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Last post Author Topic: NANY 2012 Release : Qatapult  (Read 61748 times)

ecaradec

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NANY 2012 Release : Qatapult
« on: November 18, 2011, 01:25 PM »
The new thread for discussing Qatapult is here now : https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=29595.0

NANY 2012 Entry Information

Application NameQatapult
Version0.2
Short DescriptionKeyboard launcher inspired by QuickSilver
Supported OSesWindows Vista or 7
Websitehttp://emmanuelcaradec.com/qatapult/
Setup Filehttp://emmanuelcarad...ult/bin/Qatapult.zip
Screenshotsqsll.pngNANY 2012 Release : Qatapult
DescriptionQuickSilver is a keyboard launcher on Macs that has this super nice feature that allows to run commands on objects with completion on object and command and possibly extra arguments. It also has a very slick and customizable design UI. I've been looking at Quicksilver with envy for years hoping for someone to release it for Windows, but that day never came. So I'm making that day.
Change list08.01.2012
- The focus issues should now be gone. Qatapult hides itself when it's not the foreground window
- The download of gmail contact is now limited to only new contacts
- The contact sources now fetch and displays the profile pictures from the gmail directory (the download of theses is a bit long of course : if you enable this, please wait that the download complete before closing Qatapult otherwise, you'll only get half of your contact )
- I added a special source (type Clock ) that display an animated clock. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it but it's fun. If it gives you ideas, please share ;)
- You can add extra directories to index (they are currently limited to 3 level of recursion because indexing too large directories cause huge slow downs )
- The text is not typed anymore (it's displayed by underline the text on the icons ). I'm not sure if this behavior is very usable. Tell me what you think about it. However it definitly looks better.
18.12.2011
- remove the verb indexing from the shell (it's too slow, doesn't always work and not nicely extendable )
- scale small icons (badly )
- unicode storage for startmenu items
- icons in the listview
- new controls tabs/shift+tab for pane navigation, right for completion (the rest is a bit more difficult to bind right now )
- extra icons (with reference to people who made them, I removed one GPL icon so I think that my source code was automatically GPL till previous version )
- memory leak fixing
- automatic opening of listbox after 1 second
- slower (not a very desirable feature :I will need to spend some time there, it's ok on my very new PC, not sure on others )
15.12.2011
- fix a bug in the indexing of the verbs associated with the startmenu items
14.12.2011
- you can now send email (you'll need to edit the settings.ini file to add your email, username, password and smtp server )
rem : I use blat to send email, it requires that you add the stunnel proxy server if you use a ssl smtp server like gmail (http://www.stunnel.org/ )
- qsll can fetch your contact from gmail (see the little knob on the top right corner of the UI to give him the permission )
- items from the startmenu are now fetched from an index that make finding them faster
InstructionsHere is what you can do with the current version :

The invocation shortcut is shift+space

You can run an application by typing it's name

You can type windows path like that and browse the file system (tab works for completion )
c:\...

You can type text either with a ' prefix which will give text a boost, or just continue to type until there is nothing left but text and it will be automatically known

You can use this text in 2 ways. Once you get a text hit the right arrow then the down arrow to get a list of what is available at this point. There is two operation you can send a mail to a contact (this doesn't work yet ) or you can search a website. Type 'search with' then hit the right arrow to select which website to search.

You can try actions on applications too, you can open, get the properties and other things detected from the context menu.

Hit 'return' at any point to run the current action.

If you want to quit, just type quit in the first pane.
Current commands- Type 'name of your software' to run it, or followed by properties, sendto, etc...
- 'Quit' to quit the application
- 'Clock' to display a clock
- 'text' 'EmailTo' 'name of your contact'
- type '.' to switch to text mode when typing something
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« Last Edit: January 29, 2012, 05:43 AM by ecaradec »

mouser

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Re: Topic: NANY 2012 Pledge: Quicksilver Like launcher
« Reply #1 on: November 18, 2011, 01:56 PM »
Very cool.  :up:
Looking forward to stealing some ideas from it :)

tomos

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Re: Topic: NANY 2012 Pledge: Quicksilver Like launcher
« Reply #2 on: November 18, 2011, 02:06 PM »
Very cool.  :up:
  +1

Looking forward to stealing some ideas from it :)
  ;D
Tom

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Re: Topic: NANY 2012 Pledge: Quicksilver Like launcher
« Reply #3 on: November 18, 2011, 04:23 PM »
I've been trying to find a launcher to love for years now. Of course I have FARR installed, and I use it literally a dozen times a day...

