Author Topic: Searching For Photos Based On Tags  (Read 2422 times)

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Offline bostonmanTopic starter

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Re: Searching For Photos Based On Tags
« Reply #25 on: January 14, 2025, 02:56:04 pm »
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So... what's the requirement of this thread that the typical photo management app doesn't do?

Seems some have provided suggestions.

The requirements were in the first few messages of this thread. One requirement was that the photo itself doesn't get edited with any tags or whatever.

My vision is a split window with check boxes on the left and a list of files on the right. Maybe the file list is the directory and all its sub directories; and maybe more than one directory can be chosen.

On the left are check boxes with filters that can be edited by the user. The check boxes may be: mom, dad, brother, sister, car, vacation, etc...

The list of pictures have already been associated with the filters (this is the difficult part) and placed into some database.

Say you want to find a picture of mom standing by a car. The file names are already in a database and the user has already taken extensive time to associate each picture with a tag. As each box is check (mom, car, etc...) the list of files on the right decrease showing the pictures that contain those two (or more) filters.

Then the user can double click on the picture and/or click on a picture and use arrow keys to show each picture rather than having to double click each one individually (maybe 100 pictures exist with 'mom' and 'car'; you certainly don't want to double click, close, double click, close, etc...
 

Offline PlainName

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Re: Searching For Photos Based On Tags
« Reply #26 on: January 14, 2025, 09:03:24 pm »
That's what the photo managers do. I wouldn't touch one that actually modified a file (including filename) so no problem there - all my photos are flagged RO as they get pulled off the camera or phone, just to make sure.

The advantage over messing with a filesystem is that it's filesystem agnostic - change your system for any reason and the database and files remain just as they were on the old setup. Having relational filesystems sounds cool, but you're locking yourself into compatible systems and future you may find that not optimal.

You suggest the filename is an accumulation of tags (mom, parent, woman, for instance) but you have to change the filename if you add or remove tags. None of the photo albums do that - the tags for every photo are kept in a database separate from the photos. If you edit a photo the original is never changed and instead a copy, which is your edit, is saved. Whether you normally see both versions or just the edited one is typically a user preference. Add or remove tags and the photo files never change.

I am not trying to push you into a photo album app but you wanted to know if such a program existed, and whether doing the tagging was worth it. They do, and many users seem to think so, in that order.
 

Offline Analog Kid

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Re: Searching For Photos Based On Tags
« Reply #27 on: January 14, 2025, 10:00:57 pm »
I figured out one piece of the puzzle, which is how to detect changes to the file system (creating, deleting and moving files) so that the database could be automagically updated when these things happen, allowing the photo-finding app's database to be synchronized with the actual state of the file system. (This is through some Win32 functions that I previously didn't know about, specifically one called ReadDirectoryChangesW() that logs all these changes.)

So it may actually be possible for me to put together a rudimentary but working app using this. We'll see ...
 

Online Nominal Animal

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Re: Searching For Photos Based On Tags
« Reply #28 on: January 14, 2025, 11:31:28 pm »
The requirements were in the first few messages of this thread. One requirement was that the photo itself doesn't get edited with any tags or whatever.

My vision is a split window with check boxes on the left and a list of files on the right. Maybe the file list is the directory and all its sub directories; and maybe more than one directory can be chosen.

On the left are check boxes with filters that can be edited by the user. The check boxes may be: mom, dad, brother, sister, car, vacation, etc...

The list of pictures have already been associated with the filters (this is the difficult part) and placed into some database.
Yep; the viewer part you can do trivially in a browser –– the second biggest part is deciding how to present the images; some kind of a preview/book, paged or continuous, preview sizes ––, but populating the database is the biggest task.

If you separate the database modification to a separate browser page –– that is, you have a separate viewer, and a separate image tagger/adder ––, I think I could create an example static HTML+CSS+JS for this (one for viewing/searching, another for editing the database), although I won't make it pretty or nice to use: the visual user interface tuning is the hardest part in it.  You know, CSS finessing like colors and layout, whether the preview images are in a grid or a list, paged or continuous, preloaded and just hidden or the entire list regenerated when choices change.. it's basically best to do that stuff by practical testing on unsuspecting victims.

