I recently made the jump from SM 2.0.14 to SM 2.7, oops.
While better on web standards compliance, it is also harder to use.
It keeps integrating things from firefox that are part of the reason I
don't use it.
I have come to nearly hate the new version.
It remains usable, but the direction it is going makes it seem like it
will soon be just another firefox, but one that handles mail.
Below are my PERSONAL peeves.
These represent my issues and I speak for myself alone.
If I had the skills to change this stuff on my own I would.
I am trying to learn, but the directions seem self contradictory and
nothing is explained outside of self referential loops.
It consists of do this, now this, now this, without any apparent attempt
for it to make sense to anyone besides them.
They may be trying, it may be just me, but on the whole it seems
uncessarily complicated.
Would it kill anyone to put out a virtual box image of say fedora or
ubuntu ready to compile SM?
I am trying to make my own, but so far it makes no sense to me.
Once I get one working, I am trying, I will put it up on my site, save
someone else my headaches.
My goal is to add to preferences->browser->tabbed browsing, 'Death
before tabs', then check for that value in the window/tab opener so I
can force everything into new windows and leave the delicate stuff in
omni.ja and the like alone.
In the meantime though.
First I had to disable the new find in page 'Feature', yes I put it in
quotes because I view it as a anti feature that I realise others may
actually be able to use, but fortunately one that is easily eliminated,
so it is gone.
I use the floating search feature a lot, search for a thing in one page,
then simply hit f3 in the rest to do the search over again with no
boxes, just highlighted results.
Next, after fixing the tabs 'Issue' by disabling all of them in
preferences then opening up omni.ja, editing nscontext to force calls to
openinnewtab to call openinnewwindow instead(See SM 2.7 tabs happiness),
then recompacting as a zip then copying it back.
The same process by the way I did for 2.0.14, that actually worked the
first time.
Eventually finding out that unlike common sense would dictate, SM now
CACHES things rather than actually reading the config files.
I added '-purgecaches' minus the single quotes to my shortcut.
Now when I make a change, it actually happens, yay!
Now as I explore the less used portions of the program I am finding more
'Annoyances' than I expected.
What happened to 'File' in bookmarks, it used to be easy, direct and
obvious.
You selected file, it popped up a tree viewyou could scrioll if needed,
and you clicked where you wanted it, now you have to use some funky
folder menu you you have to open then navigate, I used to be able to
just click, now I have to navigate, why?
Is the old USABLE one still there just hidden?
If so, where please?
Who decided that bookmarks needs to be a bloody sql file?
Is importing an HTML file that hard for an HTML BROWSER?
Especially since it will EXPORT to and HTML file on exit.
I previously edited bookmarks.html to ELIMINATE!!!, the personal toolbar
and RSS feeds so I never had to see them again.
So how do I get rid of them now?
Why would a 'Feature?' be added without the means to get rid of it or at
least be able to make it invisible.
The new search thingy was annoying, but they did that one right by
making it easy to disable.
I SHARE my bookmarks with my portable browsers and alternate browsers.
With an html file this is trivial.
With the sql file, I can copy the legacy file, legacy html generation on
exit not enabled by default, but this makes bringing back any changes or
additions I made in the portable IMPOSSIBLE, a function I actually use.
What happened to cookies.txt
Another SQL file?
Is importing a text file hard?
I used to manage my cookies with notepad++, now I have an unholy
disaster of an interface I am forced to use.
And to make matters worse, it only works with one domain or cookie at a
time, I used to be able to shift or ctrl select all Iwanted and do them
all in one go.
Why the pre school kinder garden change?
I prefer to use open source because it gives me more options.
Moves like these give me fewer.
Then I get to the cache.
I can understand keeping track in a database, it makes perfect sense.
I used to raid the cache for recent files, not anymore.
Now in addition to being seperated from the profile, it is fragmented as
well.
I 'upgraded?' to SM2.7 about a week ago.
I let it choose to look after it's own cache.
Right now it is at 540MB.
17,602 files in 4,063 directories.
Yes, you read that correct.
The cache is taking up over 4000 directories.
Why?
If you are using a database, and you assign the files meaningless names
anyway,(Annoying but I rarely have to raid the cache anymore so I don't
mind sorting by date or whatever, and ztree is my friend.), why are
there so many directories.
That is part of why I avoided IE, the cache mess, it is impossible to
navigate.
Even if there is a viewer, it limits how I can see it, it limits me to
the ones the user is gifted with since the database is undocumented in
placement and design.
In your user profile is not an answer to where things are kept, it is an
evasion.
I readily admit to despising profile centric prgrammming.
Simple text and html files work just fine, why push all this fancy stuff
that takes more CPU time to run?
Once it is memory, it is all just a table anyway, what difference does
it make how they are stored on the disc?
So why not keep it easy for the user to do whatever they want?
Is there a reason, or is this just the way things are done?
As SM gets older, it is gathering lots of eye candy that depend on mouse
clicks and pictures, they take more time for those of us who are used to
text options and using the keyboard.
Iconography is counter intuitive to the literate, please bear that in
mind.
At the very least let us choose which way to view things like the adults
we all play in real life.
Sorry for sounding mad, I am not, just frustrated.
I would be far less frustrated if getting started weren't so steep.
Then I could just change back what is to my eyes, broken.
Doors.