BUT... (and here's my big but) there are a some programs that I want available under as a pop-up for faster launching. The closest I've managed to get is 8start, which brings up a little grid of shortcuts when I middle-click the mouse. QuickCliq does something similar. But they ain't perfect.

Will this thing be able to do that?

kyrathaba

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Re: Topic: NANY 2012 Pledge: Quicksilver Like launcher
« Reply #4 on: November 18, 2011, 10:00 PM »
I have to say, the posted screenshots are quite attractive.

ecaradec

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Re: Topic: NANY 2012 Pledge: Quicksilver Like launcher
« Reply #5 on: November 19, 2011, 04:42 AM »
I must say that I'm a super fan of FARR, I'd love it if this can inspire you mouser. I'm not sure I have enough perseverance to work on such a project over as many years as FARR, but I'll do my best.

I've been trying to find a launcher to love for years now. Of course I have FARR installed, and I use it literally a dozen times a day...

BUT... (and here's my big but) there are a some programs that I want available under as a pop-up for faster launching. The closest I've managed to get is 8start, which brings up a little grid of shortcuts when I middle-click the mouse. QuickCliq does something similar. But they ain't perfect.

Will this thing be able to do that?
I don't think so, it will still be a keyboard launcher, not really something that can be used usefully with a mouse.

I have to say, the posted screenshots are quite attractive.
Thanks,  :Thmbsup:
Blog & Projects : Blog | Qatapult | SwiffOut | FScript
« Last Edit: November 19, 2011, 04:49 AM by ecaradec »

ecaradec

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Re: Topic: NANY 2012 Pledge: Quicksilver Like launcher
« Reply #6 on: November 27, 2011, 06:56 AM »
Here is a first beta (check for the link in the announcement post ), which is more a proof of concept at this point. I'm just happy with the way commands works, even if there is only a few. Here is what you can do with it :

You can run an application by typing it's name

You can type windows path like that and browse the file system (tab works for completion )
c:\...

You can type text either with a ' prefix which will give text a boost, or just continue to type until there is nothing left but text and it will be automatically known

You can use this text in 2 ways. Once you get a text hit the right arrow then the down arrow to get a list of what is available at this point. There is two operation you can send a mail to a contact (this doesn't work yet ) or you can search a website. Type 'search with' then hit the right arrow to select which website to search.

You can try actions on applications too, you can open, get the properties and other things detected from the context menu.

Hit 'return' at any point to run the current action.

If you want to quit, just type quit in the first pane.

I hope it'll give you a sense of what will be possible by making this a little bit more concrete. I'm quite happy with it, I find that it looks great ;).
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ewemoa

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Re: Topic: NANY 2012 Pledge: Quicksilver Like launcher
« Reply #7 on: November 27, 2011, 07:00 AM »
Tried to run it, but got something about not being able to find MSVCP100.dll.

ecaradec

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Re: Topic: NANY 2012 Pledge: Quicksilver Like launcher
« Reply #8 on: November 27, 2011, 07:17 AM »
ok I added it to the package can you try it again ?
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ewemoa

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Re: Topic: NANY 2012 Pledge: Quicksilver Like launcher
« Reply #9 on: November 27, 2011, 07:39 AM »
Thanks for the update.

It runs now.  When I tried typing "fi" (no quotes), got an error with details:

AppName: qsll.exe    AppVer: 1.0.0.1    ModName: qsll.exe
ModVer: 1.0.0.1    Offset: 00002253

Then the app went away.

"quit" worked :)

Some other combinations also caused crashes (e.g. "c" -- I was about to type a path).

I'm testing this on Windows XP Pro SP3.
« Last Edit: November 27, 2011, 08:18 AM by ewemoa »

ecaradec

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Re: Topic: NANY 2012 Pledge: Quicksilver Like launcher
« Reply #10 on: November 27, 2011, 07:41 AM »
Looks like my usual release of new software...
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ecaradec

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Re: Topic: NANY 2012 Pledge: Quicksilver Like launcher
« Reply #11 on: November 27, 2011, 07:43 AM »
Can you try to delete the db.ini file. It contains data from my system, may be it is causing the issue ?
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ewemoa

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Re: Topic: NANY 2012 Pledge: Quicksilver Like launcher
« Reply #12 on: November 27, 2011, 07:52 AM »
I deleted db.ini and restarted QSLL.exe but "c" and "fi" still cause similar crashes.

ecaradec

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Re: Topic: NANY 2012 Pledge: Quicksilver Like launcher
« Reply #13 on: November 27, 2011, 08:09 AM »
It seems to crash with XP . Do you have XP ? It probably has to do with the fact that XP doesn't has large icons. Sorry Ewemoa, I'll update the platform requirement.
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ewemoa

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Re: Topic: NANY 2012 Pledge: Quicksilver Like launcher
« Reply #14 on: November 27, 2011, 08:19 AM »
Yes, I am using XP Pro SP3.

ewemoa

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Re: Topic: NANY 2012 Pledge: Quicksilver Like launcher
« Reply #15 on: November 30, 2011, 03:18 AM »
Tried using it with Windows 7 Professional 64-bit and it seems to work much better -- no crashing so far.

