Various Improvement Suggestions

[TheSQLGuru]

Hello! This is my very first attempt to use the program. Here are some findings:

1. The + symbol for adding folders is not visible. See image.

2. All buttons and menu items should have keyboard shortcuts.

3. When multiple application tabs are open, CTRL-TAB, CTRL-SHIFT-TAB should work as expected to switch between tabs.

4. I am setting up a duplicate file search, where I do not care to interogate the file's contents. I noticed an option to do a partial hash of larger files. Does this imply that you hash all files as part of the duplication check logic? If so, please implement an option that purely checks against names and sizes only. This will be immensely faster.

5. In addition to file sizes, add in an option to check file timestamps (with an adjustable range for seconds to ignore as well as 1 hour offset due to daylight savings time).

6. Does Filter Hardness apply to file-dupe-check only searches? How is that accounted for if so?

7. I LOVE that this is done with Python!! I am learning that program, and this will give me some real-world code to review! I hope that some day I will be good enough - and have enough free time - to contribute!

8. I now have a grid of dupes from my initial search. a) You should absolutely auto expand the grid to fit the contents! Phase 2 of that implementation would app width into account and expand no more than to fit the screen. Size and Match% can be fixed. b) I am not a fan of the blue text. Are the fonts adjustable? They should be. c) I see that file create/modification date is not even considered. That is an absolute requirement. d) File create/mod date should absolutely be given in the results grid immediately. Don't wait until it is integrated into the dupe-check logic. e) Unfortunately I see that the file size is not considered at all. That is an absolute requirement, with a higher priority than the date. The VAST majority of my results cannot possibly be duplicates because they do not have the same size. f) The Details popup is WAY too small. g) You cannot see Details from the right-click popup menu. h) I see that you are not actually doing a straight name check. Perhaps if I change the filter hardness to 100% that will work as expected. i) After being presented with Results, changing the Scan Type and adding/removing Exclusion Filters does NOT change the results presented. I know that you cannot do this for changes that would include MORE files. But for more restrictive changes, it would be nice to present the user with the option to apply that change to the exising result set. j) Right-clicking on a Filename or Folder should present an option to add that to Exclusion Filters in the popup dialog box. k) Ahh, I see there is an Ignore List. But it only ignores full file paths. Allow excluding just the name too. And don't add both directories either. If they wanted both, they would do a multi-select. Oh, but if I REMOVE an item from the ignore list, what was removed does NOT get put back on the Results list! That definitely needs to be changed. l) I went to the Directories tab, then added a folder. Then I Cleared List. None of my folder items were removed from the list. m) VERY important: when a user is about to do something destructive - such as clear the list of search folders, you must present a verification popup. n) The modification date should definitely be presented on the main Results grid by default. o) Why is there a Dupes Only option for Results? Isn't that ALL that is shown? :-)

9. I now see that the Exclusion Filters MUST be regex. This will GREATLY limit the usability because so few of your potential users will know regex (plus there are umpteen variants too, although I just now noticed python in the empty text box). a) Filters should DEFAULT to being just straight text. b) Add a new column to the Exclusion Filter tab that has a checkbox to declare a filter to be regex. c) Document the regex variant used, and also provide some examples and links to resources to help users craft them.

10. When adding an Exclusion Filter, if the user starts with a drive (i.e. c:\ for example), immediately show the root folder list for the given drive, and follow them down as the add directories. This is already done in the Directories tab, so it will be quite easy to implement.

Well, that is more than enough for now. Please note that this is a Feature Request item, thus it doesn't include all the good things about the app. 👍 I have also done app dev in some form or another for over 4 decades now, so I ALWAYS find lots of things to recommend when I first use a new app. :-O