Multiple file copy operations can now be queued to execute sequentially rather than in parallel. The implementation of the queue is “job” based. That is to say, when you select one or more files and click the Copy button, or use Copy and Paste, that initiates a copy “job”. Previously if you initiated a new job when the previous job was still in progress, the new job would execute concurrently. In Opus 10, jobs can now be queued to wait until a previous job is complete.
Queuing can either take place automatically, when needed (the default option), or you can create queues manually using arguments to the Copy command (or Clipboard COPY command).
There are two options in the Copying Files Preferences page that control automatic mode. When enabled, queues are established automatically using the following rules:
If the copy originates from a removable disc, a CD/DVD or an FTP site – the queue is based on the source folder
If the copy is to a removable disc, a CD/DVD or an FTP site – the queue is based on the destination folder
If the copy is to a fixed (local) hard disk, the queue is based on the physical disk number (so multiple partitions on the one drive will use the same queue)
For all other copy operations, the queue is based on both the source and destination
When a new copy job is started that matches an existing job (according to the above rules), the progress dialog attached to the first job will expand to indicate that a job is queued. The status line in the progress dialog shows the number of jobs that are queued, and has a small button that pops open a list of queued jobs. From this list you can start jobs immediately or cancel them before they begin. You can also rearrange the queued job list by moving jobs to the top of the queue.
By default when a job is queued, the existing progress dialog will display a confirmation dialog that gives you the option to bypass the queue and run the job immediately. This confirmation can be disabled if desired, either for the life of the queue (using the checkbox in the dialog), or complete via the option in Preferences. When a Progress Dialog has multiple jobs queued, the clicking the Abort button will display a prompt asking if you want to cancel only the current job or all jobs.
Using the Copy QUEUE command you can initiate queuing manually (or disable it) overriding the automatic mode. Using the QUEUE argument you can create a queue with a specified name (the name will then be shown in the title bar of the progress dialog). For example, Copy QUEUE=MyQueue would copy selected files using the queue “MyQueue”. If no name is specified for the QUEUE argument then a queue is automatically chosen using the rules above.
The QUEUE argument can also take the parameter none which disables queuing, quiet which disables the confirmation dialog, and the shift parameter, which lets you specify alternative behaviour based on whether the SHIFT key is held down or not. For example, the command Copy QUEUE=quiet,shift,none would by default copy using an automatic queue, without a confirmation dialog, but would bypass the queue completely if the SHIFT key was held down.
There is a new checkbox in the Copy progress dialog to enable Unattended operation. When this option is checked, no error or confirmation dialogs will be shown for the duration of the copy – instead, any errors will be silently logged and you can review these, and retry the failed operations, at the end of the procedure. The Copy command has a new UNATTENDED argument to control this.
The Copy Filter (and Delete Filter) options are now local to the current Lister rather than being global Preferences settings. These are configured using the Set COPYFILTER and Set DELILTER commands, which are in default Settings menu.
There is a new option in Copying Files Preferences to automatically select copied files. With this option enabled, new files that are copied (or pasted) to a folder will be automatically selected to make them more visible. The file display will also scroll automatically to reveal the first of the new files.
There is a new option in the Copying Files Preferences page to ask before merging the contents of existing folders. With this option off, a copy of a folder over an existing one will silently merge the contents of the two folders (unless the names of files within those folders clash). With this option enabled, Opus will prompt you to make sure you really want to merge the two folders.
There is a new option in Preferences to control the counting of sub-folder contents before copying or deleting, that lets you can selectively enable or disable counting based on the drive type. It is now also possible to skip file counting while it is happening using the Skip button in the progress dialog.
Progress dialogs (e.g. when copying files) now display progress indicators on the Windows 7 taskbar. A progress bar is displayed behind the taskbar icon and its colour changes to indicate operations which are paused or displaying errors. Progress bars in progress dialogs also change colour similarly.
Progress dialogs have a new design which combines the Pause button and timer/speed-counter of the old “full” mode while maintaining a compact size similar to the old “basic” mode. The choice of mode is gone and instead the dialog always displays as much information as it has available.
The time and speed counters now work in more situations and should be more accurate in some of the situations they already worked in (e.g. operations involving thousands of tiny files).
Progress dialogs no longer have a button selected by default, so if you accidentally push space when they get focus you won't do anything. (You can still push the tab key or use shortcuts to control the progress dialog via the keyboard.)
Progress dialogs now do a better job of not obscuring other dialogs. For example, if you use {dlgstring} in a button to prompt for input then there used to be situations where, if the timing was right, a progress dialog could appear on top of the prompt; it will now appear under the prompt.
Operations which display a progress dialog (e.g. file copying) now prevent the computer from going to sleep while they are active. (This only applies when a progress dialog is displayed and while progress is actually being made; stuck operations will not keep the machine on. The computer will still be allowed to sleep if the battery level becomes critical during the operation.)