> There are a few more pieces in beta that you can play with. > Media Kit Media Kit in Beta? As in with codecs and everything? I knew it was possible to play mp3s in Media Player, but didn't think the whole thing was in beta. > Translator Kit > Print Kit (IIRC) > BFS (***BUT*** follow Axel's directions - DO NOT USE IT FOR ANY DATA > THAT YOU CARE ABOUT!!!) > Some oldies but goodies: > MDR > OpenTracker/OpenDeskbar > > Sikosis and/or the Preferences website can give you individual app > status > > As far as ShowImage, the bloat vs non-bloat has been discussed at > length > offlist. The long and short of it is that the file size between R5, > Dano > and ours is nearly nothing. If we can implement more features in less > space, well, I think we have done OK. :-) Hehe interesting definition of bloat. The issue of bloat is whether the feature you're adding is actually useful for the core purpose of the app. Whether slideshows are necessary to "Show Images" is certainly questionable, IMHO. > Believe me - there is no one > who supports the "less is more" approach of BeOS than the admin team. > We > don't want another Windows or Linux. I agree "less is more". And you are using that as an argument to defend adding features? :-) But seriously, bloat doesn't happen overnight. The problem will be in the R3 timeframe, when ShowImage has features for editting images, adding layers, adding text, exporting HTML image maps, etc, etc - all of which will have been justified by saying "it's not much more than the previous version - but believe me, we don't want bloat!" However, some of the things in OBOS's ShowImage are unquestionable improvements - zooming images for one. However, I don't think that it is implemented in a very BeOS way - it would be nice if there was an ArtPaint-style zoom bar in the status area to make zooming images more interactive. The multi-page image features may be useful for a very small subset of images, but again I think the interface would be better in the status bar (little numbered page icons). If the image only has one page, then hide all of the menu for navigating multi-page images. And I think the slideshow feature is really another app. I never open ShowImage to view one file and then suddenly want to view a slideshow. I know in advance whether I want to view one or two specific images, or if I want to have a look at all my holiday photos. I think the slideshow would be best handled by a seperate app. There is nothing to stop the apps working together - a slideshow button in showimage that launches the slideshow app with a list of all the image files in the current directory, and starts the show. Try to define ShowImage now - is it an image viewer or a slideshow displayer? Now try justifying adding these useful slideshow features in "*ShowImage* R2": * User-definable caption for each picture based on a BeOS attribute * Transitions * Changing the order pictures are displayed in * Displaying files stored in different directories I think most people would call them "bloat" for ShowImage. However, given a show image with navigation consisting of "Prev Image, Next Image, View Slideshow" and a seperate slideshow app specifically designed for the purpose (say with a list view listing the files to be displayed, allowintg drag-and-drop to add files or change the order), it is much easier to justify new slideshow-specific features for the slideshow-specific app. Simon ----------------------------------------- Email provided by http://www.ntlhome.com/