[openbeos] Re: Build Farm

> 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

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