PeaZip

that PeaZip is still on kde-apps. I've nothing against Gtk apps as such - I often use GIMP and streamtuner - but this is a desktop tool, and since it doesn't support proper d'n'd, and uses that half-assed gtk file dialogue, it's really out of place.
In my view, kde-apps should be about kde and/or qt, not gkt or java.
Amarok, for example, may function just as good under gnome, if you have the right kde libraries, but that doesn't make it a gnome app. It's just confusing :-(

Re: I'm surprised...

by BorgQueen on: Jul 11 2007

Score 50%

Whilst I agree with you in many things, especially about keeping kde apps, for kde and GTK being crap. Some times, an app is so exceptional, it should be allowed through. PeaZip is one of those. It does include a rudimentary konqueror servicemenu that works.

I'm about stuffed...

by app3al on: Jul 12 2007

Score 50%

And so, what's the point in whimper in this manner about an application is fully functional and well integrated under KDE?
Because of you don't like the widgetset in use, which make show up GTK dialogs?
Well, if it's due to this... a decent Linux user must know about program's compilation, so stop trolling about this application and start doing something useful for KDE: port it to Qt widgetset, as it is supported by the RAD where the GUI of this application is developed on.
Or (sorry, I don't mean to be rude, this critic is not only to you but to some people here systematically complaining in that way without even attempting to do something useful), if you cannot do something useful for KDE then please stop acting as the KDE-paladin guy!
Seriously, to an user searching info on an application, comments on Kde-apps.org are about unreadable due to pointless comments of this kind (and, I repent... because of flame response that brings up, like mine...)!

Re: I'm about stuffed...

by tryfan on: Jul 12 2007

Score 50%

> functional and well integrated
> under KDE?
But it's not, so let's forget about that part, shall we?

About the flaming - feel free, but it would be nice if you kept to the point.
My point was that it's confusing - you might as well rename kde-apps to "Apps" and let it contain Windows applications as well - since you can run Internet Explorer under Wine...

The only thing about your flaming that I do take offence to, is your slur about supporting KDE - I'm no coder, but I'm supporting KDE in a lot of other ways, including hard cash to developers.

Re: Re: I'm about st

by app3al on: Jul 12 2007

Score 50%

> But it's not, so let's forget
> about that part, shall we?
No, since people saing this just forget (or refuses even to google a little to understand) what does widgetset means.
They see a different system dialog and start complaining 'it's not well integrated', 'it's not a KDE app'... well, poeple confusing 'KDE' (the desktop environment) and 'Qt' (ONE of the widgetset I can use under KDE, the one used to writing KDE, but certainly, luckyly, NOT the only widgetset KDE and Linux allows me to use) are like people confusing 'Linux' (the kernel) and 'GNU/Linux) (the system), or 'M$ Windows' and 'computer'.
And moreover: widgetset ans integration are only loosely related, you can compile an application targeting Qt, but don't expect it magically appears in context menu, becomes self aware of system variables, of how parsing parameters passed from console, other apps, or the desktop.

> My point was that it's confusing
> - you might as well rename kde-apps
> to "Apps" and let it contain Windows
> applications as well - since you can
> run Internet Explorer under Wine...
Your POV is confusing too, since the point of complaining is Qt you would be right to complain if someone publish this app on Qt-apps!

You are not a coder, so I can assume you are in good faith not knowing it, but did you realized Qt (the widgetset) is only a target for the copliation, not a magic pwder that make an application aware of all what a desktop environment may offer?
That is (hard) work of coding: to read system varaibles (this app does), to use desktop menus (this app does), to accept parameters from desktop (windoze drag&drop like, this apps don't does, but also many other apps here).

> including hard cash to developers.
That really makes you honor, but don't exeem you of trying to understanding computing topoics you are posting about... there is the Windows world for pay&complain computing ;)

I apologize again to KDE-apps.org readers for this pointless flame, but as I said I'm quite stuffed to have to surf so many pointless posts to get a menaingful info on an application I'm going to test, this on the long run is really hampering my user experience on this site.

