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Messages - cracksloth [ switch to compact view ]

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1
I noticed that the plugin creates its own scrollbar (so you end up having 2 scrollbars visible).  Would it be possible for a future version to either:
1) disable the plugin's toolbar and use FARR's scrollbar exclusively (preferred)
2) disable FARR's scrollbar (possibly more realistic)

Thanks for the great plugin - I too like the simplicity of Google Tasks!

-cs

2
Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Transparent window container
« on: September 24, 2008, 07:56 PM »
thanks for the reply! i'm not really capable of modifying source code so i'll just have to see what i can do with autohotkey - i'm pretty limited in my abilities though (i just butcher other people's hard work).  i still haven't been able to get my ahk script to work right.  anyway, i just thought this was a novel idea for a program so i posted it here in case someone wanted to pick it up.

3
Post New Requests Here / IDEA: Transparent window container
« on: September 23, 2008, 06:10 PM »
i have several programs that are related in some way and that i want to bring to the front together simultaneously.  for example:

Widget style status applications:
   - system monitoring application (samurize)
   - calendar (rainlender)
   - task manager
   - taskbar
   - systray
   - cd art display
   - volume sliders

Audio management:
   - audio player
   - file manager
   - tag manager
   - volume sliders

Work:
   - ms access
   - skype

there are many more examples - pretty much any common computer task that would become more efficient or requires reference to more than one program.  so my idea for a program is this:

the program allows the creation of multiple "window groups".  each window group is bound to a unique hotkey.  when a hotkey is activated, the list of associated windows is brought to the front.  this allows the user to access related programs more quickly without having to bring them each to the surface individually using a taskbar or alt+tab.  using the examples above, if i wanted to access any of my small widget-like programs, i could just hit a hotkey to access the whole window group.  or if i decide to delete/rate the currently playing song, i can switch to the audio window group.  if i see my boss coming, i can quickly switch back to my work window group.  sometimes it may be useful to only specify a single window in a "group" for frequently accessed programs like IM clients (some programs do not support hotkeys).

so there are at least three ways to approach this:
  • one is to create an autohotkey script that would set the defined windows to "always on top" and then sets them back to "normal" (it is a more reliable method than standard "bring to front").  This is probably the easiest way.
  • another way is to create an invisible window that "docks" the programs on its surface - when it is brought to the front, the other windows naturally follow.  this method might be more difficult but it seems like it may *possibly* be more responsive in the real world (but i don't know for sure).
  • the last way i know of, uses an autohotkey command called GroupAdd found here:
    http://www.autohotke...ommands/GroupAdd.htm
    i really don't know much about this or how it might be different than the other options listed.

what do you guys think?  does anyone know which of the 3 options above would be the best way to go?

4
Find And Run Robot / Re: How to make skins?
« on: August 29, 2008, 08:53 AM »
Mouser, did you find out anything? or does anyone else know how to bypass this?

5
Find And Run Robot / Re: Question about result display size
« on: August 25, 2008, 10:42 AM »
good info! just trying to learn the settings so this was helpful! most things are self-explanatory but in this case the help file wasn't too helpful so I'm glad you clarified

6
Find And Run Robot / Re: cliptext
« on: August 24, 2008, 10:29 PM »
you are a brilliant man!! thanks, mouser!!

7
Find And Run Robot / cliptext
« on: August 24, 2008, 08:14 PM »
Can anyone explain why this doesn't work:

I want to create a single hotkey for all cliptext relevant aliases (to simplify things). To do this I created an alias called "clip" containing:

define | define %cliptext%
lookup | lookup %cliptext%
search | search %cliptext%
etc.

Then I created a single hotkey that would copy the selected text and enter "clip" into the search box.

As expected, when I press the hotkey, I'm presented with options for define/lookup/search. But when I select one, I get an error saying "Windows cannot find 'define X'..." (where X is the phrase copied to the clipboard)

I was hoping FARR would present me with results from those aliases. Is there a fix?

8
Find And Run Robot / Question about result display size
« on: August 24, 2008, 06:56 PM »
I've been trying to figure out how FARR determines the size of the result listing - maybe someone can help me out? From options I see 3 options:
1) normal results list - I think I understand this. Any regular parse result that is not a perfect alias match or a path in directory browse mode
2) extended result list - I'm not clear on the definition of this. Alias listings and die browse seem uneffected. Is the "+sall" suffix used to switch from regular to extended? Is there a hotkey for this?
3) max size to grow results - again, I'm not sure on this one. FARR respects my screen size and doesn't display more than I can handle. Does this just limit the number of "regular" search results (non-alias and non-dirlist)?

