Chop the client into small apps (like core/client/torrent maker)

[gaby de wilde]

I've been using the Quassel irc client, it comes with a core and a client. The core basically has no interface and the client is... well... a client. The client can sit on any pc and log into the core (much like µTorrent's web UI)

It is nice to have something like that for a torrent client because we all love a rich client with everything on it but we don't want it to consume any resources at all. Lighter than just a core with nothing but a username/password dialog it cant get.

There are lots of nice things that could be useful in a bittorrent client while at the same time would be a big no no if the design goal is to make it light weight.

Another great µTorrent app could be an application to hash torrents. It could auto discover new content being added to a watch folder, hash it and ftp it onto the users server. We want all the features on it but it really isn't nice to have an elaborate application merged into the client.

Likewise, the speed dialog could become part of a full blown process monitor (the way google chrome has for webpages and plugins.)

Furthermore, I would like a really simple file manager (folder viewer) that can tell me if a file is currently being used by µTorrent, search for duplicates on my computer, find all torrent files on my computer heck even match them with existing content, and it may do all other interesting torrent related file system opperations that do not belong inside the main "download manager".

I imagine it could display .torrent files exactly the same way windos shows folders. We click on the torrent a folder pops up with some extra info "have", "don't have", "searching..", "In progress" We can then put our torrent files in any location on the disk and they would seamlessly blend in with the file system. We would actually be able to find things again.. /ha

Don't mistake the examples for the topic...

The idea is to ponder the idea of having separate apps for things. Picture it, more features and an even smaller core app. I like the way µTorrent doesn't have an embedded video player and a browser build in, friends lists, multiprotocol chat clients and and and a pony!... it is great not to have all of that

[moogly]

I guess the company developing µT doesn't want to transform its client into a gaz factory like Bitcomet or Vuze.

µT is a BT client, that's all. Apha 2.1 allows already streaming feature, you can test it.

And many of your features have been requested before.

[gaby de wilde]

hi moogly,

My suggestion was actually to do the exact opposite from building a factory.

As we are going to run the program all day everything that doesn't need to be running could be removed from the main app so that we don't have to run this massive 300 kb client.</sarcasm>

A new user is already presented with more settings and buttons than he can be expected to comprehend, more advanced users like a simple interface with nothing extra on it. We do however want all those nice features that do not belong in a light weight client.

To give another example,

I can imagine people loving the full blown news reader build into the client (I've never used it) but wouldn't it be more useful if it was a separate application? If new content is found it can launch the client OR it can just save the torrents into (one of) the "automatically load torrents from:" folder(s) until the user starts the client OR it can just save them in a folder and do nothing. A "real" rss reader should remember and display the feed history along with the description. It should have import/export OPML have folder trees as well as labels. It should have all sorts of stuff we really really really don't want to see in µTorrent -- do we?

Besides that, people liking the µRSS aggregator should be free to use what ever client they like. Migration is kind of complicated if you have a lot of torrents running. It's not that they don't know how nice µTtorrent is. Bittorrent websites tend to drop like flies it would be great to have some archiving tool -- but not in the client plz

Things build into a client tend to be over simplifications and lack features, I think Opera software is a great example of that. Half baked rss, half baked bitorrent, half baked news reader, half baked email client, half baked irc and lots of other stuff that all works but all lacks features. As stand alone applications no one would use them. Would they be fully featured implementations the "browser" would have thousands of configuration dialogs and send even the most geeky nerds running for the hills.

Convinced yet?