I keep expecting . to enter text mode and tab to move focus to the second pane ;)

ecaradec

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Re: Topic: NANY 2012 Pledge: Quicksilver Like launcher
« Reply #16 on: November 30, 2011, 06:38 AM »
Great to know that ;). I'll try to add a 2000/xp mode later, but the icons will be very fuzzy for those OS. It won't look as good.

I was sort of reserving tab for completion. Of course for text it has no use and it could be reused. I'll add . as a shortcut for text. It makes for sense for an english keyboard probably where it's an easy key to hit.

I'm in the process of adding an index, because the query of verbs for displaying on the second pane is very slow and it slows down the whole typing. I'm almost done, and I'll post a new version then.
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ewemoa

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Re: Topic: NANY 2012 Pledge: Quicksilver Like launcher
« Reply #17 on: November 30, 2011, 06:55 AM »
What to do with the tab key does seem tricky.

I'm not sure how much like QS you want to make this and don't know how much of the original docs are left [1], but if you're interested in checking out something that has inherited a lot of QS-ness, there is kupfer for *nix.


[1] Howard Melman's Quicksilver User Manual still seems available.

ecaradec

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Re: Topic: NANY 2012 Pledge: Quicksilver Like launcher
« Reply #18 on: December 01, 2011, 08:48 AM »
I've found the howard melman manual and it's my basis for implementing qsll. I didn't know kupfer though. I haven't tried it yet, I haven't a unix installed with a gui.

I'm not attempting to do a complete clone anyway, it's more the image of QS that I have in my mind that I'm trying to implement.

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ecaradec

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Re: Topic: NANY 2012 Pledge: Quicksilver Like launcher
« Reply #19 on: December 14, 2011, 04:52 PM »
Hello there,

Here is a new version that allows to send text or selected file by email.

It can also fetch your gmail contacts.

Also the startmenu is now indexed to make search really fast for running applications. (be patient if when you type nothing show, the indexing might still be running, just wait a minute on first launch )

I'm rushing like crazy to get a great piece of software for nany, so expect some bugs, I really really need to polish the code. Do not hesitate to signal issues. Don't worry, I'll fix them, I like this project ;)
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ecaradec

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Re: NANY 2012 Pledge & Early beta: Quicksilver Like launcher
« Reply #20 on: December 15, 2011, 02:53 PM »
Whoops ! verbs are broken in the last version, it only worked because of my local index on my machine. Wait until I upload a fix ;)
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ecaradec

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Re: NANY 2012 Pledge & Early beta: Quicksilver Like launcher
« Reply #21 on: December 15, 2011, 04:01 PM »
Verbs should be ok now
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ewemoa

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Re: NANY 2012 Pledge & Early beta: Quicksilver Like launcher
« Reply #22 on: December 16, 2011, 05:20 AM »
Icons are pretty!

qsll-small-farr-a.pngNANY 2012 Release : Qatapult

...but some are small :)

Arrow key navigation being for directory browsing appears to be deeply wired in my brain...
« Last Edit: December 16, 2011, 05:32 AM by ewemoa »

ewemoa

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Re: NANY 2012 Pledge & Early beta: Quicksilver Like launcher
« Reply #23 on: December 16, 2011, 05:30 AM »
Sometimes after starting QSLL.exe the main window appears quickly, but it appears unresponsive for various amounts of time -- sometimes it becomes responsive, sometimes I decide it's been long enough :)

ecaradec

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Re: NANY 2012 Pledge & Early beta: Quicksilver Like launcher
« Reply #24 on: December 17, 2011, 04:26 AM »
Thank's for feedback ewemoa, I was feeling a bit alone ;)

Yes some icons are small, they are non vista enabled icons. I should scale them but I haven't find an api that tell me what size the icon is. That sound stupid but I haven't found a good solution yet. I have stupid solutions still, so I might switch to that as a fallback.

I'm not sure what you mean with arrow key navigation for directories ? Would you prefer arrows instead of tab ?

Is it slightly unresponsive for very short period of time or long like seconds or minutes like hanged ?

I've added the . for text too. I don't know if you spotted that.

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