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Author Topic: Just started using LBC - first thoughts  (Read 4397 times)

Omnivox

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Just started using LBC - first thoughts
« on: January 04, 2007, 04:27 PM »
Before I found this little app, I used to use 3 different launchers... LBC made me get rid of them, since it is pretty much what I always had been looking for. However, it isn't perfect, and there are a few things that make me really :-\ ... First, it needs a lot more customization options, especially when it comes to the (in my eyes terrible) docking behaviour. I really hate the way auto-hide works (or better, doesn't...) - you should take a look at similar programs, they solved auto-hiding a lot better. I am now using the tray icon option, which is OK for some time, but I'd really like to use docking - I'm used to that (there's an empty menu entry at the bottom which opens the LBC menu - should get a name eh?). I'd also like an option to not hide the dock while editing... sometimes this might be helpful (I know that refreshing might take too much CPU, that's why you should make this optional). Oh, and one last thing: I wonder why the "save changes" button doesn't save the entire dock file - I had a bluescreen during creation of my (complex) dock, and I lost everything due to this confusion... the BSOD wasn't caused by LBC, don't worry.
Don't think that I'm heavily critizising your app - just pointing out a few points that need improvement. Otherwise, I LOVE this app. It's just what I always had been looking for. Some improvements and it's top-notch. Keep on the good work!

Oh and btw, I'm using the latest beta (1.60.06 I guess).

mouser

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Re: Just started using LBC - first thoughts
« Reply #1 on: January 05, 2007, 08:18 AM »
Welcome to the site Omnivox -

Some very well considered suggestions. 

Don't think that I'm heavily critizising your app - just pointing out a few points that need improvement.

Not at all!  One of the main goals of this forum is to make a place where programmers and users can exchange ideas and collaborate - suggestions and constructive criticism are very very welcome!

Your comments about the docking issues are definitely correct.  Docking options in LBC currently suck.  I know it, you know it, even my cat knows it.  It's something I have to improve and it's on my todo list.

As for the save button: One of the reasons I was motivated to make LBC was that i used to use a docking bar software that saved all it's settings in the registry and i hated that, and then one day it lost all my settings and i was not happy.  So i am committed to making LBC protected against such stuff.  That's why it has special backup functions in the tool menu and does other backup stuff.  I think i will add like an auto save to temporary file while working thing.

However one of the weird things about LBC is that it works with a couple of dif files for your configuration.  There is one main file, and then it specifies additional launchbar files that you can have open at the same time, so that you could have 5 different launchbar files open, with dif launchbars in each.  One of the effects seems to be that sometimes people will get a crash of their pc and when they restart LBC it is empty and it seems like they lost all their data, but really all that happened is that LBC main config didn't load the last launchbar config file they were working on (i have to figure out why that isn't getting saved before reboot and fix that).  So do make sure you do a file->open and browse around and see if you can't find your file you were working on before your BSOD.

Keep the suggestions coming - as soon as i finish up this major release on one of my other programs (Find and Run Robot), I have some updates to do on LBC and my other apps.  :Thmbsup:
« Last Edit: January 05, 2007, 10:00 AM by mouser »