The basic structure is similar to my Finite Impulse Response Filter Analysis tool page (view its source): it works both online and locally, and will not require any network connection.  (You can save the single HTML file locally, and open it in a browser.  For the FIR analysis, you stick the coefficients in the top bar, say 1 -1 for a high-pass filter, and it'll auto-draw the spectral response of that filter.  The horizontal axis is the frequency, with zero on the left and half the sampling frequency on the right.)
As usual, this would be in Public Domain / CC0-1.0, for anyone to use as they wish.  (I do this because I wish people would use the technique; it works surprisingly well, and is portable.)

The one downside from browser-based tag editing is that it cannot easily scan directories for file names: the JavaScript can only pop up an Open dialog (although it can be limited to image files by default), where the user can select any number of files; Ctrl+A or Cmd+A will select all files shown in any particular folder.  Similarly, saving the modified "database" uses the browser "Save Download" facility, so the user must save the database over the previous database file where the viewer part will see it; it cannot be automatically named, user interaction is necessary.
 

Offline Analog Kid

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Re: Searching For Photos Based On Tags
« Reply #29 on: January 14, 2025, 11:43:15 pm »
But with a browser-based solution, you'd still have the same problem as with a non-browser application:
How do you synchronize the picture database with the actual state of the filesystem?
As the user moves, deletes and renames (picture) files, the database will no longer match the filesystem.
As I posted above, I discovered at least one way to programmatically rectify that problem. Not sure it could be adapted to a browser-based app, though.
A browser-based app would be my last choice for such a package, BTW, but that's just my personal prejudice.
 

Offline ledtester

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Re: Searching For Photos Based On Tags
« Reply #30 on: January 14, 2025, 11:50:17 pm »
Just curious if anything like that exists, but, as mentioned, I think it would be a time consuming process that's not worth it; unless I wanted to take several hours creating the tags.

I would look at one of the "self-hosted alternatives to Google photos":

https://itsfoss.com/google-photos-alternatives/

I don't have any experience with any of them, but it is clear they keep their own indexes of the photos.

Some even have built-in facial recognition so it can tag people for you. Some even have object recognition, e.g. this post from the immich reddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/immich/comments/18hudoe/is_it_possible_to_search_for_an_object/
 

Online Nominal Animal

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Re: Searching For Photos Based On Tags
« Reply #31 on: January 15, 2025, 11:23:52 am »
As the user moves, deletes and renames (picture) files, the database will no longer match the filesystem.
The only reliable solution for that is to add the tags into the files themselves.

There are libraries in various languages that provide an uniform simplified interface across various filesystem monitoring approaches in different OSes (inotify/fanotify in Linux/Android, fsevent in macOS, kqueue in BSDs, ReadDirectoryChangesW in Windows), but the entire approach suffers from the simple fact that moves and renames are rare compared to additions and new image creation via file editing (think resizing and such).

Also note that it would have to be running all the time, too, and monitor all events involving the image folder(s) whenever the computer is running.  The run-time overhead would be small, but not neglible!

I think you should seriously reconsider what you expect from this kind of an application, and whether you really want an always-running service consuming resources on your workstation(s).

A browser-based app would be my last choice for such a package, BTW, but that's just my personal prejudice.
Yep.  Most people today do not realize how efficient an environment it is, especially the JavaScript engines; and miss the obvious benefits like no installation or privileges required, excellent visual properties and theming capabilities via CSS and SVG vector graphics elements, and so on.
(My home page uses CSS and embedded SVG, contained in a single 21,749-byte uncompressed file, and is exactly as sharp on any resolution and device.)

Although it is online-only, just do yourself a favour and explore the online EasyEDA electronics design suite a bit.