Re: Re: Re: I'm about st

by tryfan on: Jul 12 2007

Score 50%

I hope you don't have a problem with your blood pressure. If so, I'm sorry if I'm setting it off.
But I'll take it step by step, so you'll have have time to calm down ;-)

>> But it's not, so let's forget
> > about that part, shall we?
> No, since people saing this just
> forget (or refuses even to google a
> little to understand) what does
> widgetset means.
Qt is not just a "widgetset", it's the base on which KDE is built. No Qt = no KDE. Google a little yourself, and you'll see this.

> luckyly, NOT the only widgetset KDE
As I said. Qt is the basis of KDE - like it or not. (Like Gtk is the basis for Gnome, btw).

> right to complain if someone publish
> this app on Qt-apps!
Probably, since it's in no way a Qt app. I think I miss your point there?

> application aware of all what a
> desktop environment may offer?
Again - take a closer look at the relation between Qt and KDE.

> That is (hard) work of coding: to
> read system varaibles (this app
> does),
I've never critizised the app in any way; on the contrary, a lot of people say it excellent, and if I needed it, I wouldn't hesitate to use it myself. It surely looks very competent.

> > including hard cash to developers.
> That really makes you honor, but
> don't exeem you of trying to
> understanding computing topoics you
> are posting about... there is the
> Windows world for pay&complain
> computing ;)
I'll certainly give you a point there. It was wrong of me to compare my contributions with the countless hours the programmers put in. But I did get mad when you hinted that I don't do anything. I'm a concerned user, and users are also important in a way :-)

>really hampering my user experience
> on this site.
And this is exactly my point - if people post things in the right place to start with, they won't be so hard to find - and you won't have to get so frustrated :-)

Re: Re: Re: Re: I'm

by app3al on: Jul 13 2007

Score 50%

> As I said. Qt is the basis
> of KDE - like it or not. (Like
> Gtk is the basis for Gnome, btw).
I said it too. But since you say you are not a coder I'll take some more time to explain: don't confuse the part for the whole.
On a given system+desktop environment you can use different widgetset: you can use Qt on Gnome, you can use GTks on KDE, you can even install libraries needed to run both of them under Win32 or OSX/Darwin desktops!
Widgetset are a set of libraries related to manipulate (mainly) graphic elements, which KDE developers uses compiling KDE.
Third parts application developers can use those libraries too; doing this will render the application's visual components (and system dialogs) coherent with a desktop environment compiled with the same library, and here you win a point, but will not do ANYTHING else, so it will not turn the application using QT in a KDE application, nor a GTK* application a Gnome application.

To integrate an application in the desktop environment, over this level the effect of the choice of the widgetset is over, stop, halt!
You want to use drag and drop? You have to code it for the given desktop environment, for the given data set you are handling, for the given objects of the application wich will use this mean to communicate with the rest of the world (a Qt or GTK or Java or anything else app open in the same KDE session!).
You want to open files and dirs with KDE-associated application like this app does? You have to deal with KDE specific calls, Qt will not help you here (nor GTK in Gnome)
You want the system be aware of the application in the right menus (like this app)? You have to follow Freedesktop standards; the same you need to create proper file association in the desktop environment, Qt will not help you here (because are part of KDE, not 'the' KDE, and its part role ends before here).
You want the application be aware of system variables (like this app)? You need to code it.
Otherwise you will have native dialogs and GUI objects (btw, I'm not a great fan of theming eyecandy, but PeaZip seem also theme aware), and stop, no integration in what you usually do with desktop (menus, d&d, file associations...).

