This page is supposed to keep an updated list of my current and past itches, and document how I, hopefully, over time will scratch some of those I find most annoying. See the Itches to Scratch blog post for some general thoughts about developer’s itches and how having a culture where they have the freedom and incentive to scratch them improves the state of software for themselves, the average user, society and humanity in general.

This list is intentionally written in a free-form format to lower the effort of adding to it, whatever information is relevant and available for the itch in question at the time of itching is added. Amendments and elaborations are expected.

Desktop Stuff

Mostly relates to GNOME as seen from an Ubuntu desktop installation (currently 16.04 LTS):

• gnome-screenshot: add zoom and scroll possibility in preview
• gnome-screenshot: choose region to save in preview
• rhythmbox: adjust volume by scrolling on entry in sound tray menu
• rhythmbox: radio library item’s genre field can only hold one(1) genre (RhythmDB API, base class for streaming source)(alternative)
• rhythmbox: podcast – improve separation of feed update and item/podcast download (from manual: auto download after add, prefs,  SE issue) (aadded 2019-01-21)
• rhythmbox: podcast – more prominent (playbar?, podcast list?) display of a playing item’s description than right-click->Properties, usually contains notes and links to subjects discussed (added 2019-01-21)
• rhythmbox: podcast – search should also include an item’s description (added 2019-01-21)
• indicator-multiload: new provider for cpu temperature monitoring (lp bug report)
• indicator-multiload (0.3-0ubuntu1): added menu entries doesn’t display, seems like total count is not incremented as they can be moved up to display, restart fixes issue
• Startup Applications Preferences: add ability to test by executing the defined command line
• gedit: a GUI-pendant to the functionality of  the beloved command line “tail –follow” (better known as “tail -f”) used extensively by sysadmins and developers for keeping an eye on especially log files on running systems, should continuously update a tab/buffer with new contents as it is appended to the file, maybe as a “gedit-tail-f” or “gedit-follow-file” plugin

Browser Stuff

• Firefox HeavyTabsUser add-on (move to front, move to back, toggle between latest active, reorder by url) (Tab Groups does some of it)
• Right click menu option on youtube links for choosing to open in “embed” or “watch” mode (add-ons that rewrite youtube links similarly: https://github.com/boriselec/youtube-embed-link-firefox & https://github.com/rhnvrm/yt2embed), 2023-07-27

Cloud Stuff

Google

• youtube: exclusively “last added” order of playlists while adding video to playlist, see issue discussed at youtube support, in the comments of this video showing a now obsolete feature or this reddit linking to an openusrjs script for reversing order of playlist contents (might be expandable, or others available), Chrome extension supposedly able to do it: playlist-sorter-for-youtu, known workaround: use browser search for finding correct playlist when adding a video to playlist, possible fix: figure out if the API can somehow accommodate reordering server-side

Corporate Stuff

• DavMail: fix inability to retrieve EML items with special names “Item Projektledermøde-5.EML not available”/”Item Ledelsesmøde-9.EML not available” (2017-03-01, v4.7.3-2438) (similar; #211, #523 )

Command Line Stuff (the POSIX way!)

• ‘tail –follow‘ should be able to color code output in color enabled terminals. Line color could eg. differ based on chronology of lines added (same color=same batch of messages), this also makes it apparent if output is progressing or not. I usually insert a bunch of line feeds to make some white space when  I want to follow progress in f.ex. a log file, without keeping focus on the particular terminal.
• GNU Wget: add possibility to fetch an exact range of bytes from a HTTP(s) entity using Content-Range headers (maybe even support partial media downloads using HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) aka. RFC 8216 or Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP aka DASH aka. MPEG-DASH  (here be patent pools)), see GNU Wget bug and some other stuff
• GNU Wget: add possibility of probing the size (Content-Length header) of a HTTP(S) entity using the HEAD method, maybe also other meta stuff could be useful like Content-Type, Last-Modified etc.

Developer’s Stuff

pySVN WorkBench

• ability to browser a remote repository, independent of local working copy (killer feature of TortoiseSVN)
• “Show only changed files”: save state/set default (accessible in “View” menu or view toolbar group)
• inconsistency in state of  “View->Show *” entries, view toolbar group and actually enforced state when closing/opening application
• history of commit logs (also unsuccessful ones!)
• diff-viewer: ability to recompute differences
• diff-viewer: ability to edit source file  (useful for smaller cleanups and fixes during commit preparation)
• diff-viewer: save collapsed state, or set a default
• diff-viewer: bar providing visual overview of changes in complete file
• diff-viewer: ability to scroll horizontally in diff viewer using <alt>/<shift>+ scroll wheel (<ctrl> is zoom) (refer to TortoiseSVN diff viewer for example)
• an uncontrolled directory cannot be added from context menu, although possible from Action->Add menu entry (added 20140912)
• a file that is both moved (svn delete+add) and changed cannot be diffed from context menu, although possible from Action->Diff.. menu entries (added 20140912)

Banging the ware stuff (most likely also kernel stuff)

• Lenovo ThinkPad L430: add support for  manipulating the “Hard blocked”-state of the wireless (wifi+bluetooth) killswitch (might be rfkill or thinkpad-acpi related)

theide (Ultimate++ editor)

• gui: screen resize = app maximize keeps old size
• gui: multiple alt-tab to shift away from window
• gui: non-modal search in file
• util: search in compiler output
• build: highlight lines with source error files
• build: ability to run a pre-execute script (f.ex. setcap)
• ui: sort filenames in package organizer pane (filebrowser)
• gui: when Environment->Editor->Show line numbers is on, documentation markers overlay  the line number
• gui: multiple search output panes
• gui: highlight search term in “find in file”  output pane (or show it if none found)
• util: show search path in “find in file”  output pane
• util: search result cache
• util: set default search term to selected text
• util: search history
• gui: remove/discard wording inconsistency in package directory context menu and confirmation dialog
• edit: automatic indentation
• edit: text size control with <ctrl>+<+>, <ctrl>+<-> and <ctrl>+<0>
• dbg: copy contents of variables to clipboard
• edit:indication of which file is current line during debug
• dbg: list breakpoint
• edit: goto line number
• gui: lock windows sizes in dual window mode
• dbg: tail log file instead of head (cursor jumps to top when updated)
• gui: undoing to state of file on disk should remove edit indicator (*)
• build: listen for changes in project files on disk (.upp + ?) and reload if changed
• build: in output window double click on line with unrelated ‘:’ and integer causes jump to line number (ex. “/home/miki/UppDTS/ModbusTcpSim/PageConfig.cpp: In member function ‘void PageConfig::SetConfigMask(uint32_t, uint8_t, uint8_t)” causes jump to line 32)
• open file in existing instance when specified on command line
• dbg, feature: overall breakpoint list and manipulation options (enable, disable)
• dbg, bug: variable value shown when hoovering doesn’t update when running/stepping program
• dbg, feature: examine memory as hex/octal/width etc.
• dbg, feature: indicate in package filelist the files which is contained in current call stack
• edit: highlight merge conflicts in code and indicate conflict in file explorer