UI and Settings: suggestions

[secretmango]

I went through the settings and found some possible improvements.

UI

• icons: papirus, by far the simplest, distinguishable, modern. Not sure where they are stored, they exist on KDE Plasma when using the flatpak. The default icons are pixelated and look dated
• under "show progress bar" disable rounding entirely, not a UI feature used anymore, flat bars already fit better into current design
• showing country flags could be cool, is there a privacy implication? It seems that the emule security site offers a list for countries but I didnt find a place to add the link.

performance

• statistics
  • display graph for 100h (best even longer)
  • update every 10 seconds
• advanced: I suspect increasing the file buffer to something between 5MB and 100MB would improve performance and fit modern RAM specs. Default to something low but allow a higher value. I am not sure what it does, but for qBittorrent you can store multiple Gigabytes of file cache in RAM for faster seeding.

general UX

• search: default to global search, as it finds way more results most of the time and is reasonably fast.
• general: enable tray icon by default. I think all desktops except GNOME still support them, and it allows hiding the window.
• server: update serverlist when starting program (to allow automatic updates using an up-to-date .met file).
  • Can't evaluate the other options, but having them there and not enabled by default causes confusion and uncertainty: should I enable slow but secure connections? etc.
• security
  • who can see my shared files: everyone. I guess that is controversial but if I share something I expect it to be seen, only to find out afterwards that it wasn't. Security should be done by sandboxing, not settings inside the app that users need to find for the app to start working at all, right?
  • filter servers should probably default to using https://upd.emule-security.org/ipfilter.zip which seems to be very up to date (last update 3 days ago). It removed quite a few servers so it might be too aggressive, not sure.
• Downloads: should default to the default download directory and probably an "aMule" subdirectory to allow sandboxing without access to all downloads (See flatpak permission change proposal). Defaulting to a hidden directory (on Linux at least and probably macOS too) is really bad UX
  • statistics, download and upload rate seem really low? I dont know speeds on aMule, but would expect 10Mbits download and 5Mbits upload could be expected? so defaulting to something in mbits range and allowing for higher values.
• downloads: stop downloads when free disk space reaches 2000 MB or so, the default 1MB must be a placeholder

[anto294]

One of the things I'd improve is the shared files section.
If you try to list in descending order by shared MB, it doesn't automatically update. You have to tap until you return to the same mode.

It would also be nice to have separate tab views: only shared files and active uploads. A bit like classic Emule.

Especially to make those with tons and tons of rare files shared 24/7 happy. :)

[secretmango]

This issue was for now just changes in default configs and possible value ranges, no actual feature changes.

[AntonioRedondo]

Maybe having a ticket to be implemented in the future dark theme on Windows and macOS would be a good idea.

Btw, great job aMule guys!

[secretmango]

Once I figure the location of default prefs out I can makr a PR, but this should be discussed first.

Also would be good if windows and macos users could test if papirus is there.

[got3nks]

Thanks for the long list @secretmango — going through each. Categorising as ✅ worth doing / ⚠️ nuanced / ❌ misunderstanding so the good ones can be split into trackable tickets afterwards.

icons: papirus, by far the simplest, distinguishable, modern. Not sure where they are stored, they exist on KDE Plasma when using the flatpak. The default icons are pixelated and look dated

❌ Papirus is a system icon theme — it doesn't ship aMule-specific assets (mule logo, ed2k server icon, AICH / shared / known tab icons). Replacing aMule's bundled SVGs with Papirus wholesale would leave gaps. What you're seeing on KDE Plasma via Flatpak is wxGTK picking up the user's system theme for generic icons; the aMule-specific ones still come from our bundle. If the bundled icons look dated, the fix is to refresh those SVGs, not switch theme.

under "show progress bar" disable rounding entirely, not a UI feature used anymore, flat bars already fit better into current design

⚠️ Personal preference rather than something we should flip the default on based on a single ask.

showing country flags could be cool, is there a privacy implication?

✅ Already enabled by default (ENABLE_IP2COUNTRY=ON in the cmake options). It uses libmaxminddb against a local DB file — no per-IP network call, no privacy implication. If you don't see flags, either the IP2Country build flag was turned off in your distro/Flatpak, or the local DB hasn't been fetched yet.

statistics — display graph for 100h (best even longer); update every 10 seconds

⚠️ Longer history is feasible but the in-memory ring buffer grows linearly. Worth bumping the cap, but 100h+ as a default is a lot of RAM for users who never look at the graph. Update interval is the same trade-off in reverse.

advanced: I suspect increasing the file buffer to something between 5MB and 100MB would improve performance and fit modern RAM specs. ... I am not sure what it does, but for qBittorrent you can store multiple Gigabytes of file cache in RAM for faster seeding.

❌ The qBittorrent analogy doesn't translate. aMule's FileBufferSize is the per-write buffer that controls how often partial writes flush to disk on the receiving side — not a BT-style RAM-resident piece cache. Sizing it to 100 MB would just delay flushes without throughput benefit on ed2k chunks (which are 9.28 MB hashed units). Different mental model.

general: enable tray icon by default. I think all desktops except GNOME still support them, and it allows hiding the window.