Can anyone help clarify this for me?

9
Find And Run Robot / Re: How to view more search results?
« on: August 24, 2008, 11:49 AM »
I also vote for simply displaying the next result when pressing the down arrow key. To me, this seems like the most intuitive solution.

10
Find And Run Robot / Re: How to make skins?
« on: August 24, 2008, 12:44 AM »
yeah, I was trying to make a skin and ran into the same problem - even worse, if you accidentally save with a favorite skin open then you'll have to reinstall to get it back :)

11
Find And Run Robot / Re: date and time in statusbar
« on: August 22, 2008, 04:48 PM »
the more i think about this idea, the more i like it.  here is one more thought:

currently, the default statusbar content ("text to show on statusbar on launch") will be replaced by:
1) typing (eg. "found x results in y seconds")
2) selecting a new item from the list (eg. "C:\WINDOWS\explorer.exe")
3) stopping a search (eg. "search stopped after finding x results in y seconds")
4) etc.

it would be great to have an option to disable these updates so that the default statusbar content would persist even if one of these events is triggered.

12
Find And Run Robot / Re: date and time in statusbar
« on: August 21, 2008, 06:39 PM »
hmmm...  if you are looking at making statusbar plugins, maybe you should approach it like a widget system.  for example, you can embed a centered date/time widget in the statusbar.  and/or add a cpu widget.  and/or add a memory widget.  etc.  this would keep the interface for customizing the statusbar consistent and easy to extend (each widget would have its own settings dialog).

-cracksloth

13
Find And Run Robot / date and time in statusbar
« on: August 21, 2008, 05:26 PM »
Especially now that FARR forces the presence of the statusbar, I would really like to be able to modify the option:
  "text to show on statusbar on launch"
with something more useful (specifically the time and the date).  are there currently any variable strings i can insert to accomplish this?  if not, would you consider adding these variables:

%a - Abbreviated weekday name
%A - Full weekday name
%b - Abbreviated month name
%B - Full month name
%d - Day of month as decimal number (01 - 31)
%H - Hour in 24-hour format (00 - 23)
%I - Hour in 12-hour format (01 - 12)
%m - Month as decimal number (01 - 12)
%M - Minute as decimal number (00 - 59)
%p - Current locale's A.M./P.M. indicator for 12-hour clock
%S - Second as decimal number (00 - 59)
%y - Year without century, as decimal number (00 - 99)
%Y - Year with century, as decimal number
%C - center text in the statusbar
%% - Percent sign

for example, if i wanted the statusbar to read:
Wednesday, August 21 - 3:11 pm
and have it centered in the statusbar, i would insert:
%A, %B %d - %I:%M %p%C

other useful variables could eventually be added later by users request (like uptime, cpu load, memory usage, etc.)

thanks for the continued work on FARR! it's working great!

-cracksloth

14
Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Desktop Teleporter
« on: April 18, 2007, 05:22 PM »
@ skrommel:

that fixed it.  works wonderfully btw - with a few tweaks, you could turn this into a nice "log monitor" replacement!


p.s.
did you happen to notice the last post on your barnacle thread?  it's my comment but i thought i would quickly mention it in case you don't monitor that thread anymore  :)

15
Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Desktop Teleporter
« on: April 07, 2007, 09:55 AM »
How about commandline options to allow running moveOut using the windows task scheduler and quit cleanly after that, or send email/log if errors occur?

i think this is a brilliant idea!  i also prefer to keep running processes down to a minimum especially since i already have the overhead of windows scheduler running at all times which should do the job nicely.

also, i am experiencing a bug.  when i click "browse" to specify a source/target, i am only presented with a dialog box saying "press ok to continue".  i'm running the compiled script because i do not have ahk installed atm.  any ideas on this?  has anyone else experienced this problem?  i am running a spanky fresh copy of xp sp2 so it seems unlikely that i am experiencing a conflict with another program.