There is no technical barriers for something like that to also work locally, without any server or network connections –– and you really don't need to use any external libraries or frameworks either!  The "Save" operations will always pop up a file selection dialog unless you use the FileSystem API and FileSystemDirectoryEntry objects that not all browsers support (and which only works locally, not in a web environment, which are why I do not normally use it).  AFAIK, there is no directory modification notification mechanisms available yet.
« Last Edit: January 15, 2025, 11:26:36 am by Nominal Animal »
 

Offline PlainName

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Re: Searching For Photos Based On Tags
« Reply #32 on: January 15, 2025, 01:13:55 pm »
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Most people today do not realize how efficient an environment it is, especially the JavaScript engines; and miss the obvious benefits like no installation or privileges required, excellent visual properties and theming capabilities via CSS and SVG vector graphics elements, and so on.

Primary reason why I dislike web apps is because they share the same window as every other web thing. And I don't mean at the same time, but even run separately in their own window.

To explain: when you fire up the browser it opens either to a specific window size (mine) or whatever size it was when last closed (most everyone else). For browsing news sites I prefer a portrait window of 1200x1200 pixels, but for videos I prefer the more normal widescreen format. With a browser it is not simple to achieve that without a certain amount of irritation, whereas with distinct and separate apps it's a non-issue.

That's not to mention other stuff like being able to kill with prejudice one app and not affect any other - tricky when they all use the same browser engine. Oh! I did mention it... oh well :)
 

Online Nominal Animal

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Re: Searching For Photos Based On Tags
« Reply #33 on: January 15, 2025, 02:24:19 pm »
With a browser it is not simple to achieve that without a certain amount of irritation, whereas with distinct and separate apps it's a non-issue.
True.  Separate profiles for each browser-based application could be a solution, though.  (It'd require one to create a desktop shortcut, naming the profile and the local HTML file to be opened.)

That's not to mention other stuff like being able to kill with prejudice one app and not affect any other - tricky when they all use the same browser engine.
I currently use Firefox 134.0 in Linux on x86-64, and it runs each window in a separate process.  I can always kill an app by closing that window, although if really stuck it can take up to ten seconds for the browser engine to notice and let me kill the process.

Again, a separate profile, with a separate independent browser process group per profile, would solve this.

Granted, it is a pain to create and manage those profiles, and not all browsers actually support multiple concurrent profiles this way.

Browser-based tools are obviously not a perfect solution!  The other one I personally would consider is Python 3 (3.8.20 or earlier, for maximal Windows compatibility) with Qt 5.  It has its own downsides, from not-exactly-native widgets and its own look-and-feel, to difficulty of installing and maintaining library dependencies on some OSes.  (In Linux, it is not a problem at all, because of KDE (desktop environment based on Qt), and all distributions with a graphical desktop having native packages for Python 3 and Qt 5 with PyQt5 or PySide2 Python bindings.)

There are many valid reasons to dislike browser-based tools, but still, I think one should actually check them out first before ruling them out for purposes like this.  (Specifically, I'm envisioning a way of sending your grandma or other not-so-technical relative a browseable tagged picture album on an USB stick.  I can make it as easy as "plug it in, wait for the window to open, then double-click on the icon that says "index" or "index.html" below it.  The same can easily be put online.)
 

Offline Analog Kid

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Re: Searching For Photos Based On Tags
« Reply #34 on: January 16, 2025, 01:08:37 am »
As the user moves, deletes and renames (picture) files, the database will no longer match the filesystem.
The only reliable solution for that is to add the tags into the files themselves.

Absolutely a no-go for me. I don't want any apps messing with my image files unless I explicitly command them to do so!

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There are libraries in various languages that provide an uniform simplified interface across various filesystem monitoring approaches in different OSes (inotify/fanotify in Linux/Android, fsevent in macOS, kqueue in BSDs, ReadDirectoryChangesW in Windows), but the entire approach suffers from the simple fact that moves and renames are rare compared to additions and new image creation via file editing (think resizing and such).

