Option For A More Exact Size?

[DaveXVI]

Is it possible to make the size column in the header lists have more significant figures? Or failing that, to get a more exact size when you access a post's properties?

Here's the reason it's needed: Many posters are now obscuring their subjects to avoid takedowns. In the e-book groups, the post subjects from some of the best posters will just be a random string of numbers. If you open the par file for a given batch of posts, you can see the actual titles (several dozen titles are listed in one par file), but the only way to figure out which post to download for a given title is from the size of the file.

The size Newsbin gives for files of a couple MB, in both the header display and the properties window accessed by right-clicking the post, only gives one figure after the decimal point, e.g. 2.5 MB. There may be a dozen posts listed in the same par file with sizes that round to that, because most e-books are just a couple or 3 MB. So you have to download all 12 books to find the one you want.

Is there an option to report a more exact size? If not, can we get one?

Thank you.

[Quade]

I'll have to look into it. One problem is that all sizes are just close guesses anyway. Since all files are encoded, you can't actually know the real size till you decode the file. Another option is to just download them all and pick the ones you want after it's done. They're not very big in total.

[DaveXVI]

OK, thanks, I was just hoping there was a switch I was missing, or an easy fix. But if it would take a lot of work, it's not worth it to save a few dozen MB of downloading.

BUT, since we agree that a few extra MB of downloading is not worth spending a lot of time to avoid, let me transition into another problem that's cropping up again.

I thought that awhile ago you changed the "Assemble Incompletes" option to work as soon as I clicked it, rather than after it gets whatever response from the server it's waiting for, but I guess not, because lately it seems to be back to making me wait until it decides it wants to assemble them.

That makes me wait several minutes to save downloading a couple of extra MB, and I hate it. There should at least be an option to assemble the incompletes as soon as I click on it. I understand that Newsbin might be waiting for a response or something, but I don't care. Just abort the request for that file, and assemble whatever I have at that point. I would rather download another 2MB of another incomplete par file and combine them to get the pars I need instantly, than sit here like a dummy waiting for Newsbin to try to squeeze the last 500KB out of the par file it's waiting for. Thank you.

[Quade]

I'll have to check. The way it's supposed to work is that on an individual file you select, it'll just force the assembly and be done with it. On a file set, groups of files, it tries to be smart about it and only assembles when it seems to make sense. The reason it does that is premature assembly can screw up a download when the download consists of a group of files. If you hit the plus icon and select the actual files to assemble, if should just do it, come hell or high water.

[DaveXVI]

Thanks for the response. I honestly don't remember if I've tried assembling the individual parts on group files, so I'll try that next time it happens and let you know if it works.