16
i am particularly interested in skrommel's work managing mdi applications and simulating an mdi in applications that do not support it natively.  i assume that this could be used as a universal tab bar for switching between instances of virtually any program?  or hell, i guess you could even collect non-related programs together in a single tab bar.  this type of task grouping would be *very* helpful to me.  i agree that such a prog should be released as a separate prog but maybe you could borrow a good deal of code from barnacle.  skrommel, you are always amazing!

17
Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: collect files in a virtual folder
« on: December 14, 2006, 11:03 AM »
I'd be interested in reading the links you found...

@perry:

i just did a google search for "shell namespace" trying to find related programs but given the technical language i mostly pulled up a bunch of code examples.  admittedly, a lot of the code examples i ran acrosss were in delphi but i would assume that examples would exist for other programming languages as well.  unfortunately, i didn't save any links to show since i don't speak delphi  :)

18
Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: collect files in a virtual folder
« on: December 14, 2006, 10:58 AM »
i have exchanged a couple of emails with the author of "My Smartfolders":
http://www.castlepeaksoftware.com/

"My Smartfolders" is a shell namespace that allows you to tag files within your system (local or network).  then you can create smartfolders that only display the files with certain tags.  this is a big step in the right direction but the things that are missing:
 - ability to tag files using the commandline
 - access to the explorer right-click context menu for files in a smartfolder.
    a minimal context menu currently exists but you will not have access
    to the sendto menu or any installed shell extensions
 - when a file is renamed/moved, "my smartfolder" can find it.  although
    generally, this is a good feature, it will create problems when using
    "log monitor" because when you move a file, you want it to disappear
    from the list.  i suggested that the user be able to disable this feature
    for certain smartfolders.

we talked about the ideas mentioned above and he said:
"Currently, we're in the process of evaluating in which direction we're going to take My SmartFolders, so you're feedback is very useful."

hopefully, i will hear something more definate in the future.  if so, i will let you all know.  it is currently $29 but if it can fix the problems above, i think they will have a new user.

19
Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: collect files in a virtual folder
« on: December 11, 2006, 09:56 PM »
so it looks like the short answer is that using a combination of hardlinks and symlinks for files and folders would be problematic because of the inability to target network shares and because different programs may delete differently (some may delete the link and some may delete the original file).  i think this application would need to delete the original file.

after looking up some info on creating a virtual folder using a "shell namespace" (like perry mentioned), it looks like it might not be such a horrible task if anyone is up to it.  this also might be the best alternative given the problems with hardlinks/symlinks mentioned in the article above.  source code examples seem to exist if someone is interested.  but the file managers i have seen are proof that using a namespace is not necessary (but it would be kinda cool).

20
Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: collect files in a virtual folder
« on: December 10, 2006, 05:15 PM »
as mentioned in that thread, it is a bit bloated for the needs addressed here.  and the ability to add items to a specific virtual folder using the commandline it a must for the kind of functionality mentioned above.

integrating this as a shell object so that it can be viewed in a file manager certainly has its benefits.  i am only concerned that going down this road would require more time/effort than a traditional "coding snack".  i would be completely thrilled with either way.

@skrommel:
do NTFS hard links support files on network shares?

21
Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: collect files in a virtual folder
« on: December 08, 2006, 10:57 PM »
nice, skrommel (as usual)!  it serves a bit of a different function than what i intended but i can still appreciate its usefulness.  good work - you are a coding *machine*!

22
Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: collect files in a virtual folder
« on: December 08, 2006, 10:39 AM »
perry is right.  the point is to have a window that provides access to a very specific set of files (these files can even be in completely different locations).  for example, i could visit "c:\music", select all files by x artist put them into a virtual folder using the sendto menu.  then i could go to "\\htpc\music" and add all music by y artist into the same virtual folder using the same sendto shortcut.  using logmonitor, you could have a virtual folder created that will automatically contain all new *.mp3 and *.wma files that you downloaded.  because this window provides access to the file's right-click context menu, the user would have quick access for copying, moving, renaming, editing, re-tagging, etc.  this is a great way to group files together that you want to work with.

a folder of shortcuts to a group of files is not as useful because you get the right-click context menu for the shortcut (rather than the file it represents).  this means that you cannot move/copy/rename the files.  a virtual folder provides access to the files as if they were really grouped together in an actual folder.

