Xplorer² v2.5.0.2 Change.txt file Mystery

[rnfolsom]

After updating Xplorer² v2.5.0.1 to Xplorer² v2.5.0.2, I discovered that my v2.5.0.2 Change.txt file contents starts with [2.5.0.0] 13 Apr 14.

Did I somehow mess up the installation of v2.5.0.2 (I installed it on top of v2.5.0.1), or were there no changes from v2.5.0.0 to v2.5.0.2?
If there were no changes, then what were the reasons (generalities would be OK) for installing v2.5.0.2?

This is not a big issue for me, but I am curious.

Thanks for any comments, suggestions, or help.

R.N. (Roger) Folsom

[Kilmatead]

The progression between 2.5.0.0 / 2.5.0.1 / 2.5.0.2 were minor updates to correct issues stemming from control-panel rendering via replacement-mode, etc. As minor bug-fixes they do not necessarily warrant notes in the changelog, as technically they are just supporting the overall 2.5 changes themselves.

That is to say, you did not make any mistake. The Help -> About version number is the official one for any given build - the changelog is just an overall nicety, not a verbosely detailed mountain of mere minutia.

[rnfolsom]

Kilmatead:

Thanks very much for the explanation.

For Your Amusement:

As a matter of curiosity, I was wondering what "stemming from control-panel rendering via replacement-mode" was all about, assuming that the "Control Panel" is the Windows (in my case, 64bit Windows7 sp1) control panel. I haven't had any problems with my Control Panel, perhaps because I access it using Windows Explorer from my Classic Start Menu.
How one would render a Control Panel I cannot imagine, other than making it a total mess.
My huge Webster's New International Dictionary, Second Edition (I got it in 1959) defines rendering as "act of one who renders: rendition; also, that which is rendered. Specifically: A version; translation; an idea, theme, or part." My dictionary has additional usages of "rendering" but they involve other activities such as plastering a wall, or running a rope or line through a pulley or reel, or trying out or extracting lard, tallow, etc..

R.N. (Roger) Folsom

[Kilmatead]

As anyone around here will tell you, don't ask me a question unless you have a lot of time to spare in your busy day.

How one would render a Control Panel I cannot imagine, other than making it a total mess.

And that is exactly the point - as part of "replacement mode" (where upon installation x2 may be set to be called as an intercept for windows explorer) the 2.5 edition had extra changes which allowed it to have more "entry points" for the system, such as responding to people clicking "My Computer" in the start menu, or the million and one programmes which have entries in their menus like "Open Downloads", etc. These would "ordinarily" call Windows Explorer, but now they can call x2 directly.

Personally, I am not especially a fan of that, as (especially for testing purposes) it is immensely important to have Windows Explorer available. In much the same way as people say "I don't use Internet Explorer, therefore I don't want it on my system! How can uninstall it! I hate that rubbish!" What many users are unaware of is that IE (even if you don't use it as your browser) is the system-default responsible for much of the text/picture rendering you see on a daily basis... such as when you view .CHM help files, or, indeed, look at the Quickview panel within x2 itself - you're actually looking at the embedded parts of IE working away in the background.

So -what does this have to do with the Control Panel in Windows? Well, each and every element of the Control Panel is actually a CLSID - that is, a Windows "Class ID", technically a class ID for Component Object Model (COM) objects (the gooey-bits that help stick together a filesystem/OS. For example, when you click "Computer" in your tree, you get a list of your connected drives, and in the x2 pane-header it says "Computer", or "My Computer", etc. However, if you look at the Address Bar (View -> Toolbars -> Address Bar) you will see it reads: ::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}. And that is the CLSID for "my computer". An abbreviated list may be found here, which is by no means exhaustive.

Anyway, x2 can (obviously) access these CLSID's directly - this is how it finds your Recycling Bin, etc. Back in the good old days of XP, x2 could "browse" the control panel links directly, and many users would do that instead of letting Windows hold their hand. Since Vista and above, however, Windows Explorer has been getting far more integrated (invisibly so) with not only the system itself, but also the Control Panel - and it does the "rendering" of all its menus, side-bars, internal-links, and pretty background shading.

