Bartender vs. Bongos2

[Jdtigg]

I am trying to work a few things out on my UI, switch and swap to see which will work better, memory wise and versatility, and have come across a dilemma on the button mods.

I tried trinity and did not have the full list of things i need that bongos gave (besides, took up to my memory vs. bongos).

So, in looking further I saw the Bartender bar mods and need some advice on the comparison of the two.

Thank you

[Sparr]

I've used Bartender3 and Bongos2. Both have the coverage of functionality that I want, and these are:

• Support for class stances/forms
• Out-of-range coloring
• Display of key bindings
• Interoperability with Omni Countdown Cooldown
• "Snap-to" behaviour for aligning bars
• Per-bar, variable scaling, sizing (number of buttons per bar), and orientation

Two things tipped the balance into Bongos2's favor:

• Better rendering of keybinds - Bongos2 can display bindings like ALT + CTRL + Q, Bartender3 cannot.
• Better mechanism for assigning keybinds - Enter keybinding mode, hover over a button, key in your keypress combination, done. Repeat.
• Better configuration UI - Right-click on a bar to get a tab-categorized menu of options. The menu is also persistent until you command it to close.

I realize most of these advantages are usability factors pertinent only to configuring the mod before "actual" use, but they give the sense of a more polished addon. And I use tri-key "chord" combos a lot, that being able to display them on their buttons is more than a nice-to-have feature.

[Petrah]

I originally used Bongos but then had issues with the "disappearing pet bar" (not Bongos related)... which Bartender fixed. After having to use Bartender because of the pet bar, I found that I had more options and it was much easier to use than Bongos.

They are both great mods, but for me Bartender is easier to use.

Just my 2 cents

[mozulo]

I use bartender not really tried bongos as i have no problems with bartender as of yet and its ACED.

best thing i would do is test them both out your self and see which works for you.

GL in your choice

[Seerah]

Originally Posted by mozulo and its ACED.

ACE = Accidental Caps-Lock Error (as said by Dameek on the wowace forums)

That a mod is written with the Ace2 libraries doesn't mean a whole lot. A good author writes good mods, a bad author writes bad mods. Doesn't matter which framework (if any) that they use.

[Tweeker]

The one thing that has not been pointed out, and it tips the balance more in favor of Bongos.. is:

Let's say you have a DOT casted on someone, like serpent sting, or any damage over time, or for that matter, even a buff like mark of the wild.. when you have that person targetted, it will put a bright green highlighted border around the ability in the action bar, therefore it's easy to know when a DOT has worn off of that specific person, or the person needs the buff.

I have come to rely on that.

Plus bongos's menu driven config is by far easier.

and it's much smaller...

aced or not, a lower memory intense addon is typically better...

But i do really like Bongos best of all, even though i do not use all of it. (disabled most parts via the ADDONS section from character select screen) therefore making it much smaller.

My review of Trinity, the author is a genius! He should get on mazzle's team and get to work, but please stay away from AddOns, I don't mean to sound cruel, but that thing is HUGE!! Extensivyl powerfull, but --HUGE--

BT3 was nice, but bongos just does more with less resources and easier.

Go with Bongos

[Seerah]

Tone that font down a bit, Tweek - your post fills my entire screen.

[Ragnor]

Hamburger or HotDog it's a tough call...

[Maul]

Originally Posted by Tweeker My review of Trinity, the author is a genius! He should get on mazzle's team and get to work, but please stay away from AddOns, I don't mean to sound cruel, but that thing is HUGE!! Extensivyl powerfull, but --HUGE--

Memory usage in most cases does not mean what people think it means. It is a very poor measuring stick to use on addons.

I think Cogwheel explains it best in this thread -

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...00510200&sid=1

From that thread -

Public Service Announcement: Unless you are an addon developer, you generally don't need to concern yourself with addon memory usage. In and of itself, memory use says absolutely nothing about how an addon impacts WoW's performance. WoW itself uses an order of magnitude or more RAM than even the most memory-intensive UIs. Data mods like Auctioneer will always show HUGE numbers compared to other addons but they don't do any processing whatsoever unless you're actively using them (scanning the AH). By the same token, many memory-efficient mods can use up an extraordinary amount of CPU time (damage/threat meters, for instance). As a user, you should never judge an addon's worth by the amount of memory it uses. For a real test, use CPU profiling which is also included in PerformanceFu. Another mod I like for this purpose is AddonManager.

[mozulo]

Originally Posted by Seerah ACE = Accidental Caps-Lock Error (as said by Dameek on the wowace forums) That a mod is written with the Ace2 libraries doesn't mean a whole lot. A good author writes good mods, a bad author writes bad mods. Doesn't matter which framework (if any) that they use.

Thats your opinion, and i have my own and if it does not mean a whole lot could you tell me why its one of the biggest addon sites used?

[Seerah]

Originally Posted by mozulo Thats your opinion, and i have my own and if it does not mean a whole lot could you tell me why its one of the biggest addon sites used?

Because some very popular addons call it home, many of the addons hosted there do not get released to the "release sites" (wowace was never meant to be a release site), WowAce Updater, and the misconception that Ace = uberleetsaucepixiedust. I've known some very crappy mods written with the Ace libraries.

[Petrah]

I could enjoy this forum ever so much more if people would leave their negative opinions about other mod sites out of the posts.

[Jocke]

I have a stupid little problem in Bartender3. When I try to put things in like..let's say bar 4, It also puts the same thing in bar 5...? Wierd huh? Anyone know what to do? It happened after I uppdated my addons in WUA...

[Tweeker]

True, I have seen some real crap in the "ace" area, but you can find crap where ever ya go.

Sorry about the font Seerah, I dont do it to annoy anyone, just my preferance.

[Inchul]

I use Bartender. I think thats the best bar mod.

[st0nedpenguin]

I use BT3 because I've been using it for christ knows how long and I'm too lazy to bother configuring another bar mod, ever.

[Slakah]

Originally Posted by mozulo Thats your opinion, and i have my own and if it does not mean a whole lot could you tell me why its one of the biggest addon sites used?

Fanboi's, WAU and lack of understanding.

[mozulo]

Originally Posted by Slakah Fanboi's, WAU and lack of understanding.

And that makes no sense

[SquishyMage]

Oh, this thread again.

Bartender3 is my bread and butter. I have tried Trinity. I have tried Bongo. I always return to BT3.

Since I play all the classes, I have the need to easily configure stances, especially for my druid. Trinity to this day has problems out of the box with cat form vs prowl form. BT3, it just works. Right away. And I like the ability of BT3 to configure which bar is shown in the various stances. I usually have three bars on my screen. In caster form, the bottom bar is bar 1, with bar 2 and 3 stacked above. When I go to cat form, 1 and 2 shift to bars 4 and 5. When I go prowl, bar 1 becomes bar 6. When I go bear form, bar 1 becomes 7, bar 2 becomes 8.

Can this be done with Bongos/Trinity? Sure. Do I prefer that it works out of the box with BT3? Youbetcha.

Someone raised a good point about the dot coloring of a button. That's nice. But it SUCKS for a warlock. I dot multiple mobs. Which mob is losing the dot as far as Bongos is concerned? That's why I use DoTimer.