Firebird's got a new download manager! Help testing!

Discussion of general topics about Mozilla Firefox
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Kevin Ar18
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Post by Kevin Ar18 »

johnleemk wrote:
2) The download manager window is not very responsive. My cursor moves slowly across it (not at the just the edges). Scrolling the download manager is very jerky. Selecting (highlighting) items in the download manager once again causes a delay and is jerkly. It's like playing a 3D game on a video card that can only do a few FPS.

I do not experience this problem.


Do you have a pre-geforce era video card to test on? I believe the lack of per-pixel alpha blending on older technology video cards may be the cause. If someone could test it with say a TNT card, then I think we could better confirm this.

I set the DM to close when finished downloading all files, but it's not much of a workaround.

My problem is that the DM never opens in the first place, so there's nothing to close. I suspect this is a bug or something I configured wrong. I'd be interested in a solution though.
I have the following preference checked:
"Show Dowload Manager window when a download begins."
The option about closing it is unchecked.


This is only the second time I've heard of this. The rest of us seem to have the speedometer working just fine.

As for the speed indicator, where does that show up? I am, of course, not referring to the progress bar but to the KB/Sec type indicator. (I think we are referring to two different things.) If so, then I guess what I wanted to emphasize is that you can't tell how fast your connection is from a progress bar.
Vesh
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Post by Vesh »

Pike wrote:
Kevin Ar18 wrote:7) The download manager does not indicate the URL it is downloading from.
This inforamtion was useful back in the days when I used download managers (which was a long time ago). I could copy and past the URL to the download manager if the server was not sending the file fast enough. Thus, I suspect other people may find this information useful as well.

8) The download manager does not indicate the directory it is saving to. I don't recall a specific example of why this information was helpful, however I do recall needing it while using the new download manager system. The alternative was to go through a more tedious process of doing what I wanted to do. It's also helpful to know simply what is going on and to remember what you were doing.

Right-click, properties.

Yes. More clicks. That's efficient. :roll:
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Pike
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Post by Pike »

Vesh wrote:Yes. More clicks. That's efficient. :roll:

I agree, two whole extra clicks!1!! I'm switching back to IE!!!11!!
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darthmdh
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Post by darthmdh »

Pike wrote:I agree, two whole extra clicks!1!! I'm switching back to IE!!!11!!


Everyone should switch back to IE, at least that way there won't be any stupid arguments over tabbed browsing, download managers, themes, extensions, the UI, standards compliance, or development efforts as IE has none of the above.

:lildevil:
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scratch
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Post by scratch »

Kevin Ar18 wrote:Notes about the performance issues.
I have a guess as to why the performance issues are present. There is a feature called "per pixel alpha blending" that was introduced by Geforce and higher video cards. Any cards before the Geforce era will not have this feature and thus will have slowdowns when alpha blending is done. The way the cheap computers are configured today, they try to save as much money as they can. Thus, for the basic systems, they may not waste money on a good 3D card, and instead opt for a pre-Geforce era type card (an Nvidia Vanta being one example).


actually, geforce support for per pixel alpha blending in 2d is rather horrible in comparison with matrox and ati. nvidia seems to only be concerned with 3d performance improvements and lets their 2d performance rot. i have one question before i accept the validity of this theory though: does gecko's -moz-opacity even take advantage of hardware acceleration, anyway?
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Post by johnleemk »


Do you have a pre-geforce era video card to test on? I believe the lack of per-pixel alpha blending on older technology video cards may be the cause. If someone could test it with say a TNT card, then I think we could better confirm this.

My video card is integrated with my motherboard; it's from some Taiwanese company. :)

As for the speed indicator, where does that show up? I am, of course, not referring to the progress bar but to the KB/Sec type indicator. (I think we are referring to two different things.) If so, then I guess what I wanted to emphasize is that you can't tell how fast your connection is from a progress bar.

I don't know for you, but when the DM loads for me, I can see the speed right there with the other details.
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adipose
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Download Manager Feature Request

Post by adipose »

With the old download manager, which I should admit I preferred, one would hit ctrl-E to open it. It opened in a tab, which I preferred, because I prefer to have fewer windows when possible. Anyway, when I wanted to close it, I would simply hit ctrl-E again. Ctrl-E to check downloads, Ctrl-E to stop checking.

All I'm asking is that Ctrl-E "minimize" to download manager back to Firebird. Then I can have close to the same functionality as before.

I think the new download manager is fine for replacing all the little download windows, since I never liked those anyway (but then, I had them disabled). However, it ignores the minimalist users (like me) who never had any windows popup. We've suddenly acquired a new window, and we don't like it. I've already set it so that the download manager doesn't popup automatically, so that part of the functionality is the same. But when I hit ctrl-E, I suddenly get a new window, rather than a side bar.

