Comments for the Build 452 changelog

[chrroe]

Hi!

Here are my comments for the Build 452 changelog:

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15-April-2008 Build 452 release
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- Notable Changes
- Trial mode and registration key support added.

Now a nag-screen appears during startup once a day displaying the remaining days? Hmmpf, a little bit annoying (especially for first-time-beta-testers) ...


- File Formats
- Reduced built-in file format list and added a link to download new ones
from the website.

Gnaaagnnnaaa ... :(
Bash scripts, Microsoft Excel worksheets and Open Office documents are used quite often on my PC, Cobol, Delphi and Visual Basic almost never.
I don't know the backgrund for this decision, but why excluding those features by default?? This was IMHO a step backward, it hides the power of BC3 to new users.

- Folder Compare
- Fixed Start/Cancel buttons not showing in Unix Attributes dialog.

Thanks ;-)

- Linux
- Added help in HTML format.

Looks great!
BTW: No problems installing the build 452 *.rpm on openSuSE 10.3

- Misc
- Changed shell extension icons.

Hmmpfff, it's always a matter of taste, but I don't like the new ones.
My favourites were the Cirrus icons with a little bit of green in the whirl.

That's all for now, I'm looking forward to the upcoming builds ...

Bye
Christoph

[Craig]

Hi Christoph,

Now a nag-screen appears during startup once a day displaying the remaining days?

I hope you're not suggesting we should just not beta test the trial mode support until we send out the final release... :p It will be possible to get real registration keys soon, and if it really bothers someone we can work something out earlier than that. It is just once a day too, and doesn't show up the first day, so hopefully new testers won't be too put off by it.

Bash scripts, Microsoft Excel worksheets and Open Office documents are used quite often on my PC, Cobol, Delphi and Visual Basic almost never.

We want to keep the file format list from being too overwhelming, so we took out some that we considered less universal. We are looking into ways to make the default list for Linux and Windows different, in which case the Linux build would re-gain Bash and (probably) Open Office and would remove the Batch Files and Registry Dump ones.

As for the "Microsoft Excel" one, we had two in previously, one associated with the data comparison and one with the text comparison, so we just removed the text comparison one to promote the data viewer.

Hmmpfff, it's always a matter of taste, but I don't like the new [shell extension icons].

If you have any icon ideas of your own you're welcome to send them in. ;) Personally I liked BC2's the best, but Tim's trying to avoid making them look to similar to avoid confusion if both versions are installed. I think the "green" you're referring to was actually the '3' we had overlayed on the BC2 arrows.

[Tom]

I like the new icon, except that it's much darker than the BC2 one. Maybe it's just my monitor, but I think it'd look better with just a hair more "gamma".

BTW, Synchronize to (left/right) is still coming, right? The new official name and registration/trial dialog implies to me that it's about to become a release candidate. Am I being a bit premature? :)

[Craig]

Aside from some possible interface tweaks the synchronize commands are done. The full directory syncs is in as the sync session, and synchronizing a selection is included as Mirror/Update Left/Right. They're in the Actions->Synchronize submenu by default, and can be added to the toolbars using the Tools->Configure Commands (or something similar) menu option.

We're aiming for a July release. We just wanted to get the official name change and the registration code in before we released to the public.

[Michael Bulgrien]

If you have any icon ideas of your own you're welcome to send them in. ;)

My contribution...

[mgillespie]

The nag screen is annoying. I have gone from registered BC2 (which I uninstalled, as Cirrus was doing everything BC2 and, and plenty more) and nagfree Cirrus to a naggy BC3.

I appreciate that it's all part of beta testing, but I also think it's annoyance. I would have appreciated being warned about it, as I may have reconsidered moving from a dual Cirrus/BC2 setup to sole BC3 beta.

As a suggestion, how about allowing BC2 registration keys during the beta phase? Then simply change the key at a late stage.

Would that not solve this one? or give us BC3 keys :-)

[Michael Bulgrien]

My contribution...

By the way, I do like the icons that Tim used in build 452. :)

I just thought I would submit an idea that uses a slightly raised look (using highlights on the upper-left edges, and shading on the lower-right edges of the arrows). :rolleyes: But I think I still like Tim's better. :D

[Michael Bulgrien]

hopefully new testers won't be too put off by it.

I certainly don't consider a once-a-day dialog to be a nag screen. A reminder, perhaps, but not a nag. True nags come up every time you run a program...the really bad ones interrupt program functionality by nagging you multiple times in the middle of your work! I think BC3 trial mode reminder is reasonable for the beta.

I don't know what triggers the trial reminder...but I would suggest that it only display the first time (daily) that BC3 is not launched via command line parameters. In other words, the only time I would be annoyed by such a reminder is if it interfered with an integrated version control operation.