the question is what is the best way to allow all programs to access the same virtual folders.  the best way i can think of is the commandline because it can be used with the sendto menu (or a context menu item), logmonitor, scripts, etc.  The *.box files i mentioned earlier are just a renamed text file with a list of file paths.  these represent the files in a virtual folder.  for example, music.box would be a virtual folder called music.  so if the user double-clicks music.box (which is associated with filebox.exe) then the contents of the virtual folder are displayed.  also, the user can drag in more files into the virtual folder.  or, the user can add new files to music.box using the sendto menu.  *.box files are automatically saved when changes are made so if the user restarts the computer, they can still quickly access the same files.

pretend you are working on a project.  for example, say you are authoring a dvd.  this process requires that you keep track of a lot of different files in a lot of different locations.  with a virtual folder you could just drag in shortcuts to the programs you are going to use and drag in the media and other resources that you will be working with (video, audio, source and destination folders, etc.).  we can call this dvd.box.  now whenever you get home you can always launch your dvd.box and have access to the files you need for that project without having to play 20 questions with a file manager.

again, with logmonitor (my latest obsession) you could create a list of all new/updated documents on a friend's shared folder at work.  or a virtual folder that only shows the new *.mp3 and *.wma files that arrive in your incoming folder.

again, the biggest advantages of virtual folders:
- you can group files together that otherwise are scattered around multiple drives
- you choose which files are grouped together (they can be specific to a single purpose or task)
- it is accessible via commandline so it can interface with a wide variety of other applications

the interface can just be a generic window with the files displayed inside.  the only other necessary interface element would be a way to "remove" files from a virtual folder without actually deleting them.  this could be a button on the window itself or a context menu item or a hotkey - the solution here does not seem entirely critical.

23
Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: collect files in a virtual folder
« on: December 08, 2006, 02:08 AM »
are you talking about how launchbar commander supports loading the contents of a folder into a menu?  i'm not completely sure, but i think that is what you mean by "virtual folders" in this case.  if so, this is a bit different than what i am talking about.  i think the name overlap here is just coincidental.  i'm afraid there is no solid terminology for the feature i'm talking about.  i have heard them called "virtual folders", "scrap containers", "temp panels", and "file holders".  every time, someone just comes up with a term they think sounds snappy.  do you think i should re-explain a bit?  i realize that words are a poor substitute for actually seeing it in action.  you can check out "scrap containers" by looking at xplorer2 http://zabkat.com/


24
well, i think i have it (in case someone is interested).  i had tried the forum and help (which i found very abbreviated and program options were only described using tooltips without description in the help file).  without real examples it was hard for me to initially grasp.  i assumed that such a common issue would have a quick answer but the huge number of options that had to do with folders and paths were all red herrings for what i was after.  after disecting nearly every option i could find and much trial and error, i finally figured it out.  it turns out that what you need to do is make sure the destination has the following syntax:
x:\foldername%File="S:n\\N.E"

bits of wisdom (don't read this unless you actually care):
make sure there is no "\" after the destination path because it is assumed in the gobbelty gook at the end.  also, replace "n" with a number corresponding to the folder depth of the source folder.  for example, if your source is "c:\path1\path2\path3" then n=4.  n represents the path depth that you are trimming off.  this way, files with a greater depth than the source folder will carry that last path information with them when they are copied.  it is a convoluted solution but it works.  the only caveat is that this process will only move files not folders so you will have a skeleton of empty folders left in your source path.  you can remedy this (i presume) by adding another commandline "action" to the stack that will indiscriminately delete all empty folders (i don't think skrommel's delempty is commandline driven but maybe i can find something somewhere).  also, make sure that the action is set to "file by file".  for whatever reason, even logmonitor's own move function does not allow stacking multiple filenames in the command.  go fig.  anyway, i agree that "log monitor" is frighteningly close to what i wanted but i am also encouraged by ruff because there is certainly room for improvement.

25
i know this is a horrible forum to ask this question but at least you guys have some experience with this prog.

when performing a move operation with "log monitor" is it possible to maintain path information?  for example, with:

source folder:  x:\parent\
files to move:  *.ext
a new *folder* was added called "child" that has some *.ext files in it

so the full path of the files of interest are "x:\parent\child\*.ext"

in "log monitor" i can create a configuration to move just the files to a destination.  this would create:
y:\destination\file.ext

what i want to do is move the files with the folder structure intact so that it resembles:
y:\destination\child\file.ext

can anyone provide any help with this?


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