#759 QOL must have features for peazip

[gianluca]

Hi, I started using peazip recently after years of 7zip and winrar and I've noticed that the program is missing some features that the other two have and would be great to have them.

1) Allow the user to choose the default compressing method that he preferes and to configure the default settings to use with this; then add the option to select zstd as a default compressing method, because right now one can select only 7z and zip.
Why I'm asking this? Because if I want to use zstd I have to right click on the file/folder that I want to compress, left click on "add to archive", open the main program's window, select to use tar and then click to OK. I mean, the user loses a lot of time when he wants to use zstd as a default archive. In z7ip and winrar, instead, the user can configure the default archive settings beforehand and then compress all his archives with this method with just two clicks.
So, please, consider my suggestion, it would be a great quality of life improvement for the user.

2) Every time that I want to change the advanced options of the file associations, the program basically reinstall itself. Is ti possible to have the options to enter the Settings, modify what we need and then click on Apply and Save?

Thanks for reading.

[Giorgio Tani]

1) Thank you for the suggestion; I've added only most common format as context menu actions so far, but that may be expanded further in future.
Please note that from "Add to archive" entry PeaZip automatically selects last used format and settings, but any supported format can be set from Options > Settings, Archive manager tab.
Also, "TAR before" switch is automatically set if needed by the format, so it is basically needed only to confirm with OK or enter.
You can fine tune the workflow further using compression pre-set profiles or even saving your own custom compression profiles, which can be invoked by scripts, shortcuts, or menu entries using -add2preset and -add2custom switches (optionally using the "Immediate execution" flag to avoid need of confirmation step), as explained in the help file and on https://peazip.github.io/peazip-command-line.html page.

2) Changing file associations and system integration on Windows calls the installation script wizard, but does not re-install application files.
Same actions could be of course performed within the application rather than running the wizard - but in this case, user will have two different ways to set the same options; even if this is a common behavior for Windows apps it is not the most logical solution per-se.
Main reason however is that, being PeaZip a cross-platform application, I've preferred (and I understand it is a personal choice) to keep system integration code separated by design from the the main app code, so strictly system-specific code can be edited and maintained separately on each platform without being needed to compile the main binary.

[gianluca]

Thanks for the answer Giorgio, I'll have a look at the options that you suggested. I'm new to peazip, so I'm still figuring out how to customize it.
Anyway, I did some tests for comparison with 7zip and winrar, the programs that I've always used, and peazip with zstandard is really fast. So thanks a lot, because, if I'm not wrong, yours seems to be the only program with a user friendly UI that supports this format, with also the Tar option.

Grazie ancora, alla prossima, buona serata. :)