queue sort preference not retained, interface questions

[bpwats]

Hi wonderful developers of SABnzbd,

Using the latest 043RC4 (and I think it was in 042 and earlier as well),
I noticed the prefered queue sort order is not retained.
When something happens to it, like when a new .nzb is added or
swithching views (simlple theme), it seems to default back to the oldest download first.
(instead of like smallest size first sort order)

Is this a bug or a feature?
I can see why this is, but I am on a decent server with over 100 days retention and download regularly.
Sometimes one wants to work with the downloads asap, when downloading stuff posted recently.

Also, I like simple over plush, beacause it allows me to change the order of the download individually (with the numbers in front).
I seem to remember, I could do this in the past too, in Plush. I cannot drag/drop the triangles (anymore). Could this be fixed?
(using Safari 3 and FireFox 3)

Is it possible, to give sort order preference within the downloads themselves? For example, always download the .nfo first?

IGrabNews on the mac has an "autmatic download feature", which will download anything (in a particular group) based on a substring of the post.
It checks periodically for new parts. I am not sure, to what extent this would "hammer" a news server (may nat be wanted from a netiquette pov).
However, it is really nice, when an upload is not done yet or not even posted yet. This oocurs often with recent FTD (Dutch origin usenet community, stands for Fill Threads Database) entries.
I'm not on newzbin; would that help in this case?

Thanks for your response,
B. Wats

[switch]

Do you have "Sort by age" ticked in config>switches? This will overwrite any sorting you do by clicking the links to sort by size ect. This is by design to keep the whole queue sorted by age, if we don't re-sort the queue at some opportunities then newly added files will be put in the wrong place.

Currently there are no options to download the .nfo first as each download is put in the incomplete directory first, and is not really meant to be accessed until the download is complete. Maybe someday there will be an nfo viewer, but it is not on the cards yet.

IGrabNews deals with headers, yes? This is something out of the scope of sabnzbd, we don't want to have to keep track of headers accross so many groups whe you can just use nzb files.

I have rarely run into issues for files being too new in the last year, is this still a problem that you see a lot?

[bpwats]

Do you have "Sort by age" ticked in config>switches?

Actually, I do. Thanks for pointing this out, I must have gorgotten I had set it in the past. That explains the behaviour.

Currently there are no options to download the .nfo first as each download is put in the incomplete directory first, and is not really meant to be accessed until the download is complete.

Wouldn't that call for a hidden folder then?

Maybe someday there will be an nfo viewer, but it is not on the cards yet.

There are available, even on the Mac platform.

IGrabNews deals with headers, yes?

I'm not an expert on the matter, but I think it does: based on (filtered) grouped headers, you pick what to (automatically) download.
These days, it is very hard to keep up with high volume groups like alt.binaries.boneless and the like; the reason i switched to binsearch.info
It's still manageble on smaller groups like mac apps.

IGrabNews has NZB support also, just like Unison (another mac news READER). Due to the latter GUI, (header) browsing images or sound files is cool, though.

This is something out of the scope of sabnzbd, we don't want to have to keep track of headers accross so many groups whe you can just use nzb files.

Yes, I agree .nzb's are the way to go, much less overhead/time consuming, but you're really dependant on news index servers or usenet groups.

IGrabNews has NZB support also, just like Unison (another mac news reader). Due to the latter GUI, (header) browsing for images or sound files is cool, though.

I have rarely run into issues for files being too new in the last year, is this still a problem that you see a lot?

Not in the way you mean (a post being only partially trickled to all news servers?), I think.
But this what people in usenet comminties do: *announce* that they're going to post such and such and do it up to 3 days later.
I guess I must be a greedy impatient BEEP BEEP.