Download list behaviour in general - I just don't get it

[idbirch2]

I'm really not getting along with the beta at all, this last little quirk was enough to send me back to 5.59 until a final release is ready. I was downloading an 8GB set, 2-3 files were damaged but Newsbin wasn't downloading any pars. I know auto retries aren't implemented so I right-click the parent and choose 'Retry download" - Newsbin tries to re-download the damaged files in their entirity - a bit dumb but it only takes a few minutes so no biggy. The retry fails (red bands in the download list) and still, no attempt to download pars.

I'm now thinking - what do I do get these pars to download? The logical thing to me was to try Assemble incompletes - I'd expect the damaged files to be assembled as best they can and then pars downloaded to repair them but this didn't happen, instead the download list suddenly empties (wtf) and in my download folder, I have a set or rars with 3 damaged files.

After poking around, I find the parent and the whole fileset sat in "Failed downloads" (why? The whole set didn't fail, only 2-3 files did) so I expand the parent, locate the 6-7 par files, highlight them and choose "Add to download list" - that'll get them. Again, a surprise result, the entire file set is added back to the download list and the best bit - Newsbin wants to re-download every file in full!

I really don't like the feeling of having to cross my fingers and hope that what I want to happen is about to happen, it's not cool. I consider myself pretty proficient with windows based software in general so I don't think I'm being particularly dumb here with my assumptions on behaviour.

[richy99]

yeah there are issues with the downloads that why its beta

i normally found that by clicking the arrow to uncompact it select the par files you need to recover then assemble incompletes on the files that need it, it then repairs and extracts

[idbirch2]

Hm, I should have guessed that the "yeah it's a beta" line would get rolled out. The tag beta isn't an excuse for fundamental usability issues that crop up within only a few hours use - that, I believe, is what alphas are for. All I wanted from v6 was a new speed limiter, a tart up of the GUI and more robust AutoPar functionality. I guess on a positive note, being able to limit my speed to 30-40mb was nice.

Anywho, I don't want to piss on the parade too much, I just wanted to vent a bit after getting so hacked off.

[Quade]

I got some good data points from your post. The more bugs you uncover the better for me.

I can tell you something I discovered yesterday. If a set gets added to the failed list, there's a good change you'll have to re-download the whole thing. Was working on that this morning.

Beta's are for me to use you as test subjects. What you want out of them is sort of secondary to what I want out of them. It's been this way since day one with Newsbin beta's. You jumped in with both feet into B1, the first beta and seem surprised that it's got bugs.

[richy99]

maybe you need to wait for a final release than rather than a first public beta? we are the guinea pigs for Quade to find issues, im not saying there arent issues, there are many issues that need sorting out but to complain about a first public beta is abut ott dont you think?

[idbirch2]

I did expect more but that may be down to the high quality of previous betas, I guess I was spoiled a bit by those and got my hopes too high for the first public beta of v6. I'll patiently wait for a final release and stop moaning.

[itimpi]

I guess a point is that most of the betas you have seen have probably been within the v5 series where the basic UI was already in place and functionality was simply being enhanced. This meant that betas tended to be very stable, and the beta process was often relatively short.

With v6 which is a major rewrite of much of the Newsbin internals, the Alpha phase concentrated on getting the core download engine to work, and lay down the basis for the new UI approach. It was never intended to get to a feature complete state, but simply to a 'usable' one so that feedback could be obtained from a much wider user base.

Since this is the first v6 beta at this stage there is a lot of feedback needed over the best way for the revised UI approach should fit into peoples work patterns. From past experience like the move from v4 to v5 I think it is likely that this beta cycle will last for months as these things get sorted out.

[Quade]

I think it's selective memory. Some of the early 5.X beta's were in much worse shape.