(long) Transparent IDE elements and other problems

[j]

> I see no reason to create an artificial barrier to someone who wants 
> to add 1000 or more photos to an album in my product (and what max 
> would you pick if it were your product?).

Sorry, I wasn't clear enough, apparently.  I was not thinking of the 
maximum limits of the databases themselves.  I maintain databases with 
hundreds of thousands of items.  When I mentioned limitations of the 
UI, I meant the visible user interface—what users see on their screen.  
Certainly, my questions are applicable to the number of items visible 
at any one time.  There is a limit to the number of items that can be 
on screen and effectively processed by the user.  Cramming thousands of 
images onto the screen at one time won't be effective.

Even iPhoto, which you mentioned, allows settings which are of little 
use.  Using the image size slider to view the photos at their smallest 
size allows something like 200 photos to be viewed at once on a 15 inch 
monitor at high resolution.  The problem is this makes the photos 
essentially unrecognizable, especially if several images look similar.  
All of the names must be clipped to something like "M..." to 
accommodate all the thumbnails, which is also useless.  Additionally, 
the sheer number of items alone will overwhelm most users to the point 
of "productivity paralysis."

J.