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Found Multiple "Mistakes" in Default System Skin

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Staragox
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Joined: July 30th, 2018, 2:17 pm

Found Multiple "Mistakes" in Default System Skin

Post by Staragox »

Before I describe what I consider the "mistakes" to be, I need to explain that I have autism (specifically aspergers type autism), so you understand that my brain thinks differently then the average person. On the other hand, people with aspergers, have been diagnosed with aspergers in the first place, because their autism causes them to be extremely logical, literal and precise. This information is relevant when reading my list of "mistakes" below.

I am using the definition of mistake, that some dictionaries (including the Oxford Dictionary) lists as quote "an act or judgement that is misguided or wrong." As far as the "mistakes" I am reporting, the information in the default system skin is meaningless or useless because it lacks an absolutely necessary piece of information. (without the missing piece of information, the information provided in the default system is useless). I go into more detail below for each case.

1) CPU Usage as displayed in the default system skin is only displayed as a percentage, is not useful information, unless you ALSO know if all cores or processors in the system are available. Some systems let you disable a core or processor in BIOS, or even a virus could potentially disable one or more cores. How could the CPU Usage information be useful to anyone, if they don't know how many cores or processors are available? For example, a virus might of disabled all cores that Windows can use for any application, except for one. So the CPU Usage is potentially not showing accurate results. So in this case, the default system skin should display CPU Usage % and also the number of active cores or processors.

2) RAM Usage is also displayed as a percentage, WITHOUT displaying the amount of RAM that it "thinks" is available. Stating that the RAM Usage is 50% without stating the amount of available RAM, as I said above, is useless or meaningless information. For example, I believe Windows 7 only lets you utilize 32 GB of RAM if you have the Ultimate version. So if you don't have the Ultimate version of Windows 7, you could install 32 GB of RAM, and even the operating system might only utilize 16 GB. So how useful is it, to tell someone that they are using 50% of RAM when they installed 32 GB and they don't know that the operating system is only using 16 GB? Wouldn't the average person, immediately assume, if they installed 32 GB of RAM in their computer and the default System Skin in this program says 50% of RAM Usage that they are using 16 GB of memory when in fact they are really just utilizing 8 GB of RAM. I could give additional examples, from a RAM chip going loose (and not being available as memory) or anything else, to prove my point. But just displaying RAM Usage as a percentage without displaying the available memory, is not really useful.

3) For pretty much the same reason as above, displaying Swap Usage as a percentage, without actually displaying the amount of Swap Memory that is actually available is useless or meaningless. The operating system might not use the amount of virtual memory that you specify under the system settings (could be a maximum limit of virtual memory, virus, or any other reason that prevents it.)

Sincerely Yours,
Robert Twardowski

P.S - Because of having an autistic disability, it takes me a very long time to work on a message like this one (over an hour), so I just wanted to say, I do this to try to help people and improve this nice software product.
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jsmorley
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Joined: April 19th, 2009, 11:02 pm
Location: Fort Hunt, Virginia, USA

Re: Found Multiple "Mistakes" in Default System Skin

Post by jsmorley »

Thanks for your input. I can't disagree with your points, other than to say that under normal circumstances, the percentage of CPU and RAM are going to be correct, and our intent with the default "starter" skins was to make them reasonably robust, so they are of some use, but as simple as possible, to be used as a teaching tool for new users.

We are currently working on a new more advanced set of default skins for Rainmeter, which will be distributed in addition to the current Illustro suite, and we will certainly keep this in mind.
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raiguard
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Joined: June 25th, 2015, 7:02 pm
Location: The Sky, USA

Re: Found Multiple "Mistakes" in Default System Skin

Post by raiguard »

While we're on the subject of the default skins, could you please use the AccurateText option in the illustro skins and/or the new default skins? I didn't know that that option existed for over a year of playing with Rainmeter, and it is something that everyone should be using. Just a thought.
”We are pretty sure that r2922 resolves the regression in resolution caused by a reversion to a revision.” - jsmorley, 2017
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jsmorley
Developer
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Joined: April 19th, 2009, 11:02 pm
Location: Fort Hunt, Virginia, USA

Re: Found Multiple "Mistakes" in Default System Skin

Post by jsmorley »

raiguard wrote:While we're on the subject of the default skins, could you please use the AccurateText option in the illustro skins and/or the new default skins? I didn't know that that option existed for over a year of playing with Rainmeter, and it is something that everyone should be using. Just a thought.
Sure will!