[Michael Bulgrien]

One idea is to display the reminder with ever-increasing frequency:

First reminder: 7 days after installation
2nd reminder: 6 days later
3rd reminder: 5 days later
4th reminder: 4 days later
5th reminder: 3 days later
6th reminder: 2 days later
Subsequent reminders: once daily.

This would mean that the daily trial-mode reminders do not begin until the trial installation is 28-days old.

[ron]

re: the nag, welcome to Beta testing. That means testing everything. Once a day is not that big a hassle.

I like Michaels idea, I've encountered something similar before. Sort of gives you a free run for a while then the reminders kick in.

[Tom]

Aside from some possible interface tweaks the synchronize commands are done.

Thanks! I'll try 'em out.


One idea is to display the reminder with ever-increasing frequency:

I definitely agree with a gradual increase and an initial "quiet time" (at least after the first notice following installation). While not putting people off by any perception of nagging, it also gives folks a chance to gradually become dependent on the program before they're faced with having to give it up if they don't register it. ;)

[chrroe]

If you have any icon ideas of your own you're welcome to send them in. ;) Personally I liked BC2's the best, but Tim's trying to avoid making them look to similar to avoid confusion if both versions are installed. I think the "green" you're referring to was actually the '3' we had overlayed on the BC2 arrows.

Yes, you are right. Today I used the windows built-in screen-magnifier to examine the old Cirrus icons and the new ones from build 452. Before that I hadn't realized that it was a "3" over the old BC2 icons.

Well the new ones seem in my opinion too flat, there is no plasticity. Since I'm no graphic designer I can't contribute any artwork directly, but googling for "mini icons" brought me to some interesting websites, which could serve as a source of inspiration:

http://www.famfamfam.com/lab/icons/

http://tango.freedesktop.org/Tango_Desktop_Project

At least I would like to see the style elements of a colour-gradient and some kind of drop-shadow.

In the end I must confess that this is an absolutely low-priority-nice-to-have issue which might be solved one day before public release of BC3. But from my experience the artwork of an application's GUI influences me personally whether or not taking a deeper look in an unknown programm.
All the other icons in the BC3 GUI look well, IMHO.

Bye
Christoph

[Tom]

Aside from some possible interface tweaks the synchronize commands are done.

Found 'em -- thanks. Is there a way to change the toolbar icon order?

Also, the button description (just under the list) runs off the end of the dialog.

[Craig]

We'll fix the descriptions soon. There isn't a way to rearrange the toolbar right now, sorry.

[Tom]

Thanks, Craig -- no rush for either. Just checking.

[Tim]

In today's release, we've added a "Don't show again" checkbox to the nag screen. The option also appears in the Tweak dialog (Ctrl+Shift+T). So if the nag screen bothers you, you can shut it off for now. The trial period will still be counting down but there should be plenty of days left to get everyone through May. You can check "days remaining" in the About dialog. (Be aware that there is an additional 15 day grace period after the original 45 days are gone.)

We'll probably keep the "no nag" option in through May and then remove it.

I also can provide license keys were necessary, although we're not set up for volume yet. You can email requests to support@scootersoftware.com

[Tim]

One idea is to display the reminder with ever-increasing frequency

We actually did this early in the BC2 lifecycle. Perhaps we'll bring it back someday. We did have some trouble with people assuming they had registered when the nag didn't appear, then complaining later that "it must have lost my registration".

[Tom]

In today's release, we've added a "Don't show again" checkbox to the nag screen.

Nice! Hey, this isn't worthy of a full bug report, so I'll just add it here in the "old build" thread as a postscript. I let BC3 auto-update and then quit it right after it loaded the new version. I got an "asterisk" sound when it quit, and it's highly unlikely that any other program produced it. It didn't recur on the next start/quit cycle.

I'm wondering if it wasn't completely finished with part of the update procedure when I quit it the first time, I dunno -- or maybe it was just the updater signaling that it was done -- but either way, there was no dialog and no entry in the Event Viewer. (No sign of any install log in various temp dirs either.) Just trying to be thorough. :)

[ron]

I got the ding too. It's the install complete dialog. If you were too quick on the keyboard you may have inadvertently dismissed it. Due to (I'm guessing) post processing after the install, the dialog was a bit slow to appear...on my machine.

[Tom]

I got the ding too. It's the install complete dialog. If you were too quick on the keyboard you may have inadvertently dismissed it.

Aha. No, I don't think I did anything with the keyboard -- I hit the close box for the BC3 window and that's it. Maybe that part of the install script will have to be tweaked to offer sufficient delay if the dialog's useful.

[Dave_L]

In today's release, we've added a "Don't show again" checkbox to the nag screen. The option also appears in the Tweak dialog (Ctrl+Shift+T).

(Build 453) That's in the Windows version only, and not the GNU/Linux version. But I can live with the once-a-day nag.

[Chris]

Dave,

Thanks for pointing out the difference in the nag screen on Linux. I'll ask the development team to see if we can get the "don't show again" box in the Linux version as well.