible. It's like the optical laser is just bouncing around looking for stuff more than it is actually reading data.

 

So, at the end of the day, there's always a solution to the problem. Just an FYI for you if you can come up with anything. Maybe a simple check that looks at how many files are in a users project and throws up a warning dialog before it's starts grinding away?

 

"****WARNING**** Your project contains a ridiculously large amount of files. You've been flagged as a digital hoarder. This software may appear as though it's not responding. So, patience is a virtue!".

Edited March 15, 2018 by AlbertEinstein

[dbminter]

I've been collecting all kinds of things that have been accruing over the past 26 years.  I even still have my FORTRAN projects back when I was taught it in college.  No one uses FORTRAN anymore, even back when I was taught it.  And I haven't touched FORTRAN since 1995, but I've kept all the programs I wrote during college.