Would a Qt app be a KDE app just because it uses the same widgetset KDE is compiled for? But it will lack a lot of things wich the widgetset libraries role simply doesn't cover, you can add it but they doesn't belong to Qt or any other widgetset...
An a non-Qt app will not be a KDE app even if it is aware of KDE session variables, KDE file association, KDE menus etc...?
IMHO, saying that something is a KDE (or Gnome) app is more complicated to say if something is a Qt (or GTK) app, just because the desktop environment (a big bunch of libraries to cover very different scopes) comes with far more things than the widgetset (a small set of libraries focused on a specific range of functions)!
And IMHO is not fair for this application saying it's porly integrated on KDE and should go away from here, apart for using GTK (wich can be replaced at compile time on Lazarus/FPK, the development tool used) and lack of d&d (but lacks on Gnome too), the KDE menus are great and the file associations in KDE works seamlessly (both from desktop and in the application) so the application is fully usable on a KDE system as is out of the box of most Linux distribution, in my experience without having to deal with missing GTK libraries installation.

My take: it's a cross platform and (as well) cross desktop application, which becomes aware of the desktop environment in use and switch using proper menus, file associations and desktop specific methods to perform in a native way most of the operation you will expect from an archiver in a Gnome, KDE or Win32 environment, so IMHO it should be considered a 'citizen' in Gnome apps as in KDE apps and Win32 apps.

Tiresome

by tryfan on: Jul 13 2007

Score 50%

Give it up, will you? There's nothing wrong with your arguments as such; it's just that they have nothing whatsover to do with KDE and Qt.
Spend a few moments reading instead - heck, you might even find it interesting :-)
http://www.kde.org/whatiskde/qt.php
http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/KDE

And skip this condescending "since you're not a coder" stuff. I've been using KDE for ten years; since v. 1.1. I may not be able to program for it, but I think I've got a pretty fair grip of what it is :-)

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

by app3al on: Jul 13 2007

Score 50%

Ok, you know KDE from the user point of view since 1997, about like me, but you are still confusing 'it uses' with 'it is'; sorry, but it's plainly a wrong.
A program (KDE) using a library set (Qt) withing the plethora of libraries it uses, and offering an API well beyond the scope of that library, must not be confused with the library set (widgetset) itself.
An application is a KDE application if it able to use the API offered by KDE (of wich those coming from Qt and precluded to applications compiled using a different widgetset is only a part).
Is this application able to use KDE API? It uses many important KDE specific features like opening associated files, finding paths and resolving urls, reading system variables, use Konqueror's servicemenus etc; it does not use others (Qt system dialogs).
Is it enough a KDE-app or not? Does it uses enough KDE API?
Is the glass half full (may stay) or half empty (may go)?

Sorry, I don't want to be unpolite to you and other KDE-Apps reades when I say 'since you are not a coder', but from a coder POV it seems to me half full.
Other coders may have different backgrounds, experience or likes and may think differently, like other users may have a different opinion than you.
It just seem pointless to me that at each program's update, with KDE support getting better version by version, somoeone comes up saying 'is it still there?'... hey, do the user took time to notice the glass is not empty!?

Much faster!

by BorgQueen on: Jul 22 2007

Score 50%

I don't know what you did, but peazip launches about 3 times faster than it did before. Well done.

Re: Much faster!

by giorgiotani on: Jul 22 2007

Score 50%

giorgiotani
PeaZip
Home

Hi, thank you very much for the appreciation!
In this version I did only minor optimization in the GUI behaviour, it may be the reason of the faster startup time you are expriencing.
In next planned version it will be also a major enhancement in the way big archievs are handled, resulting in very faster times to open such archives.

I am impressed.

by Sparrowmelody on: Jul 31 2007

Score 50%

Sparrowmelod y

Well, so far this is my GUI compression app of choice. Excellent work, Mr.Tani.

At first I wasn't really impressed, after seeing about it on the gentoo forums, the interface was somewhat strange compared to most archivers and there were minor graphical glitches that made it a bit of a letdown, but I ended up growing fond of this app.
I would like to let you know my observations and suggestions about PeaZip:

First of all, I found somewhat strange to have, when making a new archive, the "add file" and "add directory" as separate elements. I think it'd be easier, from the user's perspective, to have those two buttons merged into one, and allow adding multiple files/folders from the "add file" dialog (at least in the last version, clicking on more than one file is supported but they won't be added to the archive's layout). I did however work around this by simply adding all files to the archive with the "-add2archive" command line parameter, but I think it would be a wonderful addition, specially in windows machines you can't add SentTo information or registry entries.