✅ Reasonable on Win / macOS / KDE. The risk is the "I closed the window, why's the app still running?" confusion for new users — but most P2P apps default to tray, and the close-to-tray behaviour can be paired with a first-launch hint.

server: update serverlist when starting program (to allow automatic updates using an up-to-date .met file)

⚠️ Defaulting to ON means an external HTTP call on every launch. The URL is already shipped (https://upd.emule-security.org/server.met) but the auto-update-on-startup checkbox is off out of the box. Flipping the default is fine in principle, ideally paired with a first-launch consent prompt rather than silent.

security — who can see my shared files: everyone. I guess that is controversial but if I share something I expect it to be seen, only to find out afterwards that it wasn't. Security should be done by sandboxing, not settings inside the app ...

❌ Same point that came up in #158: sharing IS enabled by default in aMule. The Everybody / Friends / No one radio in Security is the directory-listing toggle — it controls whether peers can request your full shared-files inventory via right-click → "View shared files", not whether sharing happens. Default "No one" is correct: peers can still download individual files by hash, they just can't browse your library. Switching the default to "Everybody" exposes file inventory unnecessarily.

filter servers should probably default to using https://upd.emule-security.org/ipfilter.zip which seems to be very up to date (last update 3 days ago). It removed quite a few servers so it might be too aggressive, not sure.

✅ With a caveat. We already ship upd.emule-security.org as the default for Ed2kServersUrl and KadNodesUrl, so trusting the same vendor for the ipfilter URL isn't a new policy direction — just consistent. The real concern is the "too aggressive, removed quite a few servers" point you flagged yourself; we should test the actual filter contents before flipping the default on.

Downloads: should default to the default download directory and probably an "aMule" subdirectory to allow sandboxing without access to all downloads ... Defaulting to a hidden directory (on Linux at least and probably macOS too) is really bad UX

✅ Genuinely good UX — ~/.aMule/Incoming is hidden on Linux/macOS and unfriendly under sandboxed Flatpak. ~/Downloads/aMule/ would be much more discoverable. Migration for existing users (don't move their files; just change the default for new installs) needs thought.

statistics, download and upload rate seem really low? I don't know speeds on aMule, but would expect 10Mbits download and 5Mbits upload could be expected? so defaulting to something in mbits range and allowing for higher values.

❌ The values shown are in KB/s (bytes/sec), not Kbit/s — easy misread. Also, the default 0 for upload limit means unlimited, and ed2k's credit system rewards many slow uploads rather than a few fast ones, so "max it out" defaults wouldn't be peer-friendly etiquette.

downloads: stop downloads when free disk space reaches 2000 MB or so, the default 1MB must be a placeholder

✅ 1 MB is too low — that's basically "wait until the disk is literally full". 100-500 MB is a sensible safety floor. 2000 MB is too aggressive for users with small SSDs / Raspberry Pi targets, but raising the default is overdue.

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@anto294

If you try to list in descending order by shared MB, it doesn't automatically update. You have to tap until you return to the same mode.

✅ Real bug — sort doesn't re-apply when the underlying list changes. Worth a separate issue so it can be tracked on its own.

It would also be nice to have separate tab views: only shared files and active uploads. A bit like classic Emule.

✅ UX improvement, eMule does it that way. Worth its own ticket too.

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@AntonioRedondo

Maybe having a ticket to be implemented in the future dark theme on Windows and macOS would be a good idea.

⚠️ Status differs per platform:

• macOS — already works. wxOSX picks up the system Appearance setting.
• Linux — already works. wxGTK uses the system GTK theme; if the user has a dark GTK theme, aMule renders dark.
• Windows — needs wxWidgets 3.3.0+ (wxApp::SetAppearance() API + experimental wxMSW dark mode, both added 2025-06-06). aMule's current minimum is wxWidgets 3.2.0 because Debian stable, Ubuntu LTS and several other distros still ship 3.2.x. Bumping the floor to 3.3 would lock those distros out, so Windows dark-mode support is realistically gated on the distro upgrade cycle.

Worth opening a separate ticket so the Windows side has a tracked milestone.

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Summary — what I'd split into individual issues / PRs afterwards:

• ✅ Tray icon by default
• ✅ Stats graph history bump (with sensible cap)
• ✅ Default download dir under ~/Downloads/aMule
• ✅ Raise disk-space safety floor (~100-500 MB)
• ✅ Default IPFilterURL to upd.emule-security.org/ipfilter.zip (pending content-check)
• ✅ Shared-files sort-refresh bug
• ✅ Separate "Shared files" / "Active uploads" tabs
• ⚠️ Windows dark mode (tracked, gated on wx 3.3 distro adoption)
• ⚠️ Serverlist auto-update on launch (needs first-launch consent design)
• ⚠️ Stats graph update interval (RAM trade-off)