Also note that it would have to be running all the time, too, and monitor all events involving the image folder(s) whenever the computer is running.  The run-time overhead would be small, but not neglible!

I think you should seriously reconsider what you expect from this kind of an application, and whether you really want an always-running service consuming resources on your workstation(s).

True, it would have to be running pretty much all the time (as an auto-starting "silent" process), and it would take some resources, but hardly any from the little testing I've done; it would basically be calling ReadDirectoryChanges() in an endless loop, and this function takes almost zero CPU cycles and very little memory while it's waiting for something to happen with the file system.

(This is under Windows; I don't care about any other OSs like Linux.)
 

Offline abeyer

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Re: Searching For Photos Based On Tags
« Reply #35 on: January 16, 2025, 06:15:31 am »
With a browser it is not simple to achieve that without a certain amount of irritation, whereas with distinct and separate apps it's a non-issue.
True.  Separate profiles for each browser-based application could be a solution, though.  (It'd require one to create a desktop shortcut, naming the profile and the local HTML file to be opened.)

I don't think you even need a profile... in chrome if you do the "Install page as app" option, it creates the shortcut for you and automatically tracks things like window size/position separately for the app than for vanilla chrome windows.
 
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Offline tooki

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Re: Searching For Photos Based On Tags
« Reply #36 on: January 18, 2025, 05:29:05 pm »
As the user moves, deletes and renames (picture) files, the database will no longer match the filesystem.
The only reliable solution for that is to add the tags into the files themselves.

There are libraries in various languages that provide an uniform simplified interface across various filesystem monitoring approaches in different OSes (inotify/fanotify in Linux/Android, fsevent in macOS, kqueue in BSDs, ReadDirectoryChangesW in Windows), but the entire approach suffers from the simple fact that moves and renames are rare compared to additions and new image creation via file editing (think resizing and such).

Also note that it would have to be running all the time, too, and monitor all events involving the image folder(s) whenever the computer is running.  The run-time overhead would be small, but not neglible!
I can’t speak to the other OSes, but in macOS, the whole point of FSevents is to not need to constantly check for changes, but to have the filesystem issue events when changes happen — and that includes files being added to or created inside the watched directories. macOS uses fsevents for numerous things itself*, so it’s always running anyway, and from using fseventer (a utility to visualize filesystem changes in real time) the overhead is tiny. (As I understand it, a program essentially “subscribes” to changes within a given scope. FSevents only tracks that anything in a directory (including metadata) has changed, but not what the changes are. So if the FSevents log says that a directory changed, you still need to go back and see what changed.)

For real-time interception of file accesses, macOS also uses kqueue, since it is a BSD.

*one of the biggest uses is Time Machine: it uses FSevents to keep track of all the directories that have changed since the last backup, so it doesn’t need to scan the whole disk for differences, just those directories.
 

Online Nominal Animal

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Re: Searching For Photos Based On Tags
« Reply #37 on: January 18, 2025, 05:54:18 pm »
in macOS, the whole point of FSevents is to not need to constantly check for changes, but to have the filesystem issue events when changes happen — and that includes files being added to or created inside the watched directories.
That is exactly what inotify/fanotify in Linux and kqueue in BSDs do/are used for.  inotify does not allow interception. fanotify supports open()-time interception, either allowing or denying the open to proceed as-is.  For full interception and examination of filesystem operations in Linux, one must use either the audit subsystem or a seccomp filter in all intercepted processes.  At the library level, interposing fopen()/open()/openat()/creat() etc. in dynamically linked processes is also possible.  For individual files, the owner user (or sufficiently privileged user) can place an exclusive lease on any local file (will not work over NFS etc.), so that any other process opening the file will be blocked while a signal is delivered to the lease owner.  There is a time limit, during which the lease owner can release or degrade the lease, but there is a time limit (on the order of seconds to a minute, typically) after which the kernel allows the open to proceed.  It is not possible to replace the inode to be opened this way, because the block occurs only after the opener gets a reference to the inode.  The lease also does not block any other process from hardlinking some other inode over the same filename, i.e. replacing the entire file/inode with another.