Then, as suggested in some other parts, drag and drop support would make PeaZip's performance skyrocket in most environments, both to make and extract from archives.

Then, in my Gentoo box, the pop-up help text appears fairly distorted, as with bad size, until you move the cursor a bit over elements so it stabilizes. Since pop-up help appears quickly, this is a minor annoyance once one is familiar with the program. So I would like to request an option to disable pop-up help.

Also, I work with multiple encrypted files (a task made easier by PeaZip). When opening them in PeaZip (generally with -ext2browse), two "cannot list archive's content" pop-up dialogs appear. Would it be possible to alter this behavior so, instead of the pop-ups, the message "Cannot list archive's content" appears in the main window, saving a few extra clicks? The user would notice inmediately (specially if the text is made bold and red or something) and since the password would be needed, switching to the window is a necessity.

About the integration, it was a good idea to add the .desktop files so KDE can know about PeaZip's existence. I found it very easy to integrate with other filemanagers as well thanks to the command-line parameters. However, I didn't notice them at first until I got the PDF document with them...can it be possible to add text or html documentation, or maybe a "-help" command-line switch in next releases?

Another minor suggestion would be to make the archive view columns fit the entire window's width. It feels a bit strange as it only takes like 90% of the total size of the window (by default size, in GTK2 version at least) and there's a little chunk of white space after the last column, making it a bit weird; resizing the window also keeps the same width.

Also, it would be nice to have a EWMH icon to identify PeaZip windows better in the taskbars.

All things considered, I really like PeaZip and I now use it daily now, making work with 7z compressed and encrypted backups a breeze. I will be awaiting next version impatiently (in a good way)! Please keep up the good work and thanks for this great app.

Best regards,
Sparrowmelody~

PS: I think this is one of those apps that need more publicity, by the way, so don't mind the flames around. Although I really hate GTK dialogs and stuff, this is well worth it.

Re: I am impressed.

by giorgiotani on: Jul 31 2007

Score 50%

giorgiotani
PeaZip
Home

Hi, thank you for your positive and very detailed feedback!

Adding files and dirs through separated dialogs is a nag I'm needing to keep to make it work on all desktop environment supported, but I'm constantly evaluating smarter ways to allow layout editing (including a very nice function I'm thinking to, but I'm not close to accomplish this, regarding adding objects for a search form).

Drag and drop support is one other thing I'm studying about, but I was not able to get examples for Lazarus IDE and it's quite tricky because each supported desktop environment have its own API to do this.

The suggestion about popup help make sense, I'll think about a switch to disable them (like info level messages, or probably include them in the same option); the 'Cannot list archive's content' popup will be prompted only once in next version (1.9); I'm considering about making it a info level message (which, as said, can be turned off by an option) rather than warning level message. Moreover I'm working on improving encryption detection to make easier working with encrypted contents.

About the help, newer PeaZip has links to website (FAQ, forum, tracker...) and PDF help (latest online version) in Help main menu; I'm considering about creating standard man pages (which will be installed authomatically in DEB, RPM and TGZ versions).

Next version is planned in late summer, probably the first or second week of september, and it will bring several visual and under the hood improvements I scheduled during this year on the basis of user's feedback and personal user experience on the program, however your suggestions will be taken in account for future development.

I hope also to be in time to benefit of the release of the new version of Lazarus, planned about in that time, which will bring many improvements related both to underlying FreePascal compiler and to LCL, bringing improvements in support to GTK2 and other widgetset, hopefully addressing some of the visual issues reported on some configurations.
Thank you again
Giorgio Tani

Re: Re: I am impress

by Sparrowmelody on: Aug 13 2007

Score 50%

Sparrowmelod y

I have tried 1.9 this weekend. The new behavior to handle encrypted files is excellent, with the message in the titlebar.
GTK2 version is still quite a mess, and after a few system updates the interface has become impossible to read, so I am going to try GTK1 today. The Windows version looks excellent though.
Thumbs up for the new version!