I was wondering what "stemming from control-panel rendering via replacement-mode" was all about

So, long way around, we come to the crux: as part of x2's "replacement mode" users are allowed to browse the Control Panel from within an x2 pane, itself. And in XP this is fine - almost everything is accessible, and there are no real wolves in the long grass. But under Vista/Win7 the long grasses have parted to reveal lions and tigers who delight in dragging your sleeping children out of their tents at night for a midnight snack.

And Nikos had to backtrack a bit, separating some aspects of "replacement mode" and leaving them outside x2 aegis. This is a sticky-business as you might imagine, and no matter how much beta-testing is done, when released to the wild there are always going to be problems - problems which require immediate attention, but which to the end-user appear invisible.

Were you to really investigate things, you would find that the x2 changelog hasn't actually changed since 2.4.0.7 - but during betas no one really notices these things... it's only upon release that people start wondering about the divergence of build numbers.

Nikos, being the lazy git that he truly is at heart, just leaves the subsequent entries blank instead of filling them in with details most users wouldn't understand (or need to know). When humans read "vague" changelog entries like "Fixed many small bugs" they get curious about what those bugs were - when usually they're just errors so minor that even the family dog wouldn't sniff at them. It's also humiliating to announce a new "feature" and then have it followed by 10 changelog entries saying "Finally fixed <x>", "Really fixed <x> this time", "No trust me, <x> is dead now!" etc.

...defines rendering as "act of one who renders"

Don't you just love when they do that? It's like: Please, come here for answers, but let's state the bleedin' obvious first just to annoy you. Mr. Webster was a great man in my youth for etymologies (I survived university on his "New Collegiate 8th-Edition" from 1973, which was already 15 years "out of date" before I bought it used), but sometimes he really did need a good punch in the nose.

"Act of one who renders", indeed - render this, Merriam-Webster! I'll clobber you with my proper 22-volume definitive Oxford Edition, which can strike fear into the heart of even the most staunch philologistically lexicographic polyglottologist! (Clobber, I say! There is now much clobbering going on. I am in the act of "one who clobbers"...)

[rnfolsom]

Kilmatead:

You wrote: "As anyone around here will tell you, don't ask me a question unless you have a lot of time to spare in your busy day."

Despite having a busy day, I appreciate your detailed response. When my time permits (I am finishing the upgrades of my "new" Dell laptop --- bought in late 2012 --- and of another laptop for a friend, and a new Lenovo laptop for my wife), I will carefully read the new Quick Start Guide to see the new features, after re-reading Xplorer² UserManual(v2,1,0,1-1).pdf to see what I have forgotten.

Meanwhile (and probably later, given your remark that "it is immensely important to have Windows Explorer available") I will continue to use Windows Explorer as my standard Windows7sp1 tool. But it will be very interesting to see what Xplorer² features would be convenient for me to use, but that I am not now using because I have either forgotten them or because they are new.

So thanks for the information and concepts that you have provided.

As for Dictionary bragging rights: In addition to the one volume Webster that I mentioned (which weighs about 15 pounds and is 4.75 inches thick), we have a Compact Oxford English Dictionary New Edition (which also weighs about 15 points but is only 2.75 inches thick), bought earlier in this century. But the print is very small, so it comes with a handy magnifying glass.

R.N. (Roger) Folsom

[Kilmatead]

When I said it's important to have Windows Explorer available, by no means did I mean to imply it was of any real use or was anything other than the rubbish everyone knows it to be.

It's important to have available in the sense that x2 should not (nor any other 3rd-party manager) ever be used in a so-called "replacement mode". Explorer is, after all, the system process "owner" of the desktop itself (as in the OS 'shell' itself, not your desktop folder) - and no one in their right mind would replace the shell functions (even superficially) and get away with it in a dark alley knife fight.

Thus, to clarify: Explorer must always be available, but it is never to be actually used for anything (except CP rendering) - that's what we have 3rd-party managers for: to actually get the real work done.

[rnfolsom]

Kilmatead:

Thanks for the clarification re Windows Explorer.

R.N. (Roger) Folsom