It is only Windows that requires polling to detect changes have occurred.

In Linux, the CLOSE_WRITE inotify/fanotify event is particularly useful, because it indicates that a process that had a file open for write has now closed it (with the event even naming the entry in the watched directory).
« Last Edit: January 18, 2025, 06:03:51 pm by Nominal Animal »
 

Offline PlainName

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Re: Searching For Photos Based On Tags
« Reply #38 on: January 18, 2025, 06:37:46 pm »
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It is only Windows that requires polling to detect changes have occurred.

Long time since I did low level Windows stuff, but literally 5 seconds on t'web brought up this:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/fileio/obtaining-directory-change-notifications

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An application can monitor the contents of a directory and its subdirectories by using change notifications. Waiting for a change notification is similar to having a read operation pending against a directory and, if necessary, its subdirectories. When something changes within the directory being watched, the read operation is completed.

I reckon that's waiting for an event rather than polling.

(And this is just the first hit in my search - there are equivalents for files, discs, etc.)
 
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Offline tooki

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Re: Searching For Photos Based On Tags
« Reply #39 on: January 18, 2025, 06:53:02 pm »
It is only Windows that requires polling to detect changes have occurred.
I’m pretty sure that’s incorrect, actually. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/fileio/obtaining-directory-change-notifications?redirectedfrom=MSDN

One thing I have realized over the years is that Windows actually can do a lot of things, but that for some reason, a ton of Windows developers simply aren’t aware of those APIs or calls, so they don’t use them, and instead either go without or write some nasty hack. :(

For example, Windows developers have the habit of saving paths (whether absolute or relative) to files, rather than saving shortcut data. Consequently, practically all software on Windows loses track of files if they’re moved or renamed. For years I assumed this was because Windows simply lacked the API calls. (And before Win XP, I believe it did.) Then (years ago on either Vista or 7) I was rearranging stuff on my work PC, including moving or renaming my iTunes media folder. I assumed I’d need to re-target iTunes, so I opened its preferences, only to discover it had already updated on its own. I did a bit of research and discovered that the Windows Distributed Link Tracking (DLT) service is designed just for this type of thing: when you first create or open a file, you ask Windows for a an object ID, and you save that instead of (or in addition to) the path. I vaguely recall there was also a way to do this using the shortcuts API, since shortcuts contain paths, DLT object ID, and more. Then you use the DLT or shortcuts API to resolve the file’s current location when you need to use it. The DLT service can track a file even if moved from one disk to another, sometimes even across servers.

Again, this was my work PC — at my job at a software company that developed a Windows application. File paths were a huge source of support calls, so I asked the lead developer if there’s a reason we didn’t use DLT. Blank stare. He’d never heard of it. Neither had any of the other devs. And it’s not like it was anything new, that API was many years old by then.


This also relates to one of the little things that continues to annoy the hell out of me on Windows: the inability to move or rename an open document. On the Mac, provided you’re staying within the same volume (partition), you can move or rename a file while it’s open, and most applications silently update the title in the document window and merrily continue on. This even works on the Mac version of Microsoft Office. On Windows, depending on whether the application set a file lock or not, it either doesn’t let you move/rename the file, or it lets you but the application doesn’t realize, and then either malfunctions or saves another copy of the file under the old path and name…  |O
 

Online Nominal Animal

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Re: Searching For Photos Based On Tags
« Reply #40 on: January 18, 2025, 08:06:17 pm »
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It is only Windows that requires polling to detect changes have occurred.
I reckon [FindFirstChangeNotificationA is] waiting for an event rather than polling.
Sure, but I was referring to the cross-platform compatibility libraries.  The ones I've looked at specifically mention ReadDirectoryChangesW and polling in Windows, and inotify/fanotify/kprobes/fsevents (and thus notifications) on other OSes.

My underlying point is that when one wants to write a proper application, they may need to choose between Windows and non-Windows portability, because the libraries providing portable abstractions make some serious compromises and simplifications.