Great Improvements

by BorgQueen on: Aug 15 2007

Score 50%

I love the new interface, very efficient. The rewrite also seems to allow it to be redrawn faster and works better with my gtk-qt-engine, so it looks like a kde app.

Once again the speed as improved. Even if it is a gtk app, its one of the best overall crossplatform apps out there.

When I create GPL software CDs for windows (to help in the transition from windows to any F/LOSS OS) the enter kit is just a kit away.

Well done lad!

Re: Great Improvements

by giorgiotani on: Aug 15 2007

Score 50%

giorgiotani
PeaZip
Home

Hi, thank you all for the feedback!
The interface is now more clen and essential, I think this is the way to go.
Stay tuned for new updates, I'm doing some interesting works on UI and extending supported formats; moreover it's probably near a mayor update of the Lazarus IDE which may bring substantial improvements in support of GTK2 (and probably also QT) widgetset.

Praise & suggestions

by bobw on: Aug 19 2007

Score 50%

bobw

I would like to join in saying thanks for the good work.

May I add some comments (Version 1.9) from an average first time user perspective; some may have been written or may be known already:

When starting with the main menu and choosing "Create archive ..." I notice that "use advanced filters" will only allow to add exclusion filters. This seems ok, but when reading the manual this may be confusing. When opening an archive, both inclusion and exclusion filters can be found. Probably that makes sense except for a beginner.

How can I add hidden folders/files? Some software allow a right mouse click to "show hidden files". But when clicking with the right mouse button, an "access violation" occurs and PeaZip freezes.

When removing an object in the archive view (I had to e. g. because of too large sizes - what is the max. for a "create" job anyway?) and restarting with "create" then the object is not shown, but still isn't really removed and wants to be processed.

I appreciate of course to be able to choose the volume size in the options menu. I wonder if somehow a note could be given (perhaps only in the manual?) about the 4 GB limit for DVD (in some cases), it's not really a PeaZip issue though.

But again, thanks for the good programme.

Re: Praise & suggestions

by giorgiotani on: Aug 21 2007

Score 50%

giorgiotani
PeaZip
Home

Hi, thank you for the feedback!

About inclusion/exclusion filters: I agree it may seem strange the lack of inclusion filters in layout composer, but the architecture of filters in the underlying 7z binary makes not very easy translating it in a GUI for compression interface; however if I'll find a way to make the inclusion filters work in the same way also for archiving, I'll certainly add that feature.

About hidden folders, I noticed this behaviour, it's due to the way system dialogs are handled; I'm confident with future versions of the IDE it will go away.

About issue in removing objects from archive layout, I'll investigate on this problem.

There is no max size for "create" job, however there are some limits:
the limits for PeaZip frontend side are only on the number of character that can be passed by the operating system's console to the underlying applications, PeaZip checks it at 32K characters (note that passing a folder, or a volume, on the job's command line it will count as a single object);
the limits for backend applications are format specific, however: AFAIK 7z binary which handles most of the mainstream formats is capable of handling very big input as for file number and file sizes; as for PEA format, it is meant to have an theorically unlimited input size and practically it is limited to store a maxint number of objects 0..2^64 byte in size.

Re: Re: Praise & suggestions

by bobw on: Sep 6 2007

Score 50%

bobw

Thanks for replying.

Forget about my remarks regarding inclusion/exclusion filters ;-)
When re-reading the manual it makes sense. If possible, a dimmed inclusion filter in create mode would be nice.

Thanks for the info regarding job size. Somewhat related to this is the max. single file size for burning a DVD e. g. with K3b. I'm no expert and couldn't find information that seem authoritative about why this 4 GB limit exists, some saying it can be bypassed, others saying you should not.