*****

The download window is not horrible; in fact, it has nice features. However, allow me to point out a few deficencies:

1. When the new download manager pops up, it blocks the current web page from view. Ok, not a big deal, but the old one just compressed the page, it didn't obstruct vision. Round 1 to old DLM. (This can't really be fixed...it's the result of the choice to use a detached dl manager).

2. The new download manager takes an extra spot in the bar, even though one of the MAIN REASONS I'm using Firebird is to avoid extra windows in the bar. Round 2 to old DLM. (this could be fixed...even if it is a popup, the DLM doesn't have to be in the bar, necessarily).

3. The new DLM can't be closed with ctrl-E. Round 3 to old DLM. This could be fixed rather easily.

4. The new DLM can only be hidden by hitting the "x" or hitting ctrl-W. I don't really mind this but I'd like to have a "hide" button or something, since it is counter-intuitive (am I killing the downloads when I do this?). This can't really be compared to the old one--it's just a feature I think makes sense with the new one.

*****

As for having separate windows available on the bottom, I think it's fine to get those in an extension. They don't need to be there by default. But the main feature I'd like to see is having ctrl-E close the darn thing, so at least I can toggle it on and off with ctrl-E. I would barely notice all the other annoyances if I could do this.

What's next? Putting the history back in a separate window, like mozilla? I don't really understand why so many choices were made to make the browser create less clutter, and then reversed on this one point. In fairness, I suppose the designers see *one* window replacing *many* download windows, and in that sense, it's a good choice. But like I said earlier, they are ignoring people who had previously *zero* download windows, or at most *one internal* sidebar. For us, there's now more clutter.

-Dan
Vesh
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Post by Vesh »

Pike wrote:I agree, two whole extra clicks!1!! I'm switching back to IE!!!11!!

I know that you're trying to stick up for your favorite browser here, but you dont need to. There's no reason to. I'm not the kind of kneejerk dullard what would jump ship because of something like this. It's still my favorite browser as well, I just happen to disagree with the way this new feature was implemented - that disappointment doesn't carry over to the whole project.
doeddeldom
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Post by doeddeldom »

Kevin Ar18 wrote:The download manager window is not very responsive. My cursor moves slowly across it (not at the just the edges). Scrolling the download manager is very jerky. Selecting (highlighting) items in the download manager once again causes a delay and is jerkly. It's like playing a 3D game on a video card that can only do a few FPS.


I have the same problem. I got a Matrox G550. I noticed using 32bit depth i get jerky mouse, high cpu ... using 24bit depth everything is fine. Maybe this information helps to find this "bug".
BuckSnort
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Post by BuckSnort »

Hope I didn't post this twice, but I just downloaded the newest Roboform and it works with Firebird. About time..............BuckSnort
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ironhead
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Sidebar Support

Post by ironhead »

Sounds like I'm in the minority on this one, but I kinda liked the download sidebar. I REALLY hate having excess windows pop-up (that's why I love tabs). I realize you can make the download manager not show when a download is started (I have it configured that way right now), but when I click on the 'download' button (I added to the toolbar), it pops up the windows. It was nice when it would open up the sidebar.

Anywho, that's my 2 cents.

Cheers!
d00gs
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Post by d00gs »

I liked the sidebar too. Maybe someone should write an extension to bring it back...also, the ctrl-E really is a must for me also.
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allsorts46
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Re: Sidebar Support

Post by allsorts46 »

ironhead wrote:Sounds like I'm in the minority on this one, but I kinda liked the download sidebar. I REALLY hate having excess windows pop-up (that's why I love tabs). I realize you can make the download manager not show when a download is started (I have it configured that way right now), but when I click on the 'download' button (I added to the toolbar), it pops up the windows. It was nice when it would open up the sidebar.

Anywho, that's my 2 cents.

Cheers!


Agreed. One of the main reasons I used Firebird was that it's all nicely contained in one window (tabs, sidebar etc). Now I'm forced to open a new window to see my downloads? The return of the sidebar, well, at least a way to 'dock' the new download manager (which is after all, quite nice) into the sidebar would be greatly appreciated.
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CatThief
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Re: Sidebar Support

Post by CatThief »

allsorts46 wrote:Agreed. One of the main reasons I used Firebird was that it's all nicely contained in one window (tabs, sidebar etc).

I firmly agree!!!!!!!

:2gunfire: Shoot the new download manager.
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GeraldB
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Post by GeraldB »

I'm just a non-expert blue-collar type user. I find the new download manager a welcome improvement over both IE and Firebird.
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