(I find especially portable serial libraries to have unacceptably poor Linux implementations, as they usually follow Windows paradigm, and do not and cannot properly map stuff to termios.  Plus, they typically assume untrue things in POSIX, like "short reads and writes never happen" (often as "writes are atomic and never short, as long as I don't try to write too much at once"), because that may be true in Windows.  Sure, they work for most users most of the time, but that just isn't sufficient to me: I need reliability, at least the library/abstraction layer to reliably report any errors and issues to my own code, not ignore them as "improbable".)

If you really wanted an OS independent abstraction, you'd have to start from scratch, creating an abstraction that does not start from anything existing in particular to map to, and instead handles the full capabilities of all OSes.  The end result is something like the browser environment in JavaScript –– and as discussed, some have pretty strong prejudices against that.
 

Offline PlainName

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Re: Searching For Photos Based On Tags
« Reply #41 on: January 18, 2025, 09:42:39 pm »
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If you really wanted an OS independent abstraction, ...

As an end user, I would much prefer a native application. Something that fits all destination is bound to be compromised, and why would I put up with that when I only want to use it on my system? That would be like having to use a tractor to blat down the motorway because some roads are quite rutted and muddy and it's a fit-all vehicle.
 
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Online Nominal Animal

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Re: Searching For Photos Based On Tags
« Reply #42 on: January 18, 2025, 09:55:59 pm »
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If you really wanted an OS independent abstraction, ...
As an end user, I would much prefer a native application.
Sure, why not?

However, I already explained that if I were to create something like this myself, I would want it to be portable simply because I'd expect I'd be sending such tagged albums to relatives and friends, or perhaps put them online.

That is, for this particular case, tagged and searchable photo albums, portability across OSes seems a desirable feature.

Unless, of course, you're one of those "everyone uses Windows, and if they don't, they should" religious zealots.
 

Offline PlainName

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Re: Searching For Photos Based On Tags
« Reply #43 on: January 18, 2025, 10:07:51 pm »
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Unless, of course, you're one of those "everyone uses Windows, and if they don't, they should" religious zealots.

AIUI, nearly 'everyone' does use Windows (more or less) but it tends to be the non-Windows ones that might be recognised as zealots. Personally I don't really care so long as I don't get preached at for my choice :)

You want zealots? Check out the W10 anti-7 fanbois on Steam.

(OK, some contradiction there, but Steam is a small niche in comparison to an OS user base.)
« Last Edit: January 18, 2025, 10:10:18 pm by PlainName »
 

Online Nominal Animal

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Re: Searching For Photos Based On Tags
« Reply #44 on: January 18, 2025, 11:38:19 pm »
AIUI, nearly 'everyone' does use Windows (more or less) but it tends to be the non-Windows ones that might be recognised as zealots.
Ah.  So, if I don't use Windows, I'm recognized as a zealot.  Therefore, portability outside non-Windows is zealotry, and completely unnecessary.  Got it.
 

Offline PlainName

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Re: Searching For Photos Based On Tags
« Reply #45 on: January 18, 2025, 11:57:17 pm »
AIUI, nearly 'everyone' does use Windows (more or less) but it tends to be the non-Windows ones that might be recognised as zealots.
Ah.  So, if I don't use Windows, I'm recognized as a zealot.  Therefore, portability outside non-Windows is zealotry, and completely unnecessary.  Got it.

Don't be daft. That's not at all what I wrote. And don't forget that you wrote:

Quote
Unless, of course, you're one of those "everyone uses Windows, and if they don't, they should" religious zealots.

I could easily have done what you've just done and taken that as meaning you're saying I'm a zealot.

Read the damn thing again, why don't you. To paraphrase, I wrote that of the zealots, they tend to be non-windows users. That IS NOT in any shape or form saying that all non-windows users, never mind you specifically, are zealots. Sheesh.
 

