Rockbox Technical Forums

Rockbox Development => Feature Ideas => Topic started by: oayz on July 31, 2008, 04:40:55 PM

Title: Meaningful status for file copy/move
Post by: oayz on July 31, 2008, 04:40:55 PM
It would be nice see progress bar with numerical percentage, file count etc.

Currently we only see "Copying...". Considering new devices with SD slots there is clearly a need to copy/move MBs of data. On my Sansa copying 600MB from main memory to SD takes more than 10 minutes. Status/progress bar would be very appreciated!
Title: Re: Meaningful status for file copy/move
Post by: Llorean on July 31, 2008, 06:58:41 PM
You are aware a status bar won't actually make it finish any sooner, right? :)
Title: Re: Meaningful status for file copy/move
Post by: oayz on July 31, 2008, 10:22:23 PM
Wow, looks like I should add RB to my "humor" folder :-)

Having status bar would help to estimate if I have time for one cup of coffer or two :-). Also, have you noticed that watching status bar progressing makes wait more tolerable and feels shorter?

BTW, waht's better - to discuss this kind of stuff here or submit Feature Request? Or both?

Title: Re: Meaningful status for file copy/move
Post by: Llorean on July 31, 2008, 10:25:21 PM
You can't submit a feature request, that's why this forum is here.

I personally find "doing something else while it copies" makes most waits feel shorter while staring at the screen, whether it's a progress bar or an idle animation, does the opposite.
Title: Re: Meaningful status for file copy/move
Post by: cool_walking_ on July 31, 2008, 10:38:22 PM
With me, progress bars make the wait seem shorter, though other measures (clocks) make it seem longer.  ???

I'm wondering whether a "cancel" feature is appropriate.  It's a pretty standard feature for file copying, but the only use case I can see for it on Rockbox is if you're copying huge files and the battery is about to die, so you cancel to avoid filesystem corruption.  I'm not sure if that even would actually cause filesystem corruption as I'm not sure how the FAT filesystem or driver work.

Apologies for hijacking the thread, I just didn't think it warranted it's own thread.
Title: Re: Meaningful status for file copy/move
Post by: AlexP on August 01, 2008, 06:22:03 AM
Personally I like progress bars just so I can see that something is actually happening and that it hasn't hung.
Title: Re: Meaningful status for file copy/move
Post by: oayz on August 01, 2008, 03:02:52 PM
I personally find "doing something else while it copies" makes most waits feel shorter while staring at the screen, whether it's a progress bar or an idle animation, does the opposite.
It's not about staring at the screen (well not only about this :) but mainly to know how long coping is going to take.

"Cancel" is great idea. Background copying would be a killer.


Title: Re: Meaningful status for file copy/move
Post by: saanaito on August 02, 2008, 12:42:16 PM
I'd at least like to see how many kilobytes have transferred. I once accidentally started a copy of a 5 MB file while music was playing. The result was that I waited twenty minutes before finally deciding it might be hung (even though music was playing and the bar was still moving).

I powered down (held down the power button for 30-ish seconds) and immediately checked my micro SD card (the destination for the copy) on my PC, and backed it up just to be safe. Ultimately I formatted it and copied back the data (which takes a while).
Title: Re: Meaningful status for file copy/move
Post by: oayz on August 02, 2008, 02:15:07 PM
... Background copying would be a killer...
Wow, silly me! BGcopy is already implemented. Cool!
Title: Re: Meaningful status for file copy/move
Post by: saanaito on August 02, 2008, 06:15:14 PM
... Background copying would be a killer...
Wow, silly me! BGcopy is already implemented. Cool!

Eh? Depends on how you define "background". Correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as I know, once a copy/ move/ delete/ etc. operation is started, you can do nothing until it finishes. If music is already playing, then it will continue to play and follow your playlist, but you cannot control playback (not even the volume).
Title: Re: Meaningful status for file copy/move
Post by: MajiKool Dragonâ„¢ on August 05, 2008, 10:25:40 AM
yes i believe this is true...

and i think an actual progress bar would be the greatest thing ever... maybe you could replace the current animation with one similar to the one in Windows as well as ad the progress bar.
but i guess whatever gets the job of showing progress done w/o slowing it down would be best.