Anyhow, related to PeaZip: "4.7 GB DVD" obviously didn't work (it created a file of 4.7 GiB = 4.38 GB, 4700372992 bytes to be precise), neither "4 GB (max FAT32 file size)" (file created was indeed 4 GB = 4294967296 bytes). However, something smaller like trying with 4000 MB (3.9 GB or 4194304000 bytes) worked for burning a DVD. Perhaps a better way would be to create filesizes of approx. 1/2 of 4.38 GB. I'm not sure if such a proposal could be incorporated in the manual (or an according filesize to be selected in PeaZip).

Re: Re: Re: Praise & suggestions

by giorgiotani on: Sep 6 2007

Score 50%

giorgiotani
PeaZip
Home

Hi! Thanks for thee idea of a dimmed inclusion dialog in layout composer's filters tab sounds good. I'll include it in future (not in the upcoming 1.9.1 which I yet freezed and that should come out monday if all tests are positive).

About DVD preset sizes, I used DVD+, - and DL standard references as reported on Wikipedia, but I'm aware too of possible problems in handling very big files in some CD burner applications.
Unfortunately I don't know exactly at what size some burner programs/versions may give problems, so in case of doubts it's better to use the "custom" size setting, which allows to specify size with Byte, KB, or MB granularity.
However I'll look around trying to collect some useful information on the topic for possible inclusion of most common cases in documentation.

Service Menu Item

by BorgQueen on: Sep 10 2007

Score 50%

Hi!
I use peazip to create .exes for win clients who are slowly migrating to Ark Linux.

I also use for my windows driver dbase, and to back up data before repairing windows (so I use it about 10 times a day -that's a slow repair day- especially for the pro-bono jobs).

Often times the stock or market compression programs fail, so the .exes that peazip creates helps me to avoid the mess.

Would it be possible to add, both in Linux and ms windows, a compress file/dir to .exe? So I can just right click and compress a directory to an .exe?

Thanks for the great app!

Re: Service Menu Item

by giorgiotani on: Sep 10 2007

Score 50%

giorgiotani
PeaZip
Home

Hi! Thank you for the positive feedback!
About sfx entry, the parameter for directly passing following paramstrings to this function is -add2sfx.
It can be passed by scripts, or in links or .desktop files as first application's parameter.
This entry is yet featured by default in Windows installable package (in SendTo menu); for Linux it can be created modifiyng one of the featured .desktop files replacing i.e. -add27z parameter with -add2sfx (however I'll create it to be installed by default in next release, so user's will not need to manually edit .desktop files for this task).

Re: Re: Service Menu Item

by BorgQueen on: Sep 10 2007

Score 50%

thanks so much

Re: Re: Service Menu Item

by BorgQueen on: Sep 10 2007

Score 50%

Hi I changed

Exec=peazip -add2archive %U

to Exec=peazip -add2sfx %U

and got this error

-add2sfx is no longer accesible

Did I misunderstand your instructions?

Re: Re: Re: Service Menu Item

by giorgiotani on: Sep 10 2007

Score 50%

giorgiotani
PeaZip
Home

I'm sorry, the right parameter is -add2sfx7z
I used this rather -add2sfx because it clarifies the command triggers the creation of a 7z based sfx, but I forgot the right syntax in the post...

Re: Re: Re: Re: Service Menu Item

by BorgQueen on: Sep 10 2007

Score 50%

GREAT! Thanks its working.
Next question, its ending the file names at the first ., for example
appname-0.1 end up as
appname-0.exe.
Is there a way to make it use the entire dir name?

Thanks, hope I'm not driving your crazy...

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Service Menu Item

by giorgiotani on: Sep 11 2007

Score 50%

giorgiotani
PeaZip
Home

No way from context menu entry for the moment, this is the authomatic way PeaZip uses extension (anything found after last . char, even if not properly an extension).
Instead, adding the file(s)/dir(s) to archive allows to specify the output name (asked when creating archive), so the user can specify to keep the original extension, or even to give a totally different name.