Offline SiliconWizard

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Re: Searching For Photos Based On Tags
« Reply #46 on: January 18, 2025, 11:57:52 pm »
 :popcorn:

Anyway, I would have thought that adding searchable tags to photos was a pretty basic feature that has probably existed for a couple decades even just using a "native" file explorer?
 

Online Nominal Animal

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Re: Searching For Photos Based On Tags
« Reply #47 on: January 19, 2025, 01:18:03 am »
To paraphrase, I wrote that of the zealots, they tend to be non-windows users. That IS NOT in any shape or form saying that all non-windows users, never mind you specifically, are zealots. Sheesh.
In my experience, most zealots are Windows users shouting that everybody else should be using Windows, too, or at least write their code to be Windows-compatible, because "everyone uses Windows, sheesh!".

I always seem to have to explain why I have to limit some solutions to POSIXy systems –– so not any particular OS, not even Linux; I much prefer to be portable between Linux and BSDs in particular ––, but the exact reason, portability libraries being not good enough due to the compromises they have to make, is often rejected with "then use Windows like everybody else does! Sheesh!".

And then, when I do suggest a portable solution (like a browser-based tool), I get that "I want a native application instead." followed by "Better make it a Windows application, because everyone uses Windows, right?".  No, not right.

So, no "sheesh", just a completely different experience.  I might be a bit fed up by Windows users calling me a zealot for not using Windows, mind you.  It's like watching middle age villagers milling about with pitchforks and torches from a window, shouting at me how violent a mob I am.
« Last Edit: January 19, 2025, 01:21:33 am by Nominal Animal »
 
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Offline PlainName

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Re: Searching For Photos Based On Tags
« Reply #48 on: January 19, 2025, 09:48:51 am »
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In my experience, most zealots are Windows users shouting that everybody else should be using Windows, too

Well let's not get too hung on this.

On this specific point I can't remember the last time I saw someone asking how to do something in Linux, or for advice on Linux, and someone else saying forget that and just use Windows. I don't recall seeing anyone jump into a Linux thread and say, out of the blue, just use Windows. In fact, I'd spill my coffee on my keyboard laughing. OTOH, I do see that kind of thing quite often from Linux (assumed) users. Perhaps it's just that I use Windows so don't have a massive interest in perusing Linux-specific forums, though I don't shy away from Linux info if it crops up. Perhaps that's the same for you - you inhabit the Linux universe more so tend to see and notice contrary stuff.

So long as neither of us are being zealots I don't see a problem.
 
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Offline PlainName

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Re: Searching For Photos Based On Tags
« Reply #49 on: January 19, 2025, 09:59:53 am »
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when I do suggest a portable solution (like a browser-based tool), I get that "I want a native application instead."

OK, this thing. I really don't see why one is castigated for not wanting to compromise one's experience. Given a nice-looking app and one with the exact same function but a poor GUI, why is it a crime to prefer the nice one? Actually, that's not the crime - it seems the issue is with merely voicing that preference.

I understand that as a developer you want to make things once rather than half a dozen times in different ways. There is no problem with that and, were I attempting to create a multi-platform app I might do the same. But my comment wasn't about being a developer and purely about being the end user. So, if a non-native app cannot use specific features of my PC, why can't I say that I would prefer an app that does use those features?

[Edit: sorry, missed a bit]
I think you're conflating things on this. On the one hand I said I don't like browser-based applications and then, for a completely different reason and context, I said I prefer a native app. You've tied those together and then thrown a strop on that basis, whereas they are in fact different things and unrelated.

For the web app thing, it was about the preferences for one app being used for another, and I gave an example. That absolutely isn't about browser vs native - I just used a native app (PDF editor) and have the exact same issue with that. If it's set up for copy editing it is wrong for general viewing, and it's so annoying that I actually use a worse (to me) pdf viewer just so I'm not continually using the wrong preference!

For the native app thing, it was about waits vs polling. Nothing whatever to do with browsers and everything to do with application frameworks.
« Last Edit: January 19, 2025, 10:15:35 am